Book restaurant tables without inventing one

The caller wants Saturday at nine. You have plates in both hands.

Someone rings to put a table in the book. You are halfway across the room with four plates. The person at the pass cannot write. You cannot write and run food at the same time.

The caller does not want a time of day as if this were a chair at five. They want Saturday at nine for four, or they want to know if it is worth crossing the street tonight, or they want two gyros at the door. Those are three different things to write down. An assistant that opens with “what time would you like?” has already chosen the wrong book.

A reservation needs how many people, which night, what time, inside or terrace. A walk-in needs an honest answer about tonight. A takeaway needs a kitchen that still does pickup, and a time the people already seated will not wait behind. Mix them and you have a reserved four and a walk-in four at the same pass, or two souvlaki tickets on a Saturday the kitchen cannot cook.

This is the booking work in a Greek taverna. It is not a night in a bed. It is covers, a wait at the door, or a ticket.

Reservation, walk-in or takeaway — then the facts

That is the order. Nothing goes into the book until the assistant knows which of the three it is. Time of day is not the first question. Saturday is not the first question either, not until it knows this is a reservation.

A reservation. How many people, which night, what time, inside or terrace. Then the book. Not a yes before the book. Not a price before a listed item you typed in. If they want the terrace and you only have inside left, that is what the book says, not what sounds nicer on the phone.

A walk-in. They are asking whether it is worth coming down, not for a time next Thursday. The honest answers are short: yes, come now; yes, but you will wait; no, the book is closed, here is the next night we can reserve. An assistant that answers that question with Thursday at 20:00 has not heard it.

A takeaway. Two gyros, a time, and whether you even do pickup once the room is full. This is not a table. A free two at 21:30 does not mean the kitchen can send food out the door. If you stop takeaway at nine on Saturday, mark that. If you do not do takeaway, the assistant says so and stops.

A single call can hold two of these. “A table for Saturday, and can we pick up two gyros tonight?” is a reservation and a takeaway. “We’re two, just down the street — have you got anything?” is a walk-in, even if they also ask whether you take cards. Hear both. Write both. Confirm neither until the right book has spoken.

Write the first question the way you would for a new person at the door. One sentence. Reservation, walk-in, or takeaway. Skip it and the wrong Saturday goes in.

A reservation is covers, not a time you invent

A table for two at seven and a table for eight at nine are two different pieces of work. A third person on a two is not a four. A high chair is not an extra cover unless you count it that way. Inside and terrace are not interchangeable just because both seat four. The assistant takes the facts in that order, then looks at the book you already use.

It offers a table only if that book shows one that fits — that night, that time, that party size, inside or terrace — at that moment. If the last four at nine was taken while you were running food, the book says so. The assistant does not fill the gap with a yes. It takes the night and a number and stops.

Do not give it a hopeful sentence. “We usually have something on Saturday” will be read out. If a table is not free until you have looked, do not leave a sentence that sounds as if it is.

A table for four is not two tables for two pushed together, not unless you have said the assistant may do that. Combining tables changes the walk-in spaces you still have. It is a decision in the room. Write the rule. If the rule is empty, the assistant offers a table that actually fits, or it takes a callback.

Two sittings on one table are a turn you already do, or they are nothing. The assistant does not hold a seven and a nine on the same four unless you have said that you turn that table. Write “always say yes” into the notes and it will say yes.

A walk-in who rings from the corner and a guest who already has a name in the book are not the same person. The first needs a free table. The second needs the reservation that is already there. Ask which they are before anyone talks about writing a new one.

A walk-in is whether it is worth coming down

The room book knows reserved tables. It does not always know the queue at the door. A walk-in is asking a different question.

If you are taking walk-ins until a time you set, say so. The assistant can say come now, or come now and you will wait, or no, the book is closed. It must not invent a wait it cannot see. “Twenty minutes” said from a guess is four people in the street at forty.

If Saturday night is reserved only, the assistant says so and offers the next night you can take. Telling them to come down when the book is already full is how a reserved four and a walk-in four meet at the pass.

A walk-in who will wait is still a walk-in. Put a name down if that is how you hold a table at the door. Do not turn it into a reservation for Thursday because the reservation questions are the ones the assistant knows.

Do not let a walk-in become a reservation because the reservation path is the one that writes. Answer the question they asked.

