AI Auto Optimization – More Guests on the Same Tables

A couple of two has been assigned the table for six for an upcoming visit. The party of six that calls is told you are fully booked – even though the seats exist.

That is not a booking error. It is the sum of many reasonable decisions made separately, over a month, by guests who booked in whatever order they happened to book. AI Auto Optimization fixes it after the fact: it moves couples to two-tops and parties to tables that fit, so the large tables stay free for those who need them.

The point is not a tidy dining room – it is that the guest gets a table

In Full optimering, the system processes upcoming dates with assigned tables, up to 180 days ahead. Nearer dates are prioritized, so a larger booking volume may take multiple runs. Better table assignments can provide more options when new guests search for availability.

Turn it on

Bordsbokning → Inställningar → Grundinställningar → AI Auto Optimering (Booking → Settings → AI Auto Optimization)

You need permission to change restaurant settings. Changes save automatically. Enabling the feature selects Rädda bokningar. Select Full optimering separately for ongoing reassignment. Turn Aktivera off to stop automatic optimization.

The two modes

Rädda bokningar (Rescue bookings) is used while processing the waitlist when a guest cannot fit with the current table assignments. Suitable table changes may free space and allow an offer. It does not continually rearrange all bookings and cannot guarantee space for every waiting party.

Full optimering (Full optimization) does not wait for someone to be turned away. Every fifteen minutes it goes through upcoming booking days and packs them in advance. It applies changes that reduce unused seats or give a party sitting at too few seats a larger table. Changes that make no difference are not made. It may move more bookings, but makes no changes when it finds no improvement.

Changes the guest never notices

The system only moves a booking when all three conditions hold:

• Same time. No guest gets a new time. Only the table changes.
• Same part of the room. Someone who booked the dining room is never quietly moved to the bar. The system can suggest such a change, but never carry it out on its own.
• Never close to service. See the next section.

Requests are protected when the booking carries a booking tag linked to a table feature under Bordsbokning → Inställningar → Statusar, taggar & frågor. A free-text note about a window seat or quiet corner does not automatically provide this protection. Tables your staff chose or moved themselves are locked automatically, see below. Automatic table changes do not send SMS. Event and resource bookings are not moved by this optimizer.

Stop moving (minutes before service)

This is the only time limit, and it matters. Once your staff start carrying the floor map in their heads, a silent reassignment becomes confusion rather than help.

180 means the day is locked three hours before its first booking. Raise it if you set up early and want peace; lower it only if you know nobody looks at the floor map until the guests arrive.

Lock a booking you do not want touched

Open the booking under Bordsbokning → Bordsbokning and press the padlock at the top of the detail panel. This requires Redigera bokning. A closed padlock means the table assignment is locked; press again to unlock. A locked booking is never moved by the optimizer – use it for the regular who always sits by the window, or for tonight's birthday table. Guests who are already seated are never moved either.

Your staff's own choices lock themselves. When someone on your staff moves a booking to another table, or picks the table themselves when entering the booking, the booking is locked automatically. The booking history then reads Bord låst – personalen valde bordet, flyttas inte automatiskt (table locked – staff chose the table). To let the system move it again, press the padlock to unlock. Bookings where you accepted the system's table suggestion are not locked.

Bookings at too few seats

If tables change after guests have booked – a table gets fewer seats or is removed from a combination – a booking can be left at a table where the party does not fit. The optimizer then moves the party to a free larger table in the same part of the room, if there is one.

Upcoming bookings at too few seats also appear in the notification bell as Bokningar på för få stolar (bookings at too few seats), whether or not AI Auto Optimization is on. The item disappears once the bookings have been moved. If a table deliberately takes more guests than it has seats, set this under Bord (Tables) in the table's Största sällskap (largest party) setting – it then no longer counts as too few seats.

What you see afterwards

Every move lands in Bordsbokning → Aktivitet (Booking → Activity), marked as automatic, showing the table before and after. Automatic moves from the last 24 hours also appear in the notification bell for users allowed to edit bookings – as information, not a warning. Nothing is wrong; the system did exactly what you switched on. But you should never have to discover it while standing in the room wondering why the floor map changed.

Start cautiously

Turn on Rädda bokningar first and let it run for a few days. Look at Activity: do the moves feel sensible? Then switch to Full optimering.

The number of moves depends on your bookings and tables. Check room sections, table features and important locks before enabling automatic optimization.

Related: Waitlist – how it works, Understanding the booking calendar, Booking rules