Online bookings, an availability engine that respects your limits, a back office built for service and optional table management. Here is every feature, explained.
Guests book from your website or from a page hosted by Bookanty, at any hour, and every booking goes straight into your diary.
Booking widget for your website
A standard web component, <bookanty-booking>, added with one script and one tag. It renders in its own Shadow DOM, so your website’s styles can’t break it and it can’t break your website.
Step 1, date and time: a calendar in the guest’s language with closed days disabled, party size up to your maximum, an optional area picker and the day’s time slots. Full times are greyed out, past times are hidden for today and the first free time is pre-selected.
Step 2, details: name, email, phone and notes, a terms checkbox and invisible reCAPTCHA.
Step 3, confirmation: name, party size, date, time and locator code.
Times reload whenever the guest changes the date, party size or area.
Your brand colour on buttons, selected days and selected times.
If google.com can’t be reached, reCAPTCHA loads from recaptcha.net.
A booked browser event with the locator code, for your analytics.
Every product you take bookings for has its own page on your Bookanty address, ready to share on Google Business Profile, Instagram, WhatsApp or a QR code on the table.
A full-screen slideshow of your own photos, with the product’s name and description.
A booking form with a date picker, party size buttons, live times for the chosen day, a terms checkbox and reCAPTCHA.
Panels for the menu, terms and conditions, privacy policy and location. An enhanced menu with up to three photo galleries can be switched on per venue.
A language switcher, a cookie-consent banner and a confirmation page with the locator code.
Confirmation emails
Sent automatically for every online booking, in the language the guest booked in.
With the guest’s name, the venue, the date and time, the party size and the locator code.
Templates can be reworded or redesigned without a software release.
Opens and clicks are tracked.
A copy of each new online booking can also go to your reservations inbox.
Availability engine
You sell every seat you have, and none you don’t. The engine runs when the widget lists a day’s times, and again when the guest presses Book.
An online booking is accepted only if every check passes:
Check
Rule
Default
Party size
Between 1 and your maximum party size. Larger groups are told the maximum and asked to call.
Max. 8
Booking window
No sooner than your minimum notice and no further ahead than your maximum, counted from now.
0 min – 60 days
Opening hours
The start time falls inside an opening window for that date.
—
Covers
Guests already booked in the area at overlapping times, plus this party, stay within the area’s capacity.
No limit until set
Tables
Bookings already in the area at overlapping times, plus this one, stay within the area’s table count.
No limit until set
Overlaps, counted properly
Each booking holds its area from its start time until its end time: the start plus your default reservation length, 1 h 30 min unless you change it. Two bookings compete only if those periods cross, so a booking ending at 21:30 never competes with one starting at 21:30.
Example
The terrace takes 40 covers on 10 tables. There are bookings for 4, 6 and 2 at 20:00 and one for 8 at 20:45. A request for 4 at 21:00 runs until 22:30 and overlaps all four: 20 + 4 = 24 covers and 4 + 1 = 5 tables. Accepted.
Prefer each time slot to stand on its own? Turn off overlap checks and only bookings starting at exactly the same time count against it.
Limits that change during the evening
Capacity levels change an area’s limits from a set time every day. The base limits apply until the first level starts, and each level applies until the next one.
Example
The terrace has 20 covers on 5 tables, plus a level from 21:00 with 40 covers on 10 tables. A 20:30 booking is checked against 20 covers, a 21:30 booking against 40.
Several areas
Bookanty chooses (default): your areas are tried in the order they were created, and the booking goes to the first with room. The dining room fills, then the terrace takes the overflow.
The guest chooses: turn on area selection and the widget asks for an area, then shows only that area’s availability.
Time slots and the calendar
Time slots run from each window’s opening time to its closing time, every 30 minutes by default and adjustable per widget.
The closing time is the last time a booking can start, so set it to your last seating.
The calendar greys out closing periods, days marked closed, weekdays without opening hours and dates beyond your booking window. While online bookings are paused, today is greyed out too.
Bookings made by your team
Bookings entered by staff, in the back office or on the table map, skip these checks, so your team can always fit in a regular or a large party. They still count towards availability, so online guests can’t take the same seats.
Back office
Everything your team needs during service, in the browser with nothing to install. Light and dark mode, in several languages.
Dashboard
Bookings today, guests today, bookings this week and total customers.
The next 10 bookings, with guest, date, time, party size and area.
The 10 newest bookings with their locator codes: the quickest way to spot new online bookings.
Booking list
Opens on today, with a date picker to jump to any day.
Sorted by start time, with a divider between arrival groups, so all the 21:00 arrivals sit together.