A takeaway is a kitchen ticket

The book does not know whether the kitchen can send two gyros at 21:30 on a Saturday. That is a line you already live with: takeaway until a time you set, or no takeaway once the room is full, or no takeaway at all.

If you do not do pickup, say so in one line. The assistant repeats it. It does not offer “we will see if the kitchen can do it”. A caller who heard a maybe will arrive at the door with an order the tickets cannot take.

If you do it, write when it stops, what you will cook for pickup, and whether Saturday night is different from Tuesday. Two gyros at lunch is not a family order at 22:00. The assistant takes those facts and only promises a pickup when you have said the kitchen still does it.

A takeaway for a guest who already has a table is still a takeaway. It is not a reason to hold a second table. A takeaway with no table is also allowed if you do that work. Write that down.

Do not let a takeaway become a reservation because the reservation questions are the ones it knows. “How long for two gyros?” is not “do you have a table for two?”. Answer the question they asked.

Terrace, winter hours, last seating

Plenty of tavernas in Greece do not run the same book in July and in November. The terrace is open when the weather allows. On an island, Tuesday lunch in winter may not exist. In a city, Sunday lunch may be the service you protect. The assistant has to know which week it is answering for.

A caller who asks for the terrace in January is not asking for the same table as a caller in August. If you have marked the terrace closed, the assistant says so and offers inside, or takes a note. It does not reserve the terrace in a month you have it stacked.

A caller who asks “are you open next Tuesday?” in November is asking whether you still run that day. If Monday and Tuesday are closed from October, mark them. An assistant that takes a Tuesday in November because the summer hours are still in the notes will have people arrive to a dark dining room.

Last seating is not the same as the kitchen closing, and neither is the same as the bar still serving. A caller at twenty-three who wants dinner is asking for a table, not a drink. If last seating is 22:30, the assistant says so. It does not seat four people at 23:00 to be kind.

August, Easter, the fifteenth of August, a name day in the village — those nights are not a normal Saturday. If you stop taking reservations at a count you set, or you want a human on anything over a number you choose, write that down. The assistant will honour a list it can see.

Fifteen minutes, and a cancel that has to go back on the book

A guest who rings at eight to cancel a twenty-past-eight table is still inside the hold most of you already say out loud, and that table can still be offered to the next person who calls.

Set the hold you actually enforce. Fifteen minutes past the time is the figure many of you already use. The assistant should say it at the end of a reservation, and treat a cancel inside that hold as a table that is free again, not as a note for Monday. If the cancel rule is written for the next day, a cancelled nine o’clock stays empty through the service that needed it.

People also ring in the morning to say they are not coming tonight. On a small room that is often a four you can still sell, if the book shows it as free before the next reservation call.

A cancel that sits in a notebook, or in a transcript for the evening, is a table the next caller is told you do not have. They sit down somewhere else. At nine you have an empty four and a full book on paper.

The assistant writes the cancel into the same book it writes reservations into, the same hour. Then the next person who asks for that night can be offered it. A cancel after last seating is still worth taking — you would rather know than set the table — but it is not a refill you should promise.

Say the cancel rule when the reservation is written, if you have one. Many small rooms do not take a deposit and do not chase a no-show. Do not let the assistant describe a charge you will not make. A rule you do not enforce is a sentence that will be read back to you at the door.

Moving a table is one change

Find the reservation. Release the old time. Write the new one. Then text. That is one change, in that order.

Split it — cancel first, then hunt — and their own table is still blocking Saturday at nine, because the book is looking at them. If the new time is gone, they have lost the old one too.

The new time still has to exist. Four people moving from 21:00 to 21:30 are not the same work as four people moving from inside to the terrace. The assistant asks what changed, then looks at the book, then offers. If the terrace is gone, the inside table stays until they agree to let it go.

A reservation that started on a booking site is not something the assistant finishes as a move on the phone. Date changes, “can we come an hour later”, a name that does not match — those are requests. You or the site decide. The assistant takes the reference and the new time and stops.

Test a move on a real name before it runs on the book you use. Pick a Saturday that is already in. Ask to shift it by half an hour. Watch whether their own table blocks them. If it does, fix the order.

Twelve for a name day, and a note about nuts

A caller wants a table for twelve. A caller is booking a name day. A caller asks if the fish is safe for a child with a nut allergy. A caller wants to know whether they can bring a cake.

The assistant does not rearrange the room and it does not decide if a dish is safe. It can write “no nuts” on the booking you actually take. It cannot say that a plate is safe, what a guest should eat, or whether something will make them ill. Those calls are a note. They are never advice.

