Booking notes the whole team will actually read

Every booking system has a notes field, and in most restaurants it is full of information nobody reads. A host types "birthday, window if poss, nut allergy?" at four in the afternoon. At eight, the guests arrive, are seated at a table by the door, the cake is not ready, and the server asks about allergies only because the guest mentions one. The note was there. It was in the wrong place, written the wrong way, and nobody was told.

Booking notes are only useful if they reach the right person at the right moment, in a form they can take in at a glance. That depends less on the note itself than on where it appears, how it is written, and the routine that puts it in front of the team. Done well, notes turn a booking into a guest the whole team is ready for.

This guide covers where a note has to appear, how to write one that gets read, what belongs on the guest profile rather than the booking, how notes travel through the shift handover and arrival flow, and the three kinds of note that should never be on a booking at all. Every figure in it is an example.

A booking note carries information the team needs to serve this guest well on this visit: an allergy, an occasion, a need for a step-free table or a high chair, a request about where to sit, a reason the timing matters. It is the bridge between whoever took the booking and whoever serves the guest.

That bridge often crosses several people. The booking might be taken by phone in the morning, read by the manager in the afternoon, seen by the host at the door, acted on by the server at the table and by the kitchen on the ticket. A note that reaches only the first of those has done little.

A note is useful only where the person who needs it will see it, at the moment they need it.

A note that lives only in the booking list, opened by the host when the guest arrives, misses most of these. Our guide to order management from table to pass covers how information travels from the table to the kitchen.

Notes are read in seconds, often mid-service. Write them for that.

Avoid abbreviations only one person understands, question marks that leave things undecided ("nut allergy?"), and notes that are really messages to colleagues ("ask Sam about this").

Special requests are among the most common booking notes: a particular table, a quiet corner, a high chair, a cake, a surprise. Record each clearly, and make sure the guest knows whether it is promised or only requested.

A request you can guarantee, such as a high chair, can be confirmed. A request you cannot, such as a particular table on a busy night, should be noted as a request and described to the guest that way: "We've noted you'd like a window table and we'll do our best." Our guide to special requests: the ones to promise and refuse covers which to accept.

Allergies are the most important information a booking note can carry, and they need more than a line in a general notes field. Where your system has a separate place for allergies on the booking or the guest's profile, use it, so the allergy can travel to the table and the kitchen ticket in its own right rather than buried among other notes.

Even with a note, the server should always ask about allergies at the table. A note made days earlier is a prompt, not a substitute for the conversation, and allergies can change. The Food Standards Agency's allergen guidance for food businesses sets out the responsibilities in the UK; our guide to the allergen conversation at the table covers how to have it.

Some information belongs to a single visit; some belongs to the guest. Put each in the right place.

Information on the profile appears automatically on every future booking, so the team does not rely on whoever takes the next booking to remember it. Our guide to guest profiles your floor team will trust covers what to keep there.

Many notes are added during the day and acted on in the evening, by different people. The shift handover is where they are most likely to get lost. A short handover routine helps:

Without a handover, notes depend on the evening team reading every booking themselves, which they rarely have time to do.

The briefing before service is the best moment to share notes the whole team needs: the birthday on table 12, the severe allergy on table 4, the guest who uses a wheelchair arriving at eight, the VIP the owner wants looked after. Read them out, briefly, and make sure the people who will serve those tables have heard.

A two-minute run through tonight's notes prevents most of the moments where a note was there and nobody acted on it.

When the guest arrives, the host should see the relevant notes as part of greeting them: the occasion to acknowledge, the seating request to honour, the need to bring a high chair. A host who greets a birthday guest with "happy birthday" has used the note perfectly.

The host then passes the important notes on to the server, by the table's display, a quick word or both. The few seconds between the door and the table are when a note either becomes part of the welcome or is forgotten.

Some notes do harm. Three kinds should never be written on a booking.

"Difficult", "complainer", "rude last time", comments about appearance or manner. They colour how the team treats the guest before they arrive, they are often unfair, and guests have the right to see what is recorded about them. In the UK, data protection law gives people a right of access to their personal data, and notes are part of that. Write only what you would be comfortable for the guest to read.

Card numbers, security codes and similar details must never be written in a notes field. Card data belongs only in a secure payment system. Sensitive personal information, such as health details beyond what is needed to serve the guest safely, should not be recorded either.

"Ask Sam", "check with the chef", "don't forget" are instructions to people, not information about the guest. They are often stale by the time anyone reads them, and they clutter the notes the team does need. Put them where instructions belong: the handover, the briefing or a direct message.

Notes go stale. A preference recorded three years ago may no longer be true; an allergy may have changed. Review notes on a regular guest's profile now and then, and ask the guest when it seems sensible: "We have you down as preferring the corner table, is that still right?"

Remove notes that are no longer accurate. A profile full of old, unreliable notes is one the team stops trusting, and then even the important ones are ignored.

Notes are read fastest when the same thing is always written the same way. Agree a short set of words for the notes that come up most, and use them every time:

A host who sees "ACCESS" at the start of a note knows what to look for at once. Keep the list short enough to learn in a day, and put it somewhere the whole team can see.

Group bookings carry more notes, and missing one costs more. A table of twelve may include two vegetarians, a nut allergy, a guest arriving late and a request to split the bill three ways. Gather these before the day, ideally in one conversation with the organiser, and record each one clearly on the booking.

