Walk-in Waitlist
Walk-in Waitlist is the live queue of parties waiting for a table without a reservation — each party gets a position number, a running wait timer against their quoted wait, and a one-click way to seat them at an available table once one frees up.
Overview
Every entry moves through one status: WAITING → SEATED, NO_SHOW, or LEFT (voluntarily left before being seated).
Only WAITING parties get a queue position number; the wait timer next to each turns amber once elapsed time passes 75% of their quoted wait and red once it exceeds the quoted wait entirely, with a "LATE" tag added at that point.
Seating a party from the queue either shows a dropdown of currently Available tables (pick one to seat directly) or, if no tables are free, a plain "Seat" button that records the seating without a specific table reference.
Adding a party asks for a name (required), party size (quick-pick buttons for 1–10, common sizes), quoted wait in minutes (defaults to the day's running average), phone (optional) and notes.
The average wait shown in the header and pre-filled into new entries is calculated live from how long already-seated parties actually waited today, defaulting to 20 minutes with no data yet.
A date picker lets you view a different day's queue (defaults to today); filter pills (Waiting / Seated / No Show / Left / All) narrow the visible list, each showing its own count.
KPI strip: Waiting (current queue size), Seated Today, No Shows, and Avg Wait.
Before You Start
- You must have the Billing feature enabled on your plan.
Step-by-Step Guide
1 Add a party to the waitlist
- Open Walk-in Waitlist and click "Add Party".
- Enter the guest/party name, pick a party size, adjust the quoted wait if needed, and add phone/notes if useful.
- Click "Add to Queue" — the party appears at the bottom of the WAITING list with a live wait timer.
2 Seat a waiting party
- Find the party in the queue once a table is ready.
- If tables are free, use the "Seat at table…" dropdown on their card to pick a specific table; otherwise click the plain "Seat" button.
- The entry moves to SEATED and drops out of the active waiting count.
3 Record a no-show or voluntary departure
- On a waiting party's card, click the exit icon to mark them "Left" (they left voluntarily before being seated) or the X-circle icon to mark "No Show".
- Both actions remove the party from the active waiting queue and file them under their respective filter tab for the day.
Every Field & Button, Explained
| Field / Button | What it does |
|---|---|
Party Name / Guest Name | Required. Shown on the queue card and used for the seating confirmation toast. |
Party Size | Chosen via quick-pick buttons (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10); shown with a colour-coded pill on the queue card. |
Quoted Wait (min) | The wait time communicated to the guest when they joined the queue; defaults to the day's running average and drives the amber/red/LATE thresholds on their wait timer. |
Phone | Optional — recorded for reference only on this screen (no automatic SMS/WhatsApp notification is sent from here). |
Position number | Shown only for WAITING entries, numbered by their order in the currently filtered/displayed list, not a stored database field. |
Tips & Best Practices
- Quote wait times based on the header's live "avg wait today" figure rather than guessing — it reflects actual seating times from earlier in the shift.
- Use the Seat dropdown (not the plain Seat button) whenever a specific table is free — it keeps the seating tied to a real table for reporting and for the table's own status to update correctly.
- Mark "Left" versus "No Show" consistently — they are tracked as separate counts and can help you distinguish "gave up waiting" from genuine no-shows over time.