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Answer the eight o'clock rush of messages while you are serving it

Booking enquiries peak at exactly the hour nobody can look at a phone, and again after the kitchen closes. Both are hours when a competitor with a chatbot is answering.

What they actually ask

  • Do you have a table for six on Friday?
  • Is the kitchen still open at ten?
  • Do you have gluten free options?
  • Can we bring a birthday cake?
  • Is there parking nearby?

What makes this different from any other business

Dietary questions carry real consequences

Allergen answers are not marketing copy. A restaurant that gets coeliac or nut allergy wrong has a safety incident, not a bad review. Write the allergen position precisely, including what you cannot guarantee about a shared kitchen, and let the agent give exactly that — which it will do more consistently than a member of staff repeating it from memory during service.

The messages arrive when the floor is fullest

Booking enquiries cluster between seven and nine, which is the worst possible hour to look at a phone, and again after close when somebody is planning tomorrow. A restaurant is not choosing between a fast reply and a slow one; it is choosing between a reply and none.

Bank holidays and private hire are where the gaps are

Standard opening hours are on every listing. What nobody writes down is the Christmas Eve service, the day the kitchen closes early for a private booking, or whether you do the back room for twenty. Those are the questions that cost you a booking, and they are all answerable in writing.

Setting it up

  1. 1
    Write your allergen and dietary position preciselyIncluding what you cannot guarantee. This is the answer that most needs to be exactly the same every time.
  2. 2
    Add the hours nobody has written downBank holidays, last kitchen orders, private hire and any day you close early. This is where most missed bookings live.
  3. 3
    Decide where booking requests landThey arrive with the date, party size and any dietary note attached, ready for whoever does the book in the morning.

What it does not do

  • It does not write into OpenTable, ResDiary or SevenRooms by itself — that needs a custom action against their API
  • It cannot confirm a table is free, so it captures the request rather than promising a time
  • Allergen answers are only as careful as the wording you give it, so this is worth writing properly

Questions

Does it take the booking?
It collects the request with the date, party size and any dietary requirement, and hands it over. It does not write into your reservation system unless you connect one through a custom action, and it will not promise a table it cannot see.
Is it safe to let it answer allergen questions?
It answers with exactly the wording you give it, which is more consistent than staff recalling it during service. Write the position carefully, including what a shared kitchen cannot guarantee, and set anything beyond that to escalate.
Our bookings come through Instagram, not WhatsApp.
The same agent answers in Instagram DMs as well, from the same material. Most restaurants connect both, since enquiries arrive wherever the customer found you.

Where the rules come from

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