Help centre › Bookings

Taking a booking by phone

Not every guest will book through the widget — plenty still ring the restaurant. When that happens, your team adds the booking by hand. The end result is the same: a confirmed booking in the diary with all the details the kitchen and floor need.

What to ask the guest

Before you open the booking form, get the essentials. It is much quicker than going back and forth:

  • The date and time they would like to come in.
  • The number of guests.
  • A name for the booking.
  • A phone number, an email, or both — so the guest can be reached if anything changes, and so they get a confirmation.
  • Anything special — allergies, accessibility needs, a birthday or anniversary, a high chair. Better to capture it now than to chase it later.

Creating the booking

  1. Sign in at manage.makearezzy.com.
  2. From the left-hand menu, open Bookings. (You can also create a booking from the Calendar or Live Floor Plan if you prefer.)
  3. Click Create Booking in the top right.
  4. Fill in Date, Start Time, and Number of Guests. The End Time is set for you based on your default sitting time — change it if the booking needs longer.
  5. Set Source to Phone so the booking is attributed correctly in your reports.
  6. Under Customer Details, type the guest's first name, last name, and at least one of email or phone number.
  7. Use Special Requests for anything the kitchen or the floor need to know.
  8. Click Save.
  1. Open the Make a Rezzy app and sign in.
  2. Open Bookings from the menu.
  3. Tap the + button in the top right.
  4. Fill in the date, start time, and number of guests. The end time is set for you based on your default sitting time — change it if you need to.
  5. Set Source to Phone.
  6. Type the guest's first name, last name, and at least one of email or phone.
  7. Use Special Requests for anything notable.
  8. Tap Save.

The booking lands in the diary straight away. If the guest gave an email, a confirmation is sent on the spot.

Status and what it means for phone bookings

The Status field controls what happens next:

  • Confirmed — the most common choice for phone bookings. The booking is set, the table is held, and the guest gets a confirmation email.
  • Pending — use this if you want to call the guest back before committing.

Handling busy slots

When an operator creates a phone booking, the form does not check the time against your opening hours or services — it will save whatever you give it. That is by design: the host on the phone has more context than the system does. The flip side is that the judgement call is yours. A few practical things to think about when the diary looks tight:

  • Offer a nearby time — fifteen or thirty minutes either side of what they asked for is often easier to absorb.
  • Check the floor plan — sometimes there is a table that has not been allocated automatically. You can attach the booking to a specific table from the floor plan view.
  • Be careful with the hard cases — the form will not stop you from saving a booking that sits outside opening hours or runs over what your kitchen can absorb. Only do it when you are sure the kitchen and the floor can keep up.

Returning guests

If the guest sounds familiar, it is worth checking the Returning Guests page before creating the booking. Their profile holds previous bookings, dietary notes, and any tags you have added (VIP, regular, dietary). That context is much more useful for the floor than a blank phone booking.

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