For the largest groups, a short sheet for the kitchen and the server, with the dietary needs by name, saves the server asking twelve people the same questions at the table. It does not replace asking about allergies at the table, but it means the kitchen can prepare, and the server arrives knowing what to check.

Regulars gather notes over time: the table they like, the wine they order, a partner's name, the dog that comes too. These are the notes that make a regular feel known, and they belong on the guest profile, not on any single booking. Keep them factual and kind, and keep them up to date.

Be careful with how they are used. A host who greets a regular by name and asks whether they would like their usual table is using notes well; one who recites everything the profile says is not. The best use of a note is often invisible: the right table, already set, without the guest having to ask.

If anyone can add, change or delete a note, notes drift. Decide who does what. Hosts and reservations staff will add most booking notes; managers may look after the lasting notes on guest profiles; the kitchen needs to see allergy notes but may not need to edit them.

Whatever the rule, make it easy to see who added a note and when. A note that says "nut allergy, severe", added by the person who took the call last week, is more useful than an unsigned line of unknown age. Where your system records this for you, the team can trust what it reads.

The visit itself teaches you things worth keeping: the guest who preferred the quieter room, the allergy that turned out to include sesame as well as nuts, the regular who has started to bring a child. Make a habit of adding these to the guest's profile at the end of the shift, while they are fresh.

A short closing routine works well: the manager asks the floor team for anything worth recording and adds it in a couple of minutes. Without it, what the team learned about the guest goes home with the team at the end of the night.

Reading notes is a habit, and habits are taught. Show new staff where notes appear: on the booking, on the table and on the kitchen ticket. Ask them, during their first few shifts, what the notes on their tables say, until checking becomes automatic.

Make notes part of the conversation. A manager who asks "who's got the birthday on 12?" at the briefing, and checks afterwards that it went well, teaches the team that notes matter far better than any instruction to read them.

The kitchen reads notes differently from the floor. A chef at the pass on a busy night looks at a ticket for a second or two, so an allergy has to be impossible to miss and impossible to misread. Agree with the kitchen how allergies appear on tickets, and how a server confirms one at the pass when the dish goes out.

Occasions matter to the kitchen too: the dessert with a candle, the message on the plate, the course timed for a speech. Put these on the booking with a time, and make sure the kitchen hears about them at the briefing as well as on the ticket, so the plate is ready when the moment comes.

Busy nights often bring staff who do not usually work the room: someone covering a shift, a new starter, a team member from another venue. They do not know the regulars, the usual tables or the shorthand the team uses. Notes are what let them serve guests as well as everyone else.

Write notes for the person who has never met the guest. "Usual table" means nothing to a new starter; "prefers table 14, by the window" tells them exactly what to do. Before service, pair new staff with someone who knows the room, and make sure they have seen the notes on the tables they will serve.

An invented restaurant finds that occasions are often missed and allergies sometimes discovered only at the table. Its notes field holds a mix of everything: allergies, requests, reminders to staff, opinions.

It makes four changes. Allergies go in their own place on the booking and the guest's profile, where they appear on the table and the kitchen ticket. Occasions and requests are written in a consistent style, most important first. Lasting preferences move to guest profiles. And the evening manager reads out the night's notes at the briefing. Within a few weeks, birthdays are acknowledged at the door, and allergies arrive in the kitchen with the order.

In servearound, notes and allergies recorded by your team on a booking or a guest's profile appear where they are needed: on the booking, on the reserved table on the floor plan, and, for allergies, on the kitchen ticket with the order. Lasting details such as allergies, dietary needs and preferences live on the guest's profile, so they show on every future booking without being typed again. See the reservations module and guest profiles.

Guests do not add notes themselves when booking online on servearound's booking page today, so allergies and requests are taken by your team, on the phone, in a reply to the confirmation or at the table, and recorded once in the right place.

At the door for the host, on the table for the server, on the kitchen ticket for allergies, and at the pre-service briefing for anything the whole team needs.

Most important fact first, specific and short, in consistent words, with nothing left as a question.

Booking notes are about this visit: tonight's occasion or request. Guest profile notes are lasting facts, such as allergies and preferences, that should appear on every booking.

Record them in their own place, so they travel to the kitchen ticket, and still ask about allergies at the table every time.

Judgements about the guest, card numbers or sensitive data, and messages to colleagues.

In many places, yes. Data protection law gives people a right to access their personal data, including notes. Write only what you would be comfortable for the guest to read.

Through a short handover routine and a pre-service briefing that goes through tonight's notes.

Whenever a regular visits, check that their lasting notes are still right, and remove anything out of date.

Only if you can guarantee them. Note others as requests and tell the guest you will do your best.

Yes. A short shared vocabulary, such as ALLERGY, DIET, OCCASION, ACCESS, TIMING and REQUEST, lets the team read a note at a glance.

Allergies should travel to the kitchen ticket with the order, in a form the chef cannot miss, and occasions should be mentioned at the briefing with a time.

Booking notes work only when they reach the right person at the right moment. Make sure they appear at the door, on the table, on the kitchen ticket for allergies, and at the pre-service briefing. Write them short, specific and most important first, put allergies in their own place, and move lasting facts to the guest profile so they appear on every booking.

Use a shift handover and a briefing so notes added during the day are acted on at night. Never write judgements about guests, card details or messages to colleagues in the notes, and review regulars' notes so they stay true. Notes the whole team reads turn a booking into a guest everyone is ready for.