Guest, party size, start, end, date and notes, plus area and table when table management is on.
Refreshes every 60 seconds, so new online bookings appear on their own.
Availability grid
Under the booking list, the day in 15-minute columns across your opening hours:
Row
Shows
Total bookings
Bookings starting in that slot
Area · Bookings
Bookings starting in that slot in the area
Area · PAX
Guests in those bookings
Area · Available
The area’s capacity at that time minus those guests, such as 28/40
Cells are green when there’s room, amber when less than 30% is left and red when full. Click one to start a booking with that date, time and area already filled in.
Bookings by phone or in person
Guest name, party size, date (today by default), start time, area, phone, email, state and notes. Phone and email are optional.
Start times in 15-minute steps, with the next quarter hour first.
The end time is calculated from your default reservation length.
A customer record is created from the guest’s details.
Stop online bookings for today
One button above the booking list. Once confirmed, the widget greys out today and refuses new bookings for it with a clear message. Other days stay open, your team can still add bookings by hand, and one more click resumes online bookings.
Customers
Every booking creates a customer record with name, phone, email and the date it was added. The customer list can be searched by name, phone or email.
Table management
Optional, and off by default so venues that don’t need it keep a simpler back office.
Start from your areas, then drag in round and rectangular tables, walls, doors, pillars, counters and planters. Move, resize and rotate everything, with snap-to-grid and magnetic alignment. Set each table’s seats, minimum party, priority and area.
Live table map
Every table as Available, Reserved today, Reserved or Occupied, live or at any date and time you pick. Seat guests, free tables and seat walk-ins in a couple of clicks, with counters for tables and covers.
Automatic table assignment
New bookings get the smallest free table in their area that seats the party and whose minimum is met. Among tables of the same size, your priorities decide. Tables with a clashing booking are skipped.
Venue settings
Set up once in the back office. Every rule follows these settings.
Venue
Setting
What it does
Default
Time zone
All booking rules are worked out in your time zone.
Europe/Madrid
Max party size
The largest party that can book online.
8
Reservation length
How long a booking holds its area and table; sets the end time.
1 h 30 min
Minimum notice
How long before the start a booking must be made.
0
Booking window
How far ahead guests can book.
60 days
Overlap checks
Count every overlapping booking, or only bookings at the same start time.
On
Table management
Floor plan, table map and automatic table assignment.
Off
Area choice
Lets guests choose the area in the widget.
Off
Opening hours, closing periods and special openings
Weekly hours: up to two windows per weekday, such as lunch from 13:00 to 16:00 and dinner from 20:00 to 23:30. A window that closes earlier than it opens runs past midnight.
Closing periods: whole days off over a date range, such as holidays or a refurbishment. Periods can’t overlap.
Special openings: different hours for a single date, or the whole date closed.
A closing period beats a special opening, and a special opening beats the weekly hours.
Products and areas
Products are what guests book, such as Dinner or Tasting menu, each with its own booking page and widget. Areas are the spaces a product is booked into:
Field
What it does
Name
Shown to staff, and to guests if area choice is on. Also links floor plan zones to the area.
Total capacity
The most guests at the same time. 0 means no limit.
Total tables
The most bookings at the same time. 0 means no limit.
Capacity levels
Different limits from a set time each day.
Languages and time zones
For guests and teams who work in different languages.
Guest pages, the widget, emails, the back office, the table map and the floor plan configurator in several languages, with more than 300 translated interface texts.
The language is part of every address (such as /en/ or /es/), so a shared link opens in the language it was shared in.
Date pickers follow the guest’s language.
Lead times and opening hours are worked out in your venue’s own time zone, wherever the server runs.
Multiple venues
One platform for one restaurant or many, with each venue kept separate.
Separate data: each venue’s bookings, customers and settings live in their own database schema.
Own address: each venue has its own subdomain, such as pizza.bookanty.com.
One login, several venues: owners and managers can reach several venues with one account. Access is checked on every request.
Roles and permissions: staff permissions are set per section of the back office.
Venue photos: the hosted page shows each venue’s own images.
Security and reliability
Protection against spam, data kept apart and rules you can rely on.
Invisible reCAPTCHA on every online booking.
Guests must accept the terms and conditions to book.
The widget only loads on websites on Bookanty’s allow-list.
Back-office passwords must pass checks for length, common passwords, numbers-only passwords and similarity to the user’s details.
For a booking, Bookanty stores the guest’s name, phone, email and any notes they choose to add.
The booking rules are covered by more than 120 automated tests.
See it with your own venue
Try Bookanty free for 6 months, with no obligation and nothing to install.