Hold a Table as an Option with a Deadline

A company asks about a Christmas dinner for twelve but needs to check internally first. You want to hold the table – but not forever, and not without remembering it.

An option is a table held for a guest who has not yet confirmed, with a deadline.

How to do it

1. Open a pending or confirmed table booking in the detail panel under Bokning → Bordsbokning. You need Redigera bokning permission
2. Click Håll bordet som option (Hold the table as an option)
3. Set the date in Fristen går ut and the time in Klockan
4. Optionally add a Notering, up to 200 characters
5. Press Håll bordet

You can also select Håll bordet som option in the final step of creating a manual table booking. The deadline fields appear in that step and no confirmation SMS is sent when creating the option.

The booking shows as an option in the list, in the POS and on the floor map, so anyone on staff can see the table is not fully settled.

Two rules for the deadline

The system applies whichever is stricter. For a sitting three weeks out the cap is seven days; for a sitting tonight it is four hours before service.

If the sitting is less than four hours away, an option cannot be placed at all. At that point it is either a normal booking or nothing.

When the deadline passes

After the deadline, the booking is automatically cancelled and the table released. Checks run periodically, normally every fifteen minutes. No automatic SMS is sent when the option expires; follow up according to your agreement with the guest.

Released options are listed in the notification bell for seven days, so you see what happened even if nobody was at the screen.

Confirming

If the guest responds before the deadline, open the booking and press Bekräfta bokning in Option — obekräftad. This removes the option while keeping the same table and time. It does not itself send an SMS confirmation; contact the guest or send confirmation separately.

To extend the hold, press Ändra frist, enter a valid new deadline and save with Ändra frist. If the option has already been cancelled, check availability before booking again.

Table bookings only

Options apply to ordinary table bookings. Events can have their own time-limited hold for payment or a card guarantee. Resource bookings do not use this option feature.

Guests cannot accept an option themselves via an SMS link – you handle the conversation and record the outcome.

Related: Manage a booking, Propose a new time, Create a booking manually