How to accept restaurant bookings on a WordPress site

Decide whether every request will be reviewed by staff or confirmed automatically. A simple contact form is acceptable for a small restaurant with low booking volume, but it only collects requests. Staff must check the diary, reply to the customer and update availability themselves.

For real-time availability, use a restaurant reservation plugin or a theme with an integrated reservation system. These tools can provide opening schedules, booking intervals, party-size limits, exceptions for holidays and booking records in the WordPress dashboard.

Enter the days and times when bookings are accepted, the slot interval, minimum notice and how far ahead guests may book. Set the expected dining duration or dining block length so one reservation does not make a table appear available again too soon.

Choose whether you will limit total reservations, total people or individual tables. Add closed days, private events and one-off openings as exceptions. If you have several locations, give each location its own schedule and restrictions where the system supports it.

Ask for the guest’s name, email address, telephone number, date, time and party size. Add an optional notes field for allergies, accessibility needs, high chairs or other requests. Make the phone number required if your staff need to confirm large parties or call about changes.

Keep the form on a dedicated Book a table page and link to it from the main menu, homepage, contact page and mobile menu. Do not make customers hunt through the menu or events pages to find it.

Set separate messages for a new request, confirmed booking, declined booking and cancellation. Tell guests clearly whether the reservation is confirmed immediately or is waiting for staff approval. Include the date, time, party size, restaurant address, telephone number and cancellation instructions.

Use a sender address on your own domain rather than a random personal address. WordPress booking emails can fail or be rejected when the sender settings are invalid, so configure SMTP or your host’s authenticated mail service and send test messages to both the restaurant and a customer address.

Install the chosen reservation plugin from Plugins > Add New, activate it and follow its setup screen. Most booking plugins place the form on a page using a block, shortcode or page-builder element. Use the method documented by that plugin rather than guessing a shortcode.

Publish the page, then add a prominent booking button to your header and restaurant pages. Check that the form works on a phone and that caching, security or optimisation plugins are not serving an old version of the availability form. WordPress supports installing plugins from the dashboard or uploading a ZIP file through the plugin installer.

Submit a test booking for a real opening period, then confirm that it appears in the dashboard, reduces the available capacity and sends the expected messages. Test a closed day, a full slot, the minimum and maximum party sizes, a cancellation and a booking across a daylight-saving change.

Check the WordPress timezone and the restaurant’s displayed timezone before going live. The common Friday-night failure is an email that never arrives or a booking that remains pending while staff assume it is confirmed. If emails are missing, check the notification triggers, spam folders, SMTP delivery and the site’s email log before accepting live bookings.

Fast way: If you want the restaurant site, menu, events and reservation feature in one setup, Brewhub is a practical shortcut because it includes integrated table reservations alongside restaurant content features. Activate the theme, configure its reservation settings, create the booking page and still run the same capacity and email tests before publishing.