Creating a Special Day for Availability Planning

Create Special Days to offer unique options for high-traffic days or alongside regularly scheduled reservations, such as a holiday offering or an anniversary celebration.

To create a Special Day, follow these steps:

1. Create an Experience
2. Create Availability with a Special Day: 
   • Add a Special Day 
   • Set up or change a floor plan
   • Set up or change Table Availability
   • Set Pacing and Turn Times
   • Set Pacing Excluded Experiences
   • Optimize Table Availability
   • Set up Table Prioritization
   • Publish Special Day 

Create an Experience

To create an experience, review the Creating an Experience article here.

After creating the experience, edit General information and make additional changes as needed.

For set menus, include a description of the menu in the Description field, or add selections within the Add-ons tab or Menus tab. For pricing tiers (e.g., adult vs. child price), set the Pricing tab to $0 and set pricing in the Add-ons tab or Menus tab.

Create Availability with a Special Day

After the Experience is created, add Availability with a Special Day. 

Add a Special Day

1. From the Control Panel tab, click Availability Planning.
2. Click Add special day.
3. Enter a name and select a date for the Special Day.
4. Select Use published schedule to use the existing schedule on the date of the Special Day as a template, or select Create new special day to create a floor plan and Availability from scratch.

Set up or change a Floor Plan

After setting up the schedule details, click Continue to floor plan. To set up or make changes to a Floor Plan, review the Building Floor Plans with Availability Planning article here.

To add seating options, follow the steps in the Setting up Seating Options article. 

Set up or change Table Availability

After making changes to the Floor Plan, click Continue to services. To add a new service, click +, or click the original service to make changes for the Special Day.

1. Select the service type to offer, such as All Day or Brunch. 
2. Add or edit the start and end time. Start time is when reservations are being accepted. End time is when the last reservation begins.
3. If adding a new service, select an experience to apply to tables within this service. Refine Table Availability after adding the service and click Add Service. 
4. Click on the pencil icon next to Table availability, then select the tables that will be available for the Special Day.
   • Click individual tables or check Select all in the top-left corner.
   • Click Edit selected tables in the top-right corner.
   • Click Apply experience to selected tables and select the Special Day experience.
   • Repeat if using multiple experiences for different tables.
5. Blocks can be added to tables that will not be available. After selecting the tables to block, click Edit selected tables, then click Block selected tables for service.
6. After making edits, click Done editing, then click Save.

Set Pacing and Turn Times

After setting up Table Availability, set Pacing and Turn Times as outlined in this article here.

• To set pacing limits, click the pencil icon next to Pacing.
• To set turn times by party size, click the pencil next to Turn times.

Set Pacing Excluded Experiences

If experiences should not count towards pacing limits, determine which experiences should be excluded from pacing as outlined in this article here.

• Click the pencil icon next to Pacing.
• At Set experience pacing, click Exclude for the experience to be excluded from pacing.

Optimize Table Availability

The Optimize Table Availability feature allows for the automatic release of availability for blocked or in-house tables a set amount of time prior to the start of service. For setup steps, visit the Configure Pacing & Turn Times for Availability Planning Article here.

Set up Table Prioritization

Table Prioritization allows more control over where reservations are assigned. Prioritize specific tables, table combinations, or sections within a floor plan.For setup steps, visit the Using Table Prioritization in Availability Planning article here. 

Publish Special Day

After configuring Special Days, publish to make bookings available:

1. Click Continue to review and ensure all settings are correct. 
2. Click Publish Special Day.
3. To ensure Availability is bookable online, click Availability in the Control Panel and review Release settings.

Once the Special Day is published and availability is released, guests will be able to book.

To view the published Special Day, navigate to the business page on ExploreTock.