Below are some frequently asked questions when working in Availability Planning.
Topics
Details Tab
How can a schedule be published indefinitely?
Schedules require a start date for the first day reservations are available and an end date for the last day bookable reservations. Schedules can run for a maximum of 365 days. Schedules can be duplicated multiple times as long as dates do not overlap.
Floor Plan tab
How can a table name be changed?
Once a schedule is published, Duplicate the table within the Floor plan tab of the Availability Planning schedule to adjust the table name. For more information, review the Building Floor Plans article here.
Why can’t larger parties be booked via the Blue book icon?
Availability is configured through the Availability Planning tab. To book larger party sizes, add table combinations within the Floor plan of the schedule as outlined in the Setting Up Table Combinations article here.
Table Availability
How are tables blocked?
Tables can be blocked for an entire service or for certain periods of time. Block tables within Availability Planning in advance of the first service of the day as outlined in the Editing Advanced Grid for Availability Planning article here. Once the first service starts, any day-of table blocks are best made in Timeline.
Publishing a schedule
What happens to existing reservations when publishing new schedules?
If there are existing reservations that fall within the dates of a new schedule, these reservations will still exist when creating a new schedule. When publishing a new schedule, these reservations will be automatically reassigned to a table that fits them. If a table does not exist that can accommodate that reservation, the reservation will fall under 'Unassigned reservations'.
What happens to existing timeline blocks when publishing schedules?
If there are existing timeline blocks that fall within the dates of a publishing schedule, the system will present an option of either keeping or removing the overlapping timeline blocks.
What does it mean to publish a schedule?
Publish a schedule to make that reservation availability live. Schedules can be moved back to drafts to remove it from public view as needed. Below are a few things to keep in mind when publishing schedules.
- Publishing a schedule alone does not release reservations to the public. Visit the Availability page to configure an availability window and make reservations visible to guests, as outlined in our Releasing Reservation Availability for Availability Planning article here.
- Ensure that schedules are published in advance of the first service start date and time.
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When changing the dates of a published schedule, please note the following scenarios:
- Any overlapping dates that stayed the same, won’t change.
- Any original dates that fall outside the new date range will be cleared.
- Any new dates that fall outside the old date range will apply as normal.
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For example, an original published schedule was 6/1-6/30. When changing the dates of that schedule to 6/15-7/15 the following will occur:
- 6/1-6/14 will get cleared.
- 6/15-6/30 will stay the same.
- 7/1-7/15 will get applied.
- To extend the end date of an existing published schedule, we recommend only moving the end date and leaving the start date as is, to avoid any confusion of the scenarios mentioned above.
- The only time changing the start date of a published schedule is recommended is to clear the availability on all dates prior to that start date.
Why won’t a schedule publish?
When the Publish schedule button is blue, the schedule can be published. Below are a few things to check if this button is still greyed out:
- Check that the schedule can only be published when a change has been made.
- Check if there is a red dot in the Details tab. This may indicate an error in Start or End date.
- Check to see if there is a yellow dot within the Services tab. This may indicate an Experience needs to be assigned to tables. This can be done within each service, as outlined in our Editing Table Availability for Availability Planning article here.
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If there are two services (i.e. Brunch and Dinner service), the system allows for a full turn before the second service can begin.
- If the Brunch service is 10AM-2PM with two hour turn times, the Dinner service can begin at 4pm to allow for the last reservation start time a full turn.
Why aren’t updates live for today’s date?
When publishing a schedule, changes will happen immediately, but starting the following day. Since same day changes may affect the current service, the system offers a toggle to “Publish to today’ for the changes to happen immediately.
Special Day
How can I make changes to my floor plan or start/end time for one day?
Special Days allow for the creation of a schedule for a day with different availability. Review our Creating Special Days for Availability Planning article here for more information on optimizing unique offerings. As a helpful tip, create all availability within the Special Day (i.e. Brunch and Dinner services).
Closed Day
How can a Closed Day be removed?
To remove a Closed day from the Availability Planning tab, select the trashcan icon found to the right of the given closed day. This will add availability from the schedule on the Timeline.
Availability tab
How can reservations be set for explicit availability in the next 30/60/90 days?
Through the Availability tab, customize the availability to allow guests to view and book offerings. There are two options:
- Manual date range allows all offering visibility between now and the specific date set to be visible to guests.
- Automatic rolling dates allows offering visibility between the total number of calendar days that will be bookable in the rolling window.
Learn More
For information relating to releasing reservations, review our Releasing Reservation Availability for Availability Planning article here.
For more information about existing and new schedule creation, review out Creating Schedules for Availability Planning article here.
For more information regarding Closed Days, review our Creating a Closed Day for Availability Planning article here.