Pivot Appointments to use for restaurant reservations?

[Smithward]

Venues are being allowed to re-open in Australia with limited capacity. Many may be taking bookings for the first time ever. Would it be possible to pivot Square Appointments to use it as a basic bookings app? Or is there an alternative bookings method recommended by Square?

[Seamus]

Hey @Smithward,

Appointments isn't specifically built for booking reservations for tables, however I have heard of workaround by setting up "Employees" as different "Tables" - though this would require use of the paid version of appointments rather than the free version (limited to a single "Employee").

AS usually I'll pass this feedback on an inquire as to whether we have any further plans to support these sorts of features in a more official capacity!

[Smithward]

Thanks @Seamus , yes had considered that idea of adding seating as a staff member but the language/UX throughout would be a bit confusing.

Given that most booking sites charge $70-200 per month, it might be something worth considering. We'd certainly pay a fee for a product suitable for smaller venues.

[Seamus]

Hey again @Smithward!

I've flagged your comments with our product team, I agree it would be super handy to offer some kind of reservation system for restaurants and cafes, and Appointments already offers a lot of the sort of functionality you'd need for a table reservation system. This isn't the first time it's been raised, so it's on our radar.

Thanks again for the feedback, keep it coming 🙂

[bossanovacafe]

Agree it would be awesome if us (small restaurants) could better use the appointments system. We tried to use it in the past and the fee behind "extra staffs" for each table made it too expensive for us tho 😞 

[Seamus]

Hey @bossanovacafe,

We've just released new Appointments features that should cater a little better to restaurants! Read more about these new features here and here 👍