Feature · Walk-ins and waitlist
Walk-ins seated in one tap, and an honest waitlist when the restaurant is full
Two people at the door with no booking are not an interruption; on a Tuesday they are the evening. Tap the party size and they are on a table — the one that costs the later bookings least.
Your staff keep the waitlist at the door, and guests can add themselves to it by scanning the QR card you put up there.
One tap, and why it is the right table
The host does not have to work out which two-top will still be free at nine. The engine already knows.
The best free table
Free now and staying free long enough for a party that size to eat, without breaking up a table that a booking later needs. The six-top is not handed to a couple at 18:30 if a six is due at 20:00.
On the plan like everyone else
A walk-in becomes a seated table on the floor plan, with a course and a bill like any booking. The reports count them separately, so you can see how much of your trade walks in.
Overrule it in a tap
They want the window? Put them there. The suggestion is a default for a busy host, never a lock.
When every table is taken
- 1
Add them to the list — or let them do it
Name, party size, a mobile number if they want to wander off for a drink. The host types it in, or the guest scans the QR card by the door and fills it in on their own phone, and each guest who joins that way makes the devices at the stand ring.
- 2
Tell them a time you believe
The estimate comes from the tables actually on their way to the bill and the parties ahead in the queue — not a number picked to keep them standing there. Pick the wait you actually quoted and it counts down on their card, so nobody at the stand has to remember what was said at the door.
- 3
See which party a free table suits
When a table comes free, the card of the waiting party it fits says so — “Free now: table 7” — with a one-tap button to seat them there. If that would take the only fitting table from a bigger party further down, the card warns you first. Nothing is seated until the host taps.
- 4
Call them back from the card
The mobile number they gave is on their card for your staff, one tap from a call. Press Table ready when you have told them: the time is noted and their hold starts.
- 5
Take them off when they go
Seated, or gave up and left: one tap takes them off. A party you told their table was ready and who never came back leaves the list by itself once the hold you set — anywhere from 3 to 60 minutes — has run out, and anyone still on yesterday's list is closed, so it never clutters tonight's screen.
What the waitlist does not do
A guest who joins from the QR code sees their place in the queue and the estimated wait, and is told plainly that you will ring them when the table is ready — because the system does not text anyone. There is no page that keeps them updated after that; you call or wave. When a booking cancels, the free table is offered to the right waiting party on your screen, not on theirs: the guest hears about it from you. We would rather you knew that before the first busy Saturday than after it.
Questions about walk-ins
Do walk-ins need a name?
No. A party size is enough to seat them. Add a name if they are regulars, and their visit goes on their guest card.
Where does the QR code at the door come from?
Slotora gives you your own waiting-list QR to print; stick it by the entrance or on the board outside. A guest scans it, gives a name, the party size and a mobile number, and lands in the same queue the host is working from — nothing to download, no account.
Will the queue be promised a table that is booked for later?
No. The estimate reads the same floor plan as the bookings, so a table due to a booking at 20:00 is not quoted to the people at the door for a full meal at 19:45.
Does the wait estimate learn from my restaurant?
It is worked out from your own turn times and from the tables in front of it tonight, which is why it is honest rather than optimistic.
Ready for the next full house
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