Restaurant Table Reservations on WhatsApp
This recipe takes a reservation request on WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger from first message to confirmed table. It checks availability at that time in your reservation system, offers the nearest slot, takes the name and phone number, creates the booking and confirms with your policy. Groups above the size you set go to the large group handover. Part of the restaurant and caterer workflows.
What happens today
“Hi, table for 4 tonight at 7.30pm, is that possible?” arrives at 7.05pm. The floor manager is seating a full room and the phone is behind the counter. At 8.15pm someone replies “sorry, fully booked at 7.30, would 9pm work?”. The customer has already eaten somewhere else.
Reservation messages arrive in the hours when nobody has a free hand. Each one is small, and the ones that go unanswered are covers lost.
The flow that works
- The customer gives the date, time and number of people, in their own words. AeroChat asks only for what is missing.
- It checks availability in your reservation system for that time and party size, and offers the requested time or the two nearest with space.
- The customer picks one. AeroChat takes the name and phone number, and any note such as a birthday or a high chair.
- It creates the booking in your reservation system and sends the confirmation with your address and how long the table is held.
- For groups above your limit, it collects the details and hands over to a manager.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks to book a table, follow these steps.
- Find out the date, time and number of people. Ask only for what they have not given.
- If the group is 10 people or more (example limit), do not book. Collect the date, time, number of people and occasion, and hand the conversation to our manager.
- Check availability in our reservation system for that date, time and party size. Offer the time they asked for if it is available, or up to two nearest times that are.
- When they choose a time, ask for their name and phone number, and whether there is anything we should know, such as a birthday, a high chair or a wheelchair.
- Create the booking in our reservation system with the date, time, number of people, name, phone number and notes.
- Send a confirmation with the date, time, number of people, our address, and our policy. Example: we hold the table for 15 minutes, and please message us here if your plans change (example policy).
- If the customer asks to change or cancel, find the booking in our reservation system by phone number, check the new time is available, and update or cancel it.
Never promise a specific table, a window seat or a private room. If they ask about allergies, say our kitchen will confirm and hand that question to our team. If they ask anything you cannot answer from our knowledge base, tell them a team member will reply and hand over. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the group limit and hold policy to your own before you paste it. Your service hours, slot length and covers stay set in your reservation system.
What to connect
- Your reservation system. The recipe reads availability and creates, changes and cancels bookings in it. Eat App and ResDiary connect through their APIs: ask your provider to turn on API access and give you the API key, then paste it in when AeroChat asks. Set how many covers you release online in the reservation system itself, if you also take walk-ins.
- Your restaurant details. Upload your opening hours, address, parking, menu and policies to the AeroChat knowledge base.
If you run a small restaurant from a Google Sheet of bookings, connect your Google account and approve the access, and the recipe reads and writes the Sheet instead.
Reminders before the booking come from your reservation system or a WhatsApp broadcast, from the Growth plan. When a customer replies to change a booking, this recipe handles it.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- How many covers per slot you release for booking by message.
- How long you hold a table, and your policy on late arrivals.
- The group size above which a manager takes over.
- Whether you take a deposit for peak nights such as Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve.
AeroChat follows these as written. It does not book a slot your reservation system shows as full.
The result to expect
Customers who message during service get a table in the same conversation. Your floor staff stop answering the phone mid-service. The bookings land in the same reservation system your team already checks before each service.
Measure it with your own numbers: reservations taken by message during service hours, and messages left unanswered, for a month before and after.
Next: large group handover and menu and dietary questions.
Take your next reservation in chat
Connect your reservation system, paste the recipe, and message your own number for a table for four tonight.
Start your 7-day free trial. No credit card needed.
On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.