How to prepare your reservations for Christmas and New Year's Eve

In early October, December still feels a long way off, but for your reservations this is exactly the right time to start. Guests who want to eat out at Christmas often start looking in the autumn, and companies plan their end-of-year dinners well ahead. If you still don't know which days you're open or what menu you're serving by then, you'll miss that first wave of bookings or end up having to change everything later.

In this article we go through the decisions to make now, from opening days and menu to deposits and staffing. We finish with a simple plan for October, November and December.

Decide which days and services you'll open

Start with the basics: when are you open? Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are each a separate decision. Some restaurants have their busiest evenings of the year over Christmas, while others deliberately close to give the team time off.

Ask yourself a few questions for each day:

• Is there enough demand to fill the restaurant?
• Do you have enough people who want to and can work?
• Will you open for lunch, dinner or both?
• Will you close on the surrounding days to recover?

Settle these choices now, including your closed days. That way guests can't book a table online on a day you turn out to be closed.

Set Christmas menu or à la carte?

Over the holidays, many restaurants switch to a set menu. The advantages are clear: you can buy precisely, the kitchen can prepare a lot in advance and orders come in predictably. Guests also know in advance what to expect and what it will cost.

À la carte gives guests more freedom, but makes a full holiday evening harder to plan. A middle ground works too: a set menu with a few choices per course, or a Christmas menu as the only option on the busiest evenings and the regular menu on the quieter days around them.

Think about a vegetarian or vegan version as well. On a holiday evening, parties come together with different needs, and a well-thought-out alternative beats improvising on the night.

Work with set start times or two seatings

On a normal evening, guests arrive spread out over time. At Christmas, you'll make better use of the dining room with set start times. A common setup is two seatings: an early one, say at 5:30 pm, and a late one at 8:30 pm. That way you use the room twice and the kitchen knows exactly when each course needs to go out.

Do give guests in the early seating a clear end time, and tell them in advance. Nobody wants to hear halfway through dessert that the table is needed. If you'd rather have one seating, a few fixed start times, for example every fifteen minutes, still stop everyone arriving at once.

Match table duration to the menu

A holiday menu of five or six courses takes longer than an average dinner. Adjust your table duration accordingly, or you'll plan tables too tightly and the evening will run over. Work with the time a table actually needs in practice, including aperitifs and coffee, and see how that fits within your seatings.

With two seatings, the table duration of the first also determines when the second can start. Leave room to clear and reset.

Deposits and cancellation policy for the holidays

Over the holidays, a no-show is especially costly: you've bought in for a set menu and could easily have given the table to someone else. A deposit is therefore common on these evenings and easy to explain.

Choose an amount that makes the booking serious, for example part of the menu price per person, and decide until when guests can cancel for free. For the holidays, a longer window than on a normal evening makes sense, because you need more time to fill a freed-up table. State the policy clearly on your website, during booking and in the confirmation, so nobody gets a surprise afterwards.

Communicate early and everywhere

As soon as your menu, price and dates are set, put them online. Guests who start looking early should be able to find your Christmas offer straight away.

• Website: a clear page or section with the menu, the price, the start times, the deposit and a direct link to book.
• Newsletter: your regulars are your best Christmas guests. Let them see the offer first.
• Google Business Profile: add your special holiday opening hours, so guests don't turn up to a closed door or think you're closed when you're open.
• Social media and in the restaurant: a card on the table or with the bill in November goes a long way too.

Repeat the message in November, when a lot of people really start planning.

Large groups and company dinners

December is the month of Christmas drinks and end-of-year dinners. These groups are valuable, but they need clear arrangements. Don't let large groups simply book online; have them get in touch, so you can agree on a menu, start time and deposit together.

Agree on a date by which the final number of guests must be known, and settle how the bill will be paid. Companies often book early, so make sure you have a group offer ready in October.

Ask about allergies and dietary requirements in advance

With a set menu and a full room, you don't want to find out at the table that someone has a nut allergy. Ask about allergies and dietary requirements at the time of booking, and ask group organisers to pass them on at least a few days in advance. Get the list to the kitchen in good time, so they can prepare and order.

Plan your staff in good time

Your team wants to know where they stand too. Draw up the holiday rota well in advance, ideally in October or early November. Ask early who wants to work and who wants time off, and be open about how you share out the toughest days. Allow for extra prep in the kitchen in the days before Christmas, and for illness: in December, a short list of people who can step in is worth its weight in gold.

Gift cards as December revenue

For many people, a gift card is an easy present. For you, it's revenue in a month that's already busy, with visits that often only follow in the quieter months afterwards. Make gift cards visible on your website and mention them in your newsletter and in the restaurant.

A simple plan

October

• Decide opening days, closed days and services.
• Set the Christmas menu and price, including a vegetarian option.
• Choose seatings, start times and table duration.
• Settle the deposit and cancellation policy.
• Open reservations and prepare a group offer.

November

• Share your offer through your website, newsletter, Google Business Profile and social media.
• Draw up the staff rota for December.
• Promote gift cards.
• Follow up with groups and agree on final numbers.

December

• Collect allergies and dietary requirements and pass them on to the kitchen.
• Align purchasing with your reservations.
• Send out reminders and refill freed-up tables right away.
• After the holidays, look back: what worked, and what will you do differently next year?

Setting this up in Tablejoy

In Tablejoy, you create your Christmas menu as an experience in the reservation system. You can mark the experience as exclusive: on the dates you choose, guests can then only book the linked services with that experience. That way nobody accidentally books a regular table on Christmas Day. An experience can have its own time window or fixed start times with a maximum per start time, which fits two seatings perfectly. You also set the table duration per experience.

With a season and closed days, you capture December's different opening hours, such as extra closed days or longer evenings. The booking calendar follows them automatically. You attach a deposit to the experience, which guests pay by iDEAL or card, with a free-cancellation window in hours that you choose yourself. Anyone who cancels in time gets the amount back automatically.

Guests automatically receive a confirmation and, before their visit, a reminder, by email and/or WhatsApp. Allergies and notes are stored in the guest profile, and you can have large groups get in touch instead of booking online. Gift cards are included in the Pro plan (see pricing), and guests can also use them to pay a deposit. On the night itself, you have the timeline and floor plan to hand in the Tablejoy Host app.