For a party over the number you set, take a callback if that is your rule. Some of you take eight on the phone and want a human at ten. Some of you want a set menu talked through first. The assistant follows your rule. It does not invent one.

A complaint about last night: take the name, take what they said, put it in front of you. Do not offer a free meal from the phone. A high chair, a dog on the terrace — write the policy once. The assistant repeats it.

Menu prices the phone cannot give

When someone asks what dinner will cost — for two, for a family, for the fish they have not seen — the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not invent one. Catch of the day, lamb by the kilo, and a wine they have not named all change the bill. It can repeat a listed main or a set lunch you gave it. Tonight’s fish, and “how much for two people”, cannot. A guessed average spend in the notes will be read out.

Parking, the door on the side street, whether you take cards — those are facts you write once. They are not a reason to invent a table or a price.

What the confirmation may say

The text goes out after the reservation is in the book. Night, time, how many, inside or terrace, name. The language of the call. A caller who rang in German gets the text in German. You do not set a language per table. The assistant works in 70+ languages and follows the one they started in.

A takeaway that is still a request does not belong in that text as if the food is ready. “We have noted two gyros” is honest. “See you in twenty minutes” is not, not until the kitchen has said so.

The hold can go in the same text — fifteen minutes past the time, if that is what you say out loud. Do not send a confirmation for a table that was never written.

If the book cannot be reached, there is no text. A callback is not a confirmation. The door finishes it.

How CITT handles it

1. Reservation, walk-in or takeaway first. Then the facts that belong to that request. Time is not the opening question.
2. It reads the book you already use before it says a table is free, and writes the reservation into that same book.
3. A walk-in is a second answer, against tonight, not against Thursday. No invented wait.
4. A takeaway is a kitchen check. No invented ticket once you have marked pickup closed.
5. A move is one change on a reservation that started with you. A site booking is a request.
6. A cancel goes back on the book the same hour, so the next caller can be offered that table.
7. Several calls are answered at once. A Saturday burst is not a stack of busy tones.
8. It texts after the book is written, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and only for what was actually confirmed.
9. What the call cannot finish becomes a tagged note — an unpublished price, a table the book will not confirm, a twelve for a name day, an allergy question.

What it will not do

It will not invent a free table. If the book does not show one, the caller gets a request taken, not a yes.

It will not invent a menu price, a wait, or a takeaway the kitchen cannot cook.

It will not treat walk-in hours, reserved tables and takeaway tickets as the same book. It will not open the terrace in a month you have it stacked. It will not take a Tuesday in November if you marked winter closed. It will not seat four people after last seating to be kind.

It will not push two twos together unless you have said it may. It will not confirm twelve on the phone if you want a human at that number. It will not decide if a dish is safe. It will not offer a free meal because the caller is unhappy.

It will not send a confirmation for a table that is not in the book.

What these calls sound like

The kind of call first. Then the facts. Then the book. Then only the sentence that is true — the table is written, the walk-in can come now, the takeaway is a request, the hold is the one you use.

There is no “come down, we will find something” over a book that is already full. There is no dinner-for-two price. There is no text for a four the book did not show.

If the assistant is friendly and still writes the last four twice, two parties meet at the pass. Put the person who rang for Saturday at 21:00 on a table the book actually shows, and keep the gyros on their own line.

What you set up first

Put the assistant on the number on the door with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands at the entrance still takes the call. Then:

1. The first split. Reservation, walk-in, takeaway. One sentence, the way you would say it to a new person at the door.
2. The book you already use. Party size, inside against terrace, last seating. A reservation is written only when that book shows the table.
3. Walk-in hours. Until when. What to say when the book is closed. Whether a name at the door is how you hold a table.
4. Takeaway. Yes or no. When it stops. Whether Saturday night is different. What you will cook for pickup.
5. The hold you already say out loud, and how a cancel is written back the same hour.
6. Terrace months, winter hours, and who wants a human on parties over your number.
7. Published prices it may repeat, and nothing else. No dinner-for-two figure in the notes. One line that forbids allergy advice.

Then read the first fifty reservations yourself. Kind of call, how many, inside or terrace, whether a takeaway was promised, whether a walk-in was told to come down over a full book. You are looking for the work nobody entered: the six made of two twos, the terrace in January, the pickup after you stop it.

Rates for the service live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.