Configuring Reservation Settings

Before guests can book, you tell Lekro how your restaurant actually runs: what tables you have, when you take bookings, and the rules in between. You set this up once, and the booking page enforces it automatically: no double-bookings, no party of twelve squeezing into a two-top, no requests for a Monday you’re closed.

Where the settings live

Open Operations → Reservations and switch to the Settings tab. A nav rail down the side groups everything into four areas, with a small status chip next to each item so you can see at a glance what’s set: a table count, Auto or Manual, On or Off.

Nothing saves as you click. Adjust whatever you need across the tabs, and once something changes a floating Save preferences bar appears, with a Discard option beside it. One save writes every tab at once. Here’s what each area controls.

Tables & availability

• Tables & seating. Your table mix: how many of each size you have. This is what stops the system accepting more bookings than you can seat at once. Set it up first; nothing else works well without it.
• Hours & calendar: the days and times you accept online bookings, plus the specific dates you’re closed. Use one universal schedule or different hours per day.
• Service periods: named windows like Lunch and Dinner, so bookings line up with how your kitchen runs the day. Once you add them, they replace the plain weekly hours.

Booking rules

• Booking rules. The core controls: auto-confirm (bookings go straight to Confirmed) versus manual approval, which holds each as a request for you to approve. Manual is the default and the safer place to start. This tab also sets how far ahead guests can book (30 days by default), how close to the slot, party-size limits, and how long each table is held.
• Guest form. Which optional fields guests fill in: occasion, seating preference, and special requests, plus whether phone or email is required.
• Policies: cancellation cut-offs, reminder timing, and how long after a missed slot a booking auto-marks as a no-show. All off until you switch them on.

Note: Each booking quietly reserves the table for its dining time plus a turnover buffer (15 minutes by default) to clean and reset. Guests never see the buffer; it just protects the next seating. Change it under Booking rules.

Payments & guest comms

• Deposits: take a card hold or an upfront deposit to secure a booking. Off by default; turn it on to cut no-shows on your busiest nights. Requires a connected payment account.
• Notifications: email alerts when bookings arrive or cancel. The guest confirmation email is on by default; the two alerts to you are off.
• Page & branding: the policy text and thank-you message guests see on your booking page, in both English and Arabic.

Your booking page

• Share & QR: your public booking link and a QR code to print for the table or post on social. This is what you hand to guests once everything else is set.

A sensible first setup

1. Add your tables so capacity is real.
2. Set your hours to match when you actually seat guests.
3. Leave auto-confirm off: approve each booking by hand while you learn the flow.
4. Tidy the guest form and page & branding so the booking page feels like yours.
5. Hit Save preferences, then grab your link from Share & QR.

That’s enough to take bookings with confidence. Service periods, deposits, and detailed policies you can layer on whenever you’re ready, and each takes effect the moment you save.