Definition
Reservation
What is a restaurant or seating reservation?
A reservation is a shared-seating booking — multiple parties book into the same timeslot until the venue's seat count fills, like a restaurant 7pm seating for 20 covers or a tasting room sitting that holds 12.
Reservations look superficially like appointments — the customer picks a time and a party size — but mechanically they're different. A restaurant 7pm seating accepts a party of 2, then a party of 4, then a party of 6 until it's at capacity for that service. Several customers share the same slot rather than holding the whole window exclusively.
That shared-capacity model is what distinguishes a reservation from an appointment in the booking system. The picker asks the customer for a party size first, then offers the times that can still seat that party. As bookings land, the available capacity in each seating drops.
On Zillo, a reservation is configured by giving the venue a per-service seat count (the 7pm service seats 40, the 9pm service seats 40), a duration (a typical sitting runs 90 minutes), and a party-size range (groups of 1–10 per booking). Customers pick a time and party size, then check out with a deposit or pay on arrival — depending on what the merchant configured.
Reservations sit alongside appointments as one of two booking shapes. Use a reservation for restaurants, tasting rooms, supper clubs, group classes with floor capacity. Use an appointment for one-on-one services where the customer holds the whole window.