Pacing
Pacing controls how many reservations (groups) and guests can arrive at the same time — even when you have tables available.
Why use pacing?
You might have 10 empty tables at 19:00, but seating 10 groups at once would overwhelm your kitchen and front-of-house. Pacing spreads arrivals across time slots so you can maintain service quality.
How it works
Tebi divides your service into time slots (default: 15 minutes) and limits how many reservations are allowed per slot.
Example: You set a pacing limit of 4 groups per 15-minute slot on Friday evenings.
19:00 — 4 groups allowed
19:15 — 4 groups allowed
19:30 — 4 groups allowed
Even if 12 tables are free at 19:00, guests can only book 4 of them for that arrival time. The rest must choose 19:15, 19:30, or a later slot.
Note: Pacing limits apply per schedule by default. You can also override them per area or service for a specific day — see Day limits per area or service below. If you use multiple schedules, each has its own pacing limits.
Setting up pacing
Go to Reservations > Settings > Pacing.
1. Default pacing limit
The default applies when no weekday or day limit overrides it. Leave a field empty for unlimited.
Groups per 15 minutes — caps the number of reservations per slot.
Guests per 15 minutes — caps the number of guests per slot.
2. Pacing limits per weekday
Override the default with weekday-specific limits — for example, tighter pacing on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Click Adjust pacing next to a day to set time-based limits for that weekday. For each time block, you can set:
Leave empty — no additional pacing applied; Tebi looks at your available tables and any schedule limits.
A number of guests — caps the total guests arriving in that slot.
A number of groups — caps the total groups (reservations) arriving in that slot.
Example: a 40-seat restaurant on Friday
Time | Pacing limit | Why |
18:00–19:00 | No limit | Quieter early slot — accept all bookings |
19:00–21:00 | 5 groups, 20 guests per slot | Peak time — spread arrivals to protect the kitchen |
21:00–22:00 | 3 groups, 12 guests per slot | Winding down — smaller team on shift |
3. Gaps and timing
Configure how reservations are spaced through the day:
Gap between reservations — time left between consecutive reservations on the same table, for cleaning or resetting (e.g. 15 minutes).
Interval times — how often reservations are allowed to start (e.g. every 15 minutes — 19:00, 19:15, 19:30).
Change start time when checking in — when on, a reservation's start time is moved forward if guests check in early.
Maximum seated guests at the same time (optional) — caps the total number of guests seated at once.
Tip: Think of pacing as a tap controlling the flow of guests — not the total capacity of your restaurant, but how fast people come through the door.
Day limits
Day limits override your general availability and pacing for a specific day. Use them to temporarily open up extra capacity — for example, when a large group is taking up pacing slots and you still want to accept online bookings.
Go to Reservations > Agenda.
Open the Day view and click the filter icon in the top right.
Adjust the settings (see below).
Click Save.
What you can adjust
Closed — toggle on to stop taking reservations for this date. Existing reservations are not affected.
Maximum guests at the same time — applies to all time slots for the day. Defaults to your availability and pacing limits.
Pacing limits per time slot — set the max number of guests or groups per slot for this day only.
Tip: Day limits can also be adjusted in the Tebi App. Go to Agenda, select the day, and adjust the pacing limits per time slot.
Seeing pacing in the agenda
Two visual aids help you spot where slots are filling up:
Colour coding in the agenda
Arriving and seated guests are colour-coded in the reservation agenda based on how close each time slot is to its pacing limit, so you can spot slots that are filling up at a glance. Click on the 'i' shown below if you do not see the colour coding in your timeline.
Agenda overview
A compressed view of the whole day, with one bar per time slot. Bar height reflects how full each slot is, so you can spot busy moments at a glance. If you use pacing, the bar heights also give you a quick read on where slots are filling up. See Navigating the timeline with the agenda overview for more.
Need help?
If you have questions about pacing or day limits, contact Tebi Support.