Reservations
Free and paid reservations
When a table booking involves money, and when it does not.
A reservation is either free or payable. The venue decides, and can decide differently for different tables and different nights.
Free
The guest books, the venue accepts, nobody is charged. This is what most restaurants, bars and lounges want, and it is the fastest thing to get a venue live on — it does not require Stripe.
That is worth knowing when you are selling: a venue that only wants free bookings can be operating before it has sorted out any payment paperwork.
Payable
Money enters in two ways:
- The table has a price. The guest pays it to hold the table.
- A package is attached. A bottle package or a deal, priced in its own right.
Either way the guest pays at checkout and the money goes to the venue's Stripe account.
Minimum spend
A venue can record a minimum spend, overall and per person, on its profile. It is information the guest sees, not something Spotly collects.
Important notes
Paid reservations need Stripe connected. Free ones do not. If a venue wants deposits or packages, payments setup becomes a go-live requirement — see Stripe Connect.
Related guides
- Packages and add-onsBottle service, platters and deals — the highest-value thing a club sells.
- How Spotly payments workWhere the money goes, who holds it, and the sentence that answers the whole question.
- Price vs what you earnEvery ticket carries two numbers. Confusing them overstates a venue's income.