Restaurant Christmas bookings: Is your diary ready for the festive season?

When did your first Christmas booking come in last year? Customers start planning Christmas well before the season officially starts, long before it feels like Christmas and you start hanging the decorations. If it arrived before finalising the festive menu and deciding if you are going to run with sittings and deposit rules, you're not alone.

It's one of the busiest and most profitable times of the year, and it's easier to offer the best customer experience when the groundwork is already covered with the help of booking software. Getting your booking system refreshed before the Christmas rush puts you in control of every booking, so the festive season runs smoothly from the start.

We've grouped essential questions and a checklist to consider when revising your Christmas party booking software: sittings, set menus and party nights, deposits, capacity, communication with customers and staff, and winning back last year's guests.

Should you plan set sittings for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day?

Using fixed sittings with set arrival times instead of open availability on key festive dates can help keep the kitchen and floor working at a steady pace, increase capacity and make for easier stock and staff planning.

Christmas Day is the obvious one to consider this setup, with two or three sittings (say 12pm, 3pm and 6pm) to give the kitchen a clear rhythm, and your team knows exactly when each turn happens.

Christmas Eve and Boxing Day often catch venues out. They can be just as busy for a restaurant, so decide whether they need sittings too, or look to increase booking capacity for specific peak time slots.

Set each sitting and capacity up in your booking system so customers can only choose the times you're offering online, with clear communication to avoid having to disappoint customers later on and reschedule their booking.

How should you handle set menus and Christmas party nights?

Make sure your festive menus are up to date and bookable online, so customers can select a menu as part of their booking. Your team then knows what menu the party is having before they arrive, and group organisers get a clear price per head to share.

This is especially handy for staff parties and group nights out, where the organiser wants one link and a fixed price to forward to colleagues.

• List each festive menu (Christmas lunch, party night, Christmas Day) as an option customers add to their booking.
• Set up any prepayment per head required to secure the booking
• For online bookings, push specific limited set menus depending on the booking size
• Outline in customer emails a pre-order deadline for larger groups, so the kitchen can order the right stock.

Party nights in a function room or private area
Treat your function room as its own bookable area. Open it only on your party nights and times, and outside of these times set a minimum party size so a table of two can't book, keeping your main dining room open separately so regular diners can still book.

You may consider leaving the area for phone bookings only to help manage these larger bookings.

Should you take card details or prepayment for Christmas bookings?

Card capture or prepayment protects festive revenue from no-shows, at the time of year when you've most likely turned other customers away to hold that table.

The numbers back this up with the Restaurant Impact Report, covered by Restaurant Online, putting the average cost of a no-show for a table of two at £55.70, and 60% of operators said no-shows meant turning other bookings away. The same research found 44% of customers would be more likely to turn up, or cancel properly, if they'd left a small deposit or card hold.

There are two main options:

• Card capture: you hold card details and only charge a fee for a no-show or late cancellation. This works well for applying to all standard festive tables or only in the evenings.
• Prepayment or deposit: you take part or all of the cost upfront. This is ideal for set menus, part nights and large group bookings.

You can also link the amount to the menu the customer picks. For example, a £10 per head deposit on the standard festive menu and the full prepayment per head for Christmas Day, leaving only the drinks bill to be paid on the day.

Are your booking terms and conditions up to date?

Before the first festive booking comes in, read over your terms. Check your cancellation window, whether you want to apply a non-refundable condition, what happens if a group's numbers drop and when pre-orders are due.

Make sure the version displayed to customers online and in email communications is the current one. The current standard booking policy may conflict with how you want to handle festive bookings; therefore, add in a section explaining the festive policy.

Do your capacity settings need changing for the festive season?

Most likely, the default settings are built for a normal week, so review party sizes, covers per time slot and stay times before the bookings start to build.

• Party size: raise your maximum online party size if you'd like groups to book themselves instead of causing friction from emailing back and forth.
• Covers per slot: increase them for busy periods or sittings, within what the kitchen and team can handle.
• Stay times: a three-course festive meal with crackers takes longer than a Tuesday lunch. Give larger groups realistic durations so the next table isn't left waiting at the bar, and tighten stay times where you need quicker turns.
• Closed dates: close any days you're not trading, or that are booked out for private hire, so nobody books them by accident.
• Diary availability: Review your booking times if you are closing early on Christmas Eve or opening on Boxing Day when you might normally close. This gives customers the option to book during your extra opening hours and stops them booking slots you won’t be open for.

How do you keep customers and staff in the loop?

Add an extra auto reminder for bookings made weeks or months ahead, highlight important information on your online booking page and record party details in booking notes so every team member can see them.

For customers:
Someone booking in October for December can easily forget the details. Add an extra reminder a couple of weeks before, alongside your usual one, and mention the pre-order deadline and your cancellation policy.

Add a message to your online booking page too. Deposit rules, menu-only dates and Christmas Day sitting times are all worth showing before a customer confirms.

For your team:
Record important details in the booking notes and keep the team in the loop of any important details that affect service. Set up preference tags your team can add to bookings, and enable Staff messages in the diary so everyone is then working with the same information.

This is a big help for temporary or casual Christmas staff who don’t know your regulars or house rules yet. They can open the diary or a booking and see exactly what’s needed.

How can last year's Christmas bookings help fill this year's diary?

Pull a report of last year's festive bookings with customers that have opted in to your mailing list, then send them a personal email invitation to join you this year. Customers who've celebrated with you before are often the easiest bookings to win back.

Most people still want a festive night out, but customers are becoming choosier about where they spend. NIQ’s Christmas Report 2025, a survey of 2,000 UK consumers, found 78% visited a pub, bar or restaurant over Christmas. Of those who went out less than usual, 41% blamed the cost of living. An early, warm invitation from a place they already know and had a great experience with could put you ahead of another venue.

• Filter for last December's bookings, Christmas Day guests and larger group bookings.
• Only include customers who've opted in to email marketing.
• Thank them for celebrating with you last year, tell them you'd love to have them back and include your menus, dates and a booking link.
• For larger group bookings, consider adapting the email to include a special promotion or discount.

Quick festive booking system checklist

1. Evaluate sittings for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
2. Add festive and party menus as selectable options to customer bookings.
3. Set up function room availability for party nights and group bookings.
4. Turn on card capture or prepayment, linked to menu fixed prices.
5. Check that your terms and conditions apply to the festive booking policy.
6. Review party sizes, covers per slot, stay times and booking availability changes.
7. Add an extra reminder and an online booking message for customers, and brief your team on booking notes.
8. Email last year's Christmas guests who've opted in to win them back.

Ready to get set for the festive season? Try simpleERB today with no card required and no lock-in. You'll get 250 free covers to test on real bookings, and you can be taking online bookings from your website within 30 minutes, with no additional hardware needed.