Reservation Settings

The Reservation Settings page controls how reservations behave for each branch.
It defines booking limits, timing rules, cancellation behavior, automation, deposit rules, waitlist behavior, and branch working hours.

Use this page when you need to decide:

• whether the branch accepts reservations at all
• how far ahead guests can book
• how long reservations can last
• how capacity is managed around blocked or pending reservations
• whether cancellations, reminders, no-show rules, deposits, and waitlists are active
• which hours the reservation engine should treat as available

What This Page Configures

Reservation Settings are stored per branch.
If your account is not assigned to a branch, you select the branch when creating the setting. If your account is branch-assigned, the branch is taken from your user context.

The page is organized into these sections:

1. Policy
2. Working Hours
3. Booking Policy
4. Automation
5. Deposit and Waitlist

Policy

The Policy section defines the core booking rules used by the reservation engine.

Branch

Field	Purpose
Branch	Selects the branch that these reservation settings belong to. This field appears when creating a setting if the current user is not already restricted to a branch.

Duration Rules

Field	Purpose
Default Duration	The default reservation length in minutes used when staff create a reservation and no custom duration is entered.
Minimum Duration	The shortest reservation duration the system allows. Reservations shorter than this are rejected.
Maximum Duration	The longest reservation duration the system allows. Reservations longer than this are rejected.
Slot Interval	The step size in minutes used when generating suggested time slots. For example, 15 creates slots such as 6:00, 6:15, 6:30, and 6:45.
Buffer Minutes	Extra time added around reservations to reduce back-to-back conflicts and allow table turnover, cleaning, or preparation time.

Guest Limits

Field	Purpose
Minimum Guests	The minimum number of guests allowed for a reservation.
Maximum Guests	The maximum number of guests allowed for a reservation.
Large Party Threshold	The guest count at which the reservation is treated as a large party for branch rules such as deposit requirements.

Advance Booking Rules

Field	Purpose
Minimum Advance Minutes	The minimum lead time required before a guest can book. Example: if set to 60, the system blocks bookings less than one hour from now.
Maximum Advance Days	The farthest number of days into the future a guest or staff member can create a reservation.

General Toggles

Field	Purpose
Reservations Enabled	Master switch for the branch reservation system. If disabled, availability checks and reservation creation should be treated as unavailable for that branch.
Allow Walk-In	Indicates whether walk-in reservations are allowed as part of the branch workflow.
Pending Blocks Capacity	Controls whether pending reservations should consume available capacity when availability is being calculated.

Validation Notes

• Default Duration, Minimum Duration, Maximum Duration, and Slot Interval must be positive minute values.
• Buffer Minutes can be 0 or more.
• Guest limits must be at least 1.
• Maximum Advance Days and Minimum Advance Minutes can be 0 or more.

Working Hours

The Working Hours section defines when the reservation engine is allowed to place reservations for each day of the week.

Each row contains:

Field	Purpose
Day	The day of the week being configured.
Status	Enables or disables reservation availability for that day.
Open	The opening time for reservations on that day.
Close	The closing time for reservations on that day.

How Working Hours Affect Reservations

• If a day is disabled, the system should treat that day as unavailable for reservations.
• If a day is enabled, the reservation start and end time must fit inside the configured open and close window.
• Suggested time slots are generated from these hours together with the slot interval and duration rules.
• The availability service uses these hours when checking whether a reservation falls inside allowed service time.

Time Format

• Working Hours use the admin time picker and currently support the branch configuration entered in 12-hour format.
• The backend normalizes and validates the submitted time values before saving them.

Default Working Hours

New settings currently default to:

• Open: 09:00 AM
• Close: 11:00 PM
• Status: enabled for all days

Booking Policy

The Booking Policy section controls confirmation and cancellation behavior.

Field	Purpose
Auto Confirm	Automatically confirms reservations instead of leaving them for manual review or follow-up.
Cancellation Allowed	Enables the cancellation flow for reservations at this branch.
Require Cancellation Reason	Requires staff or users in the cancellation workflow to provide a reason when a reservation is cancelled.
Cancellation Deadline	Defines how many minutes before the reservation start time cancellation is still allowed.

Behavior Notes

• Require Cancellation Reason and Cancellation Deadline only matter when Cancellation Allowed is enabled.
• If Auto Confirm is enabled, new reservations can move into a confirmed state faster and with less manual work.

Automation

The Automation section controls operational rules that reduce manual intervention.

