Changing Hours for Your Inquiry Forms

Contents:

1. Operating Hours & Default Availability

2. Setting Custom Service Hours

3. Holidays & Restrictions

4. Inquiry Timing Settings

Operating Hours & Default Availability

Your inquiry forms use the hours set under Operating Hours as their default availability. Once configured, the system uses the Operating Hours to determine the days and times when inquiries can be submitted.

This means:

• On days marked Open, inquiries can be submitted between the opening and closing times.
• On days marked Closed, inquiries are not available.
• If multiple time ranges are set for the same day, inquiries can be submitted during each open time range, while the time between those ranges is unavailable.

For instructions on setting your Operating Hours, including split hours and multiple time ranges, see How to Update Your Website Hours.

While inquiry forms follow Operating Hours by default, you can set a different availability schedule for a specific inquiry form using Service Hours.

Setting Custom Service Hours

If an inquiry form needs to be available at different times from your regular Operating Hours, you can create a separate schedule for it under Service Hours.

This can be useful in situations such as:

• Accepting catering inquiries outside your regular restaurant hours
• Hosting private parties on days or at times when the restaurant is otherwise closed
• Offering reservations only during specific service periods
• Accepting online orders during a different window from your regular business hours

Navigate to Settings → Hours, then select the "Service Hours" tab. 

The Service Hours page shows which availability schedule each inquiry type is currently using.   If Using Operating Hours appears beside an inquiry type and No custom hours set appears below it, the form is following your regular Operating Hours.  

To set custom hours for an inquiry form:

1. Find the inquiry form you want to customize and click View/Edit.
   
   
2. Adjust the days based on when you accept inquiries for that service. If you accept inquiries on a day that is currently Closed, toggle it to Open. If you don't accept inquiries on a day that is currently Open, toggle it to Closed.
   
   
3. For each open day, click the time range under Hours and enter the times when you want to accept inquiries.
   
   
4. If the same hours apply to multiple days, you can save time by clicking the three dots and duplicating the hours to weekdays or all days. You can then adjust any individual days that have a different schedule. 
   
   
5. If you accept inquiries during multiple periods on the same day, click Add Time Range to add each additional time range. For example, you may accept reservations before and after a busy lunch period, but pause availability during the lunch rush.
   
6. Click Save Hours when you're finished.
   
   

Once saved, the inquiry form will start using the custom Service Hours instead of your Operating Hours. On the Service Hours page, the Using Operating Hours label will no longer appear for that inquiry form, making it easy to see which forms are following a custom schedule.

For example, Private Party Inquiries above are using custom Service Hours, while Catering Inquiries are still Using Operating Hours because custom Service Hours have not been set for Catering.

Holidays & Restrictions

While Operating Hours and Service Hours define your regular availability, the Holidays & Restrictions feature lets you make exceptions for specific dates, days, or times without changing those schedules.

Use Holidays & Restrictions for temporary or occasional changes, such as:

• Holidays or temporary closures
• Private events
• Special business hours
• Specific times when one or more inquiry types should be unavailable

Restrictions can be applied to Walk-Ins, Reservations, Online Orders, Private Parties, and Catering, allowing you to choose which services are affected while leaving others available.

For example, if you are hosting a private event and cannot accept new bookings during that time, you can restrict reservations and private parties without changing your regular Operating Hours or Service Hours.

For instructions on creating and managing holidays & restrictions, see "How to Set Availability Restrictions."

Inquiry Timing Settings

In addition to Operating Hours, Service Hours, and Availability Restrictions, timing settings allow you to further customize how specific inquiry forms handle availability and display time slots.

To access these settings, go to the Settings tab on the applicable inquiry page (Parties, Catering, Reservations, or Online Orders), where you can adjust settings such as time increments, lead times, and other timing requirements.

Private Parties and Catering

For private parties and catering, you can control how time slots appear by setting:

• A time increment, which determines how far apart time slots are displayed (e.g., 7:00, 7:30, 8:00)
• A minimum turnaround time, which defines how far in advance a request must be made

Reservations

For reservations, you can customize availability by setting:

• A time increment, which determines how far apart time slots are displayed
• How close to closing time the last reservation can be booked
• A minimum lead time, which defines how far in advance a reservation must be made (e.g., with a 1-hour lead time, a 7:00 PM reservation cannot be booked after 6:00 PM)

Orders

For online orders, you can configure separate timing settings for pickup and delivery.

You can control:

• How soon after opening orders can be scheduled
• How close to closing time orders can be placed
• A turnaround time, which determines how much time is needed to prepare an order and directly impacts the earliest available time slot