Bookings (Admin Panel)
By Reece
By Reece
Step-by-step guides for venue managers using the Taybl Admin Panel to manage bookings: the timeline, floor plan, pre-orders, guest CRM, feedback, payments and booking settings.
Managing Bookings on the Timeline
See every booking laid out against the tables and times you have available, and manage them without leaving the screen. Steps 1. Go to Bookings - the Timeline is the default view, showing your tables down the left and time across the top. 2. 3. Use the room tabs (such as All Rooms, Dining, Blue Room) to filter which tables are shown, and the date picker to move between days. 4. Each booking is colour-coded by booking type, shown in the legend at the top right (for example Dinner, Lunch, Sunday Roast). 5. To move a booking to a different table, drag it from its current row and drop it onto the new table's row. 6. Click on a booking to open its details on the right: guest name, party size and current status (such as Overdue, with how many minutes over). 7. From the details panel you can Seat guest, Request pre-order, Extend +15m to give the table more time, Move table, or Mark blocked to take the table out of service. 8. Tap the pencil icon at the top of the details panel to edit the booking itself - its date, time and party size. Tips Extend +15m is useful when a table is running over but the guests haven't finished - it buys them a bit longer without you having to edit the whole booking. Mark blocked takes a table out of service for new bookings - handy for a table that's broken, being cleaned, or reserved for staff use. Use the same button again to unblock it. The banner at the top reminds you that you can drag a booking straight onto another table, and that a booking's time is edited from Booking Details rather than by dragging.
Using the Live Floor Plan
See a live, visual layout of every table, colour-coded by status, so you can spot who's free and who's overdue at a glance. Steps 1. Go to Bookings, then "Table Plan" - or open it directly to see a live view of every table right now. 2. 3. Use "All areas" to focus on a single section, such as Dining, Blue Room, Party Booth or Stage. 4. Use Now, +1h and +2h to check how the floor will look later in the sitting, not just right now. 5. Each table is colour-coded by status, shown in the legend at the bottom: Free (green), Booked (blue), Occupied (orange) or Blocked (grey). 6. Tables that are overdue show how many minutes over they are, so you can see at a glance which ones need turning. 7. Click on a table to open its options: Seat guest, Request pre-order, Extend +15m, Move table and Mark blocked, plus notes and allergies for the booking. 8. Use the Reservations and Waiting tabs on the left to see the day's bookings as a list alongside the floor plan, and "Search guest or table" to jump straight to one. Tips The Live Floor Plan and the Timeline show the same bookings - use whichever view suits you: the floor plan for a visual sense of the room, the Timeline for a clearer sense of time. Stepping forward with +1h or +2h is a quick way to check you're not about to double-book a table that looks free right now. Use "Search guest or table" when the venue is busy and you need to find one specific booking fast, rather than scanning the floor.
Requesting and Viewing Pre-Orders
Ask a guest to choose their food ahead of their visit, from either the Timeline or the Live Floor Plan. Steps 1. Open the booking from either the Timeline or the Live Floor Plan by clicking on it. 2. In the details panel, switch to the "Pre-order" tab. 3. If no pre-order has been requested yet, tap "Request Pre-order". 4. 5. Choose which pre-order menu to send - see the article on the Menu Builder for how to create these menus. 6. 7. Tap "Send Invite" to email the guest a link to choose their food, or "Cancel" to back out without sending anything. 8. To check what a guest has chosen, open the same booking and go to its Pre-order tab again - their selections are shown there once submitted. Tips A pre-order can only be requested if the booking has a guest email on file - if you see a message saying it can't be requested, add an email to the booking first. Send the invite a few days before the booking to give guests time to respond, rather than on the day itself. Set up your pre-order menus in the Menu Builder before you try to send an invite - the menu picker only shows menus that already exist.
Using the Guest CRM
See everything about a guest in one place - their visit history, preferences, reliability and value to your venue. Steps 1. Go to Bookings, then "Guests" to see the CRM dashboard. 2. The top of the dashboard shows your Total guests, VIP guests, Regulars, Upcoming bookings and overall Attendance rate. 3. Use "Search by name, email or phone", or the tag and status filters, to narrow the guest list down. 4. You can also search for a guest from the search bar at the top of any page - it looks across both Guests and Bookings. 5. Click on a guest to open their profile: visit count, no-shows, average party size, attendance percentage, preferred booking days, and how their value compares to your other guests. 6. Tap "Add booking" to create a new reservation for this guest without leaving their profile. 7. Tap "Add note" to leave a staff note on their profile, such as a seating preference. 8. Tap "Edit Guest" to update their details, including Dietary Notes, from the Guest preferences section.
Using the Feedback Manager
See how guests rate their visit, when reviews are shown to your Google Business Profile, and how to track a complaint through to resolution. Steps 1. Go to Bookings, then "Feedback" to see every review guests have left, along with their rating and comments. 2. Ratings of 3 stars or below are kept private - the guest isn't asked to publish anything, but a low score is the clearest signal something needs following up. 3. Ratings of 4 or 5 stars ask the guest to publish their review to Google, turning your happiest guests into public reviews. 4. On a low-rated review you may see a "Log Complaint?" button - use this to open a complaint and track it through to resolution. Below is an example from Priya Bailey's review. 5. To set where 4-5 star reviews send guests to leave a public review, go to Settings, then "Venue Settings", and paste your venue's Google reviews link under "Google Reviews". 6. To find the link: search for your venue on Google or open its listing in Google Maps, click the star rating to open its reviews, click "Ask for reviews" on your Business Profile, then copy the link that appears and paste it in.