Table Requirement Rules

Field	Purpose
Require Table On Create	Requires a table assignment at the moment the reservation is created.
Require Table On Confirm	Requires a table to be assigned before the reservation can be confirmed.
Require Table On Arrival	Requires a table to be assigned before the reservation can be marked as arrived.

These rules help enforce branch discipline depending on how strict table management must be.

Reminder Rules

Field	Purpose
Reminder Enabled	Enables scheduled reminder logic for reservations.
Reminder Before	The number of minutes before the reservation start time when the reminder should be scheduled.

If reminders are enabled, the automation layer can prepare reminder jobs and notifications using the system notification infrastructure.

No-Show Rules

Field	Purpose
Auto No-Show	Enables automatic no-show handling instead of requiring staff to mark it manually.
Grace Period	The allowed delay after the scheduled reservation time before the guest may be treated as a no-show.
Pending Expiry Minutes	Defines how long a pending reservation can stay pending before the system considers it expired.

Behavior Notes

• Reminder Before only applies when Reminder Enabled is active.
• Grace Period and Pending Expiry Minutes are operational controls used by automation and scheduled checks.
• These settings are especially important for branches with strict seating turnover and heavy traffic.

Deposit and Waitlist

The Deposit and Waitlist section controls monetary reservation policies and overflow handling.

Deposit Settings

Field	Purpose
Deposit Enabled	Activates deposit rules for the branch.
Deposit For Large Party	Requires deposits when the guest count reaches the configured large-party threshold.
Deposit Refundable	Determines whether collected deposits should be considered refundable by policy.
Deposit Amount	The fixed currency amount required as the reservation deposit.
Deposit Payment Deadline	The number of minutes before the reservation time by which the deposit should be paid.

Deposit Notes

• Deposit settings only apply when Deposit Enabled is turned on.
• When Deposit Enabled is turned off, the reservation form does not apply deposit fields and the backend stores the reservation as deposit not required.
• Deposit For Large Party works together with Large Party Threshold from the Policy section.
• When deposits are enabled, Deposit Amount must be greater than zero; large-party deposit rules always use this fixed amount.
• The reservation module stores deposit policy, but operational payment handling depends on the broader system payment flow.

Waitlist Settings

Field	Purpose
Waitlist Enabled	Activates waitlist functionality for the branch.
Waitlist Expiry Minutes	Defines how long a waitlist opportunity remains valid before it expires.

Waitlist Notes

• Use waitlist expiry to prevent old waitlist entries from remaining actionable for too long.
• A shorter expiry is useful for busy branches where table turnover moves quickly.

Create and Update Workflow

Create Reservation Setting

When creating a new Reservation Setting:

1. Choose the branch if required.
2. Define the policy values.
3. Set the working hours for each day.
4. Configure booking rules.
5. Configure automation behavior.
6. Configure deposit and waitlist rules.
7. Click Create.

Update Reservation Setting

When editing an existing setting:

1. Open the existing branch setting.
2. Adjust only the values that need to change.
3. Save the record with Update.

The branch itself is not intended to be changed during update.

Recommended Configuration Approach

For clean rollout, configure Reservation Settings in this order:

1. Start with Branch, Reservations Enabled, and Working Hours.
2. Set duration, guest, and advance booking rules.
3. Decide whether cancellations and auto confirmation should be enabled.
4. Enable reminders and no-show automation only after the branch workflow is agreed.
5. Enable deposit and waitlist only if the branch operationally uses them.

Practical Examples

Example 1: Casual Dining Branch

• Reservations Enabled: Yes
• Allow Walk-In: Yes
• Auto Confirm: Yes
• Reminder Enabled: Yes
• Deposit Enabled: No
• Waitlist Enabled: Yes

This setup works for branches that accept frequent traffic and want a lightweight reservation flow.

Example 2: Fine Dining Branch

• Reservations Enabled: Yes
• Minimum Advance Minutes: higher than standard
• Auto Confirm: No
• Require Table On Confirm: Yes
• Deposit Enabled: Yes
• Deposit For Large Party: Yes
• Waitlist Enabled: Yes

This setup is better for controlled service, planned seating, and higher-value bookings.

Example 3: Limited-Service Branch

• Reservations Enabled: No

This branch effectively disables reservation availability while keeping the setting record in place for future activation.

Summary

The Reservation Settings page is the operational control center for branch reservation behavior.
It determines:

• when reservations can be booked
• how long they can last
• which guest counts are allowed
• how cancellations and reminders work
• whether no-show handling is automated
• whether deposits or waitlists are active
• which daily hours are considered bookable

Configure it carefully per branch because these settings directly affect availability, automation, and front-desk reservation workflow.