Reservation Troubleshooting
Start with the guest's exact venue, local date, time, party size, offering, and
space. Availability is the result of several rules, so testing a different
search may hide the real cause.
Availability and allocation
| Symptom | Check | Action |
|---|
| No dates or times appear | Reservations switch, advance window, active shift, date range | Enable the correct rule or adjust the applicable shift |
| First slot works but last does not | Duration, venue closing time, clear-down buffer | Ensure the booking can finish before close |
| Small party cannot book | Venue, offering, space, or waitlist minimum | Align the narrowest applicable party limit |
| Large party cannot book | Online maximum, combinations, space range and flow | Add a real combination or eligible group space; do not inflate table capacity |
| Empty table is not offered | Reservable flag, capacity, area, offering compatibility, current/upcoming overlap | Correct the specific table or overlap rule |
| Too few peak slots | Concurrent covers, rolling pacing, shift total, offering weight | Identify which limit is reached before increasing it |
| Private room is partly reused | Allocation mode and complete footprint | Select all room tables and use Hold entire footprint |
| Private hire shows no result for an otherwise quiet day | Pending/confirmed bookings anywhere in the footprint, full event duration, buffers, shift boundary | Check every footprint table and the complete occupied window; move the preference or resolve the real conflict |
| Private hire stops at the regular guest maximum | Space/layout capacity or wrong /book journey | Configure the space's seated/standing range and test /private-hire; do not raise the regular maximum |
| A suitable later event time is missing | Active shift, event duration, closing time, setup/clear-down | Private hire searches the full service day; if absent, one of these rules or an inventory overlap rejects it |
| Back-to-back event overlaps | Setup and clear-down buffers | Add realistic preparation and reset time |
| Change is rejected | New booking must pass every current rule | Search for a valid alternative or make an authorised manual decision |
Offerings, requests, and enquiries
| Symptom | Check | Action |
|---|
| Offering is missing | Active, Guest choice, party range, allowed space/table rules | Make it guest-selectable and resolve compatibility |
| Save rejects offerings | Default rules | Keep exactly one active, guest-selectable default |
| Guest thinks a request is confirmed | Booking status and notification | Review Pending promptly; confirmation is sent only on approval |
| Enquiry does not block a table | Enquiry flow | This is expected; create/confirm a reservation when inventory should be held |
| Enquiry option is unavailable | Sites Advanced and active space setup | Confirm entitlement and enquiry configuration |
| Enquiry reaches wrong team | General enquiry inbox | Update and test the configured address |
Waitlist and alerts
| Symptom | Check | Action |
|---|
| Guest cannot join waitlist | Waitlist switch and effective party range | Enable it and make waitlist/reservation ranges overlap |
| Queue position looks wrong | Same venue, local day, Pending status, exact join time | Resolve stale entries and compare only today's Pending queue |
| Guest was not told table is ready | Notification action and contact details | Confirm the table and existing notification outcome before an intended send |
| Alert has no queue position | Record is Notify me when full | This is expected; alerts are not waitlist entries |
| Yesterday's party appears active | Unresolved entry | Resolve it and complete the closing routine |
Payments and guest changes
| Symptom | Check | Action |
|---|
| Booking still needs a card | Secure-link delivery and policy threshold | Check the existing link/request and financial state before another send; use a supported authorised waiver only when appropriate |
| Guest sees a temporary card authorisation | Card verification | Inspect hold versus captured status; the bank controls when a released hold disappears |
| Deposit was charged unexpectedly | Global and shift-specific policies | Review the applicable shift override and guest-facing wording |
| Private-hire request charged before acceptance | Offering flow and payment preparation | Confirm it is a Booking request using the current request-payment flow; a pending request should save the card only |
| Accept request fails | Saved card/Stripe charge and deposit policy | Leave it Pending, ask the guest to update the card, then retry, waive if authorised, or decline |
| Late cancellation appears to charge deposit plus full fee | Retained-deposit credit and payment history | The retained amount must offset the liability; charge only the remaining balance |
| Venue decline is blocked | Legacy captured deposit refund | Resolve the refund failure first; the request remains Pending to avoid recording an unpaid refund as declined |
| Guest cannot cancel or change | Feature switch and cutoff | Staff can review the booking; do not bypass a fee policy accidentally |
Escalate with useful evidence
If the cause is still unclear, record the booking or waitlist reference, venue,
local timestamp, search inputs, expected result, actual result, and a
screenshot. Do not include card details or unnecessary personal information.
This gives your TablePort support contact enough information to reproduce the
issue safely.
For a complete configuration review, repeat the
Setup Checklist.
Preserve current state before retrying
If availability cannot load or the chooser shows old results, restore connection
and refresh before a move. No automatic fit does not remove free tables from
explicit staff selection; inspect Table moves and
physical suitability rather than widening an online rule blindly.
A failed-looking financial action can still have an uncertain provider outcome.
Reopen the same booking and inspect charges, holds, refunds, fee decisions, and
notifications before another action. Do not recreate the booking, force another
charge, or use a false status to clear a warning. A missing configuration field
or unavailable inventory result is not an empty venue; use the offered retry and
repair actions while preserving saved settings.