Require Approval for Booking Requests

Instead of automatically accepting booking requests from your customers, you can require them to be approved by you first.

Settings for Requiring Approval

To require approval of bookings made by customers, go to Settings / Booking and use the following settings:

Enable Bookings: On
Require Approval for Bookings: On (this is the same as the Auto Approve Bookings: Off setting on the Booking Messages page)

You can also customize these settings for:

Allow Bookings No Earlier Than: To avoid surprise or last-minute bookings, you can set a minimum amount of time before a booking can be made. 1 day is the default, which means online requests have a 1-day minimum notice.
Allow Bookings No Later Than: To avoid bookings too far in the future, you can set a maximum amount of time.
Allowed Booking Party Sizes: Set the minimum and maximum number of people that can be in a single booking.

Customer Process for Booking Request

On your EnRoute location page, the default text will allow customers to Make a Booking by tapping the Request Now button.

The default text is:

[Location] accepts reservations for parties of [BookingMin] to [BookingMax]. Let us know the day and time you'd like to come.

Online requests have 1 day(s) minimum notice.
Have a larger party size or need something sooner? Call [LocationPhone].

If Require Approval for Bookings is turned off, then the button changes to a Book Now.

After selecting party size and a specific date and time, the customer can also specify what time range would work for them.

Approving the Request

When a customer makes a request, they will immediately receive the following text message, which is customizable in Settings / Messages / Booking Messages:

Thank you for choosing Tanner's Location. We have received your booking request for Friday 8/29/2025 at 6:00 PM. A member of our team will contact you soon to confirm your request.

If approval is not required, it will show them this text instead:

Thank you for choosing Tanner's Location. We look forward to seeing you on Friday 8/29/2025 at 6:00 PM.

When approval is required, a text message and/or email will be sent to staff members who are listed in the Settings / Notifications:

Booking Request [LocationName] for [PartySize]. [Customer Name] [Date] [Link]

Opening the link will bring you to the calendar page where the requests will be listed in yellow.

Tapping into the request shows all the details. This includes their requested time (6:00pm in this example), as well as the time range that would also work for them, which is shown at the bottom in the Notes.

When you want to take advantage of another arrival time in their requested time range, you can update the Scheduled time by tapping the clock icon and choosing a new time.

Tap the Approve Request option and then the Save button to make the change.

This will send a confirmation text to the customer that their request has been approved, and it will include the time that was scheduled:

You are confirmed at [LocationName] for [RequestDate] at [RequestTime] for [PartySize]! You can modify or cancel at [Link]

Declining the Request

If you instead want to decline the request, tap the Decline Request option and then tap Save:

You will be prompted with a dialog with a text message that will be sent to the customer.

You can use the default message or adjust it to better respond to this specific request.

Contact us if you would like your default decline message to be changed.