Taking Payments, Deposits and No-Show Fees
Connect Stripe to start taking deposits and no-show fees from guests, direct to your own bank account, with every charge logged in one place. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Payment Settings". 2. 3. Click "Connect with Stripe" and follow Stripe's setup to link your own bank account - Taybl never holds your funds. 4. Once connected, you can set which booking types require a card on file for a deposit or no-show fee - this is configured per booking type in "Booking Types". 5. Go to Bookings, then "Payment Log" to see every charge and payment made against a booking, in one place.
Setting Up the Booking Widget
Take bookings straight from your own website with an embedded widget, or share a standalone hosted page - both let guests self-book, and both can be customised to match your brand. Steps 1. Go to Bookings, then "Booking Widget" to open your widget settings, with a live preview alongside. 2. Use "Embed Code" to paste the script tag anywhere in your own site's HTML - no iframe, fully responsive. 3. No website? Use "Or Share This Link Directly" to send guests straight to your hosted booking page instead. 4. 5. Under "Colour Theme", set your Accent, Text, Background and Border colours to match your brand, then "Save Colour Theme". 6. Under "Widget Options", toggle whether to show your venue logo and a "Seating Area" selector, and customise the wording shown on the no-show/deposit step, then "Save Widget Options". 7. Under "Hosted Page Appearance", set a background colour and upload a photo - these only affect the hosted booking page link, not the embedded widget.
Blocking Out Dates
Close the venue or restrict specific booking types for a date range, for bank holidays, private events or maintenance days. Steps 1. Go to Bookings, then "Date Blocking" to see and add date exceptions. 2. Choose whether the exception will "Close the venue" or "Open the venue" for that period. 3. Set a From and To date, and turn off "All day?" if you only need to block specific hours. 4. 5. Set "How this applies" to "Full Venue" to block everything, or "Specific Booking Types" to only block certain booking types (as shown above) while others stay open. 6. Add an optional Reason, such as "Bank holiday" or "Private event", then click "Add Exception". 7. Existing exceptions are listed under "Exceptions" on the right, and can be removed at any time using the bin icon.
Setting Up Booking Types
Booking types let you offer different experiences - like Dinner, Lunch or Sunday Roast - each with its own duration, area and available hours. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Booking Types" to see your existing types and add new ones. 2. 3. Click "Add Booking Type", or the pencil icon on an existing one, to open the editor. 4. Set a Name and optional Description - the description is shown to guests in the booking widget once they pick this type. 5. Set the Duration in minutes and choose which Area the booking type uses. 6. Turn a day off entirely if the booking type isn't offered on that day - guests won't see it as an option then. 7. Use the bin icon on the booking types list to delete a type you no longer need.
Limiting Covers Arriving
Stop too many guests arriving at once, even when individual tables have room, by capping how many covers can be seated within a time window. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Cover Limits". 2. Turn on "Limit covers arriving per interval". 3. 4. Set "Max covers" to the highest number of covers you want seated within the interval, and choose the "Interval" length, e.g. 20 covers per 30 minutes. 5. Click "Save Changes" - once saved, new bookings that would push the total over the limit won't be offered to guests, even if individual tables are still free.
Configuring Guest CRM Settings
Create tags to flag notable guests, and set how many visits (and over what period) make someone a "Regular", plus how long since their last visit makes them "Lapsed". Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Guest CRM". 2. 3. Under "Guest Tags", type a name (e.g. "Anniversary Diner") into "New Tag" and click "Add Tag" - tags appear on guest profiles and can be used to filter your guest list. Remove one at any time using the x on its chip. 4. Under "Regular & Lapsed Guests", set "Regular: visits" (the number of visits needed) and "Regular: within days" (the window those visits must fall within). 5. Set "Lapsed: after days" - the number of days since a guest's last visit before they're considered lapsed. Click "Save" - this one definition applies everywhere, from the Guests list's Regulars filter to a guest's profile badge and matching Marketing segments.
Building Your Floor Plan
Draw your venue's tables, rooms and layout so staff can see live availability at a glance - and add more floors as your venue grows. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Floor Plan Editor". 2. 3. Open "Create Rooms" and draw a room outline first - any tables you place inside it are automatically grouped into that room, so you can filter by area later. 4. Open "Tables" and drag a shape onto the canvas - round, square, rectangle, oval, a bar segment, or a custom freeform shape you draw yourself. 5. Click a table to set its name, seat count and area from the panel on the right. Open "Seats" if you need to add or reposition individual seats around it. 6. Open "Walls" to draw External, Internal, Fence or Door lines - pick a type, then click on the canvas to place each vertex, and double-click or press Esc to finish the chain. 7. Open "Markers" or "Decor" to drop in reference points like a bar, host stand or plants, and use "Join Rules" to shift-click two tables to join them into one bookable unit for larger parties. 8. Click the "+" next to the floor tabs at the top and give it a name to add another floor - useful for venues with multiple levels or an outdoor area.
Editing Guest Emails
Customise the subject, heading, text and branding of every automated email guests receive - booking confirmations, updates, cancellations, pre-order requests and feedback requests. Steps 1. Go to Settings, then "Guest Emails" to see every guest-facing email template: Booking Confirmation, Booking Cancellation, Booking Updated, Pre-Order Request, Pre-Orders Complete and Request Feedback. 2. 3. Click a template to expand it, then edit its "Email Subject", "Email Heading Text" and "Email Text" - the "Live Preview" on the right updates as you type. 4. Toggle "Show Logo At Top of Email" and set an "Email Accent Colour" to match your branding, then click "Save Changes" for that template.