Offerings and Guest Choices
Console: Settings → Location settings → Reservations → Offerings & Spaces.
An offering describes what a guest is booking. Use offerings when the choice
changes duration, service load, party limits, or eligible tables—for example
Food & drinks, Drinks only, or Tasting menu.
Offerings do not replace reservation types, booking statuses, tables, or shifts.
If you create none, TablePort uses an implicit Standard offering.
The available presets are:
- Standard restaurant;
- Food & drinks + drinks only;
- Bar / lounge; and
- Restaurant + private room.
A preset replaces the current offering and space setup. It does not change
tables, shifts, deposits, orders, sessions, or existing reservations. Review the
preview before applying and saving. Referenced offerings used by shifts, special
dates, spaces or tables must be resolved before a preset can remove them. An
Apply action updates the draft, not proof of a tested guest flow.
Offering fields
| Field | Purpose |
|---|
| Name | Guest- and staff-facing label |
| Active | Makes the offering available to the system |
| Guest choice | Shows the offering during online booking |
| Default | Preselects the normal guest option |
| Minimum / maximum guests | Narrows the parties allowed for this offering |
| Duration override | Sets a base duration; a matching shift party-size turn-time rule takes priority |
| Kitchen load | Sets a simple Light, Standard, or Heavy pacing weight |
| Exact pacing weight | Fine-tunes how much of the rolling cover limit each guest consumes |
| Payment terms | Optionally replaces shift/venue deposit and cancellation terms for this offering |
| Paid experience | Requires a fixed or per-guest package payment, with optional included items and order promotion |
When custom offerings exist, exactly one must be the default. The default must
also be active and guest-selectable. TablePort prevents a configuration with no
usable default.
Pacing weight
Pacing weight represents service load, not seats. Each guest contributes the
offering weight to rolling pacing:
- Light (0.5): 4 drinks-only guests count as 2 pacing covers.
- Standard (1): 4 guests count as 4 pacing covers.
- Heavy (1.5): 4 tasting-menu guests count as 6 pacing covers.
Weights can be set from 0.05 to 5. Start with the simple presets and adjust only
after reports and service experience show a consistent difference. Table
capacity and concurrent-cover checks still use real guest numbers.
Drinks-only example
A common configuration is:
| Offering | Duration | Pacing | Eligible tables |
|---|
| Food & drinks | Venue default | Standard | Dining and bar tables that serve food |
| Drinks only | 60 minutes | Light | Bar/lounge tables |
This keeps a shorter drinks booking from occupying a dining table if that table
is not compatible. If drinks guests can use all tables, leave compatibility open
and let best-fit allocation choose efficiently.
Offering and space eligibility
A space can allow specific offerings. Leaving its allowed-offerings list empty
means all active offerings are accepted. A table can also restrict offerings.
Availability requires every relevant rule to agree, so test each pairing after
changes.
For load limits, see
Shifts, Pacing & Turn Times. For
rooms, see
Rooms, Groups & Private Hire. For
required packages and exact-date availability, see
Special Days & Paid Experiences.
For deposits and cancellation terms, see
Deposits, Cancellations and Changes.
Save and verify
Check Active, Shown to guests, and Default guest option independently. A
staff-only offering need not appear online. Only on selected special dates
requires selecting it on each applicable special date. Review inherited versus
custom payment/cancellation terms and both the included-item and final-bill
treatment for a paid experience.
Save the reservation settings, reopen the offering, and test the intended party,
service and table pairing through an agreed safe process. Check the actual
returned duration rather than assuming the offering override always wins. A
removed offering can leave references on tables or services; use the displayed
repair links instead of replacing settings from an empty error view.