Some restaurants may not want the payment/card capture booking rules to be enforced and a mandatory requirement on their customers in order to have a confirmed booking in their diary.

The 'requested rule' method can allow bookings (telephone/online widget) to be confirmed and attended without the customer supplying the payment or card capture requirement. The booking will remain as 'confirmed' in your simpleERB diary, even if the customers booking rule requirement becomes noted as overdue, as the payment/card capture was not supplied by the specified due date.

After the customer books, they will receive an email alongside the confirmation which includes a secure payment link asking for either the booking payment or card details to confirm the booking. It will also highlight a due date for this requirement to be supplied.

If the customer does not provide the requirement, in your Diary the booking icon will change to 'overdue' but will remain in place until this is cancelled by the restaurant or the customer.

The customer could attend the booking without any of the requirements met or they could cancel/no show leaving the restaurant without the option to charge a fee to recoup the lost revenue.

This method requires continual management by the restaurant to keep on top of their upcoming bookings and to monitor their payment report here for overdue bookings to take their preferred action.

Using the 'requested rule', while not as 'harsh' on customers, it means it is highly probably you will end up with a higher number of no shows or late cancellations along with not having the facility to take a no show/cancellation fee or retrieve any of your lost revenue.

If you are switching from the enforced method to the requested method, there will also be a transitional period (length dependent on advance bookings) where you will see discrepancies in reports.

This will also be the case for switching from requested back to the enforced method, however, any outstanding bookings on the 'requested' method, if overdue, will be automatically cancelled once you make the switch.

This needs to be actioned by the simpleERB team in our Admin site. Please contact the team at help@simpleERB.com or call +44 141 846 1528.

To find out more about the enforced / mandatory rule for payment and card capture, please click here.