What is a walk-in, in a restaurant diary

A neighbourhood bistro believes it is a bookings restaurant. Its diary is full most evenings, and the owner plans the rota from the bookings alone. Then a new host starts recording every party that arrives without a booking, and after a month the figures are a surprise: on weeknights, nearly a third of the guests had simply turned up. The bistro had been understaffing its weeknights for years, planning for the guests it expected and not the ones who came through the door.

What is a walk-in? In a restaurant, a walk-in is a guest, or a party, who arrives without a booking and asks for a table. They are part of almost every venue's trade: the couple passing by, the colleagues deciding on the spot, the regular who never books. For some venues they are a small share of the guests; for others, most of the business.

This guide covers what the term means, how much of a venue's trade these guests can be, why they must be counted rather than estimated, how to manage them alongside bookings and how to record them properly. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

A walk-in is any party seated without a booking made in advance. The guests may have called a few minutes before, or arrived at the door, but if there was no booking in the diary when they arrived, they count as unbooked.

The word is used both for the party and for the trade: "forty walk-ins on Friday" may mean forty guests or forty parties, depending on the venue's habit. Decide which the venue means and keep to it, because the difference matters when the figures are read.

Bookings and unbooked arrivals are the two ways guests come. Bookings are known in advance: the venue knows the party size, the time and often the guests' names. Unbooked parties are known only when they arrive, which makes them harder to plan for but often valuable: they fill gaps, bring new guests and show the venue's appeal to people passing.

Most venues serve both. The balance between the two, and how it changes by day and season, is one of the most useful things a venue can know about its own trade.

The share varies widely. A busy fine dining room may seat almost nobody without a booking; a café or a casual neighbourhood venue may seat almost everybody that way; a venue in a tourist area may see the door trade rise sharply in the season. The share also changes by day: many venues see more unbooked guests at lunch and on weeknights.

Do not assume the figure. Count it, over several weeks, by day and service. It is often different from what the owner expects, as the bistro in the opening found.

Unbooked guests must be counted because almost every plan depends on the total number of guests: the rota, the prep, the orders and the forecast. A venue that counts its bookings carefully and guesses the rest plans for the wrong number of guests on every night the door is busy.

Counting also shows trends. A falling share may mean fewer people passing, a less visible entrance or a reputation for being full. A rising one may mean a new office nearby or a busier street.

Estimating fails in a predictable way: the door trade is underestimated on busy nights, when the host has no time to think about it, and forgotten on quiet nights, when there is little to remember. The estimate becomes a habit, and the habit becomes the plan.

The result is a covers report that undercounts the busiest nights and a forecast that plans too few staff. Our guide to what a covers report is, and how to read it explains why this figure is so often the wrong one.

Record every party that arrives without a booking the same way as a booking: the party size, the time they were seated and the table. It takes a few seconds, and on a busy night the host who does it consistently gives the venue a true picture of its trade.

Make recording part of seating, not an extra task after it. A party seated without being recorded is a group of guests the venue served and will never count.

Booking capacity is the number of guests the venue will accept by booking for each service. A venue that books every seat leaves no room for guests at the door; one that holds some tables back can seat them.

Set the booking capacity with the door trade in mind. If a third of Tuesday's guests arrive unbooked, booking every seat on Tuesday turns many of them away. Our guide to walk-ins: how many tables to hold back covers the sum.

Holding tables back means keeping some out of the online diary, so they are free for guests who arrive at the door. The number to hold depends on the door trade by day and service, and on how much the venue values those guests compared with guaranteed bookings.

Release held tables to bookings when unbooked guests are unlikely: late in the evening on a quiet night, or when the weather keeps people in. Keep the decision with one person, so tables are not held and released by different people at once.

Mixing bookings and walk-ins in one room takes judgement. A party seated at a table needed for a booking in an hour must be told how long they have; a party seated at a table with no booking can stay as long as they like.

Our guide to mixing bookings and walk-ins in one room covers how to seat both without anyone being rushed or turned away unfairly.

When an unbooked party is seated at a table booked later, tell them, kindly, at the start: "We have this table for you until half past eight, when it is booked again." Most guests are happy with that, and they plan their meal around it.

A party told at the end that the table is needed feels rushed; one told at the start feels looked after.

When the room is full, guests at the door can join a waiting list: the host takes their name, their party size and how to reach them, and quotes a wait. Waitlist management decides whether those guests wait happily, leave or come back another time.

Quote waits honestly, update guests if the wait changes and seat them in the order they arrived unless a table suits a particular party better. Our guide to waitlist management on a night with no tables covers the method.

A quoted wait is a promise. A guest told twenty minutes who waits forty feels misled; one told forty who is seated in twenty is delighted. Quote waits from the tables actually expected to free up, not from hope.

Keep a record of the waits quoted and the waits that followed. Over a few weeks, the host learns how long tables really take to free at each time of the evening.

How the host speaks at the door shapes the night. "Do you have a booking?" can sound like a test; "Welcome, how many of you are there tonight?" sounds like an invitation. A guest without a booking should feel welcome before they hear whether there is a table.

Train every host to greet first, then check the room, then answer. Even a "no" sounds different after a warm welcome, and the guest is far more likely to come back.

Unbooked guests rarely arrive evenly. Many come early in the evening, before the bookings peak, or late, after the theatre or a film; at lunch, they arrive in a rush when nearby offices break. In a tourist area, they come in waves as visitors move between sights.

Learn when your own door is busiest, from the recorded times. The pattern tells the venue when to hold tables, when to have a host at the door and when the kitchen will feel the extra orders.

A bar with seats, or a lounge area, gives the venue a buffer. A guest who arrives without a booking can have a drink while a table frees, and some will happily eat at the bar instead.

Treat bar seating as part of the plan for unbooked guests. A venue whose bar can seat ten diners turns away far fewer people on a busy night.

Unbooked guests arrive without warning, and the kitchen needs to be ready for them. A kitchen that prepares for the bookings alone will run short on the nights the door is busy.

Prep from the total forecast, bookings and door trade together. The recorded figures from the covers report tell the kitchen how many extra guests to expect on each night.

The rota must cover the door trade too. A floor staffed for forty booked guests, on a night when fifteen more arrive unbooked, is a floor that runs late and serves slowly.

Plan the rota from the total covers forecast, with the door trade included, and look at when those guests arrive. They often come at different times from bookings, and the staffing should follow them.

Guests who arrive without a booking are often new: people who have never visited, passing by or trying the venue on a recommendation. A first visit that goes well may lead to a booking next time, and to a regular.

Welcome them as warmly as any booked guest, and give them a reason to come back. A guest turned away coldly at the door rarely tries again.

Some of the most loyal guests never book: the regular who comes every Thursday at seven and expects a table. They count as unbooked in the diary, and they are among the most valuable guests the venue has.

Know who they are, and plan for them: a table kept free at their usual time, or a quiet word when they arrive on a night the room is full. A regular turned away because nobody noticed they were missing from the diary feels forgotten.

Turning guests away costs more than the meal they would have eaten. A party turned away may not try again, and a regular who finds the door closed too often may move to the venue down the street.

Count the parties turned away, as well as those seated, on a few busy nights. The figure shows the trade the venue is losing, and whether holding more tables back would pay.

Sometimes the venue is full and the waiting list is long, and guests must be turned away. Do it kindly: explain, suggest a time that is likely to be free, or another evening, and offer to take a booking.

A guest turned away with a booking for next week is a guest gained, not lost. One turned away with a shrug is a guest gone.

The entrance decides how many people come in without a booking. A clear sign, a menu visible from outside, a welcoming door and a glimpse of a lively room all bring guests in. A closed, dark front sends them past.

Look at the front of the venue as a passer-by would. Small changes, a menu in the window, a light by the door, can change the door trade noticeably.

Different venues have different patterns. A café or a quick service restaurant may serve almost entirely guests who just arrive; a fine dining room may serve almost none; a casual restaurant, a bar or a venue in a tourist area may see the door trade rise and fall with the time of day and the season.

Know your own pattern, from your own counts, and plan for it. Our guide to a restaurant glossary for new managers covers the other terms that describe how guests arrive and are seated.

On busy nights, a host at the door makes the difference. Someone who greets every arrival, checks the room, quotes waits and seats parties in the right order keeps the door trade flowing; a door left unattended, with guests waiting to be noticed, loses them.

Put the host where they can see both the door and the room. A host who can see which tables are clearing can seat the next party the moment it is ready.

Guests dining alone are often unbooked, and often welcome: a traveller, a regular after work, someone who simply fancies dinner. Seats at the bar or small tables near the window suit them well.

Treat a party of one as warmly as any other. A solo guest who is welcomed, rather than squeezed into the worst table, is likely to come back and to bring others.

Occasionally, a large group arrives without a booking: eight colleagues after a meeting, a family visiting. Seating them may mean holding the guests behind them, or moving tables, and the host has to decide quickly.

Have a plan for large unbooked groups: the tables that can be joined, how long they could stay and whether the kitchen can take a large order at that moment. A quick, honest answer is better than a long wait for a table that may never come.

The door trade changes with the seasons. Warm evenings bring people out; cold ones keep them in. Holidays bring visitors; quiet months bring regulars. A venue that records its unbooked guests over a year can see the pattern.

Use it to set the tables held back each month, and the hosts on duty. The door trade that seemed random becomes predictable once it is counted.

Some guests call on the night to ask whether there is a table now. Treat the call like a guest at the door: check the room, quote an honest time and, if a table is free, record the party when they arrive. A call that ends with "come now, we will keep it for fifteen minutes" turns a passing thought into a visit.

An invented bistro plans its rota from its bookings and estimates its door trade as "a few each night". A new host starts recording every unbooked party on the same screen as the bookings, with the party size and time. After a month, the figures show these guests making up nearly a third of weeknight covers, mostly arriving between six and seven.

The bistro adds a server from six to eight on weeknights, holds two tables back from online booking until seven and adds the door trade to the kitchen's prep forecast. Weeknight service runs on time, fewer guests are turned away and several of the new faces become regulars who now book.

In servearound, the host records a new walk-in from the reservations screen, alongside the bookings, and can add a party to the waitlist with an estimated wait, which the host types; each waitlist card shows how long the party has waited against the wait quoted. Walk-ins appear as their own source in reservation analytics, with covers by day and hour, so their share can be read rather than guessed.

Tables can be held for the door through each table's booking rules: not bookable online at all, or bookable only at set times, while the team can still seat any party at any table. servearound does not send a message to tell a waiting party their table is ready. See Reservations.

