Private dining and party bookings for restaurants

Where should a private dining booking live?

In the same diary as the tables, with the room’s capacity written on it. A separate spreadsheet for functions is how the restaurant sells 40 covers in the restaurant and 24 in the room that shares the same kitchen pass. Capacity is the number the room can feed, not the number on the brochure.

The row: date, room, covers, arrival, the menu or “choice on the night”, deposit taken or not, and the contact. A deposit note without an amount is how finance and the host disagree on the night. Allergies for the whole party belong on the booking before the kitchen preps, not on a place card.

If you already run that room in ResDiary, leave it there. System Hub is for the operator whose function book is an email folder. Booking is £10 a week per location, VAT included.

• Room capacity is a number you will refuse to exceed.
• Deposit: amount, date taken, and whether it is refundable. Write the rule you actually use.
• One contact. A WhatsApp group is not a booking.
• Pre-orders need a cutoff. After that, the kitchen is not taking a new menu.

FSA: food allergy and intolerance.

Does the private room share the kitchen's cover count?

The room and the restaurant share a kitchen. If the function book says 24 at 19:00 and the table diary also seats 70 at 19:00, the pass is planning 94 covers it cannot cook. Capacity is the number you will refuse, written on the room, not the number on the brochure.

A deposit without an amount is an argument on the night: the host thinks £200, the guest thinks £100. Write the amount, the date it was taken, and whether it comes off the bill. One contact, not a group chat.

Allergies for the party go on the booking before the kitchen preps, and they still have to reach the pass — the booking note is not the allergen chart. The 14 allergens are in the Food Information Regulations 2014. Pre-order cutoff is a time. After it, the kitchen is not taking a new menu.

If you already run the room in ResDiary, leave it there. Moving it to a second diary to “tidy up” is how the double sell happens. System Hub Booking is £10 a week per location, VAT included, for the operator whose function book is an email folder. It is not a yield tool and it will not turn tables the way a specialist diary does.

A room hire fee and a minimum spend are different numbers. Write both, or the bill on the night will use whichever figure the person reading it prefers. If the booking includes a set menu, name the menu and the price per head on the booking. A change of headcount after the cutoff is a new line, with the time it was agreed, not a silent edit of the original covers. If the room is dark on a Tuesday, the diary still shows the room as closed that day, so Wednesday’s function is not planned against a ghost booking from the week before.