The booking rules every restaurant should write down

Ask a restaurant owner what the booking rules are and you usually get a confident answer. Ask the weekend host the same question and you get a slightly different one. Ask the person who answers the phone on Tuesday and you get a third.

The rules exist. They just live in one head, and they get applied by whoever is nearest to that head. That works while the owner is at the pass. It stops working the first time someone else has to answer at 23:40, or on a Saturday with six calls ringing.

Writing the rules down is not paperwork. It is the step that lets you hand the inbox and the phone to someone else. Here are the five that matter most, and how to write each so nobody has to ask you.

1. The largest group you will book without asking

Every venue has a number where a booking stops being routine. For some it is six, for others ten. Above it, someone needs to look at the table plan, think about the kitchen and maybe talk about a set menu.

Pick the number and write it as one sentence: "We book up to 8 people without checking with the owner. Anything larger goes to the owner, with date, time, size and a contact."

The second half matters as much as the first. A rule that says only "no" loses the group. A rule that says what happens next keeps it.

2. The last seating, and how far ahead you book

Last seating is not the same as closing time. If the kitchen stops at 21:00 and you close at 23:00, a table booked for 21:30 is a table that arrives hungry and leaves angry.

Write the latest time a guest can sit down, per day if it differs: "Last booking 20:30 Sunday to Thursday, 21:00 Friday and Saturday." Then add the horizon: "We take bookings up to 60 days ahead." Without that second line, someone will eventually promise a table for New Year's Eve in March, and nobody will know whether you meant it.

3. Deposits: when, how much, and what happens if they cancel

Deposit rules are where staff improvise most, because the conversation feels awkward. So make it mechanical.

Say when it applies ("groups of 10 or more", or "any booking on a Saturday after 19:00"). Say how much. Say what the guest gets back and by when. A table for ten at €10 a head is a €100 deposit, and the guest should hear that number in the first reply, not in the third.

If the rule has exceptions, write them too, or write that there are none. "No exceptions without the owner" is a perfectly good rule. It just has to be on paper.

4. When the kitchen closes

This one changes with the season, so it is the rule most likely to be out of date. "Kitchen closes at 21:00 from November" is the kind of sentence that gets said once in a staff meeting and forgotten by January.

Write it with the date it starts. Write what you do after kitchen close: drinks only, a short bar menu, or nothing. A guest asking for a table at 21:15 deserves an honest answer about what they will get, not a booking that ends in an apology.

5. Whether you need a phone number before you book

Many venues quietly require a phone number and never say so. Then a host takes a booking on Instagram with a first name only, and on the night there is no way to reach the guest, confirm, or chase a no-show.

Decide it and state it: "No booking without a phone number." Or the opposite: "Email is enough for walk-in style tables." Either is fine. What causes trouble is the unwritten middle, where it depends on who is on shift.

The same goes for cancellations. Decide who may cancel and from where. A cancellation that arrives from a different number than the booking is worth a second look, so write down that it goes to a person.

Write them so a stranger could follow them

A good test: hand the page to someone who has never worked a shift in your restaurant. Could they answer "Is there a table for 12 on Saturday at 21:30?" correctly, using only what you wrote?

If the answer needs "well, it depends", find what it depends on and write that down too. Usually it is one of three things: the number of guests, the time, or the day.

Keep each rule to a sentence with a number in it. Rules with numbers get followed. Rules with adjectives ("reasonable", "usually", "if it's quiet") get argued about.

What changes once the rules are on paper

New staff stop interrupting you with the same five questions. Replies get consistent, so a guest who emails and then phones hears the same answer. And you can finally hand off the channels you do not want to watch at midnight.

It also makes an AI host workable. Nomi, for example, applies these exact rules on her own: kitchen close time, last booking time, deposit policy, the largest group she may book alone (the default is 8) and how far ahead she books. You tell her in plain sentences, such as "deposit for groups of 10+" or "kitchen closes at 21:00 from November", and they apply from the next conversation. Anything outside the rules, like a larger group, an allergy question or a complaint, goes to you instead of being guessed at.

That only works if the rules exist first. An assistant, human or not, can follow a rule. It cannot read your mind. If you have already seen how many bookings arrive when nobody is at a desk, our piece on why restaurants lose bookings after the kitchen closes shows where these rules matter most.

A ten-minute exercise

Open a note on your phone. Write five lines, one for each rule above. Put a number in every line. Then send it to your floor manager and ask what is missing.

Whatever they add is the rule you were applying without noticing. Write that down as well.

Nomi is in testing with pilot venues in Lithuania, and you can see what usage costs on the pricing page. Whether or not you ever use her, the page of rules is worth having by Friday.