Tailor your diary to meet the demands of a special event. Adjust your setup, control availability, and offer event specific booking options while keeping your regular settings intact for normal service.
Assess what setup changes you need
Before you make changes to your diary, it is helpful to identify which table management settings need updating for your event. This will help you decide whether you need to create a segment. Common changes include:
Tables: Create new tables or change the layout of the existing ones.
Areas: Add new areas for your event.
Cover limits: Change the number of guests your diary can accept during specific time periods. This is often required for events where most guests arrive at the same time.
Table durations: Change how long tables are reserved for on a specific day, time, or for certain party sizes.
Rules: Update your seating rules for a single day.
If any of the above changes is required for your event then you'll need to setup a segment, alternatively you can skip the segment setup section.
Close your online bookings
Before you start setting up your event, we recommend temporarily disabling your online bookings. This prevents customers from making reservations on your event dates while you update your diary settings, helping you avoid bookings being made using incomplete or incorrect availability.
Create your segment
Segments allow you to create event specific diary settings without affecting your normal day to day setup, known in ResDiary as normal operation. Only one segment can be active for a date or date range at any time. To create a new segment, you need to:
Remove the event dates from your current segment, which is usually normal operation.
Create a new segment and copy the settings from your existing segment.
Apply any changes required for your event.
Follow our guide to create a segment for detailed instructions on each step.
đ¤ Tip: If you already have a segment with the settings you need, you can simply extend the segment and add your event dates to it.
Update your segment settings
Once you have created your segment, select it within the settings below to apply your event-specific changes. Any updates you make will apply only to that segment and will not affect your normal operations.
Areas: Create new areas or disable existing ones for your event.
Services: Adjust service settings such as table durations.
Rules: Create and disable rules for your specific segment.
Tables: Create, edit and remove tables as needed.
Table Views: Update your table floor plan.
Table Rankings: Choose which tables are offered to customers first.
Table Joins: Create and update table joins for your event.
Yield Management: Adjust cover limits for specific time periods, especially if your event has a single seating.
Change your working times
At this stage you should have a full table management setup for your event although the working times might not be what you require. If this is the case for you, then you should change what time you open or close before proceeding.
Create your promotions
Promotions help you create a dedicated booking experience for your event. You can use them to offer a specific menu, promote a special event, take payments or card details, apply booking rules, or direct bookings to a particular area or booking type.
Create a promotion for your event dates and, if applicable, select the areas linked to your event segment in the areas section. Use the promotion name and description fields to clearly explain the event and what customers can expect when making a booking.
If your event requires a payment or card details, you can also configure these within the promotion, provided Stripe is connected to your diary.
đ Note: You can create a pre-order menu for your event if you've signed up for our add on.
Restore your availability
Once you have created your promotion, complete the final steps to make your event available for bookings:
Review each event date and reallocate any unallocated bookings.
Enable your online availability if you disabled it earlier in the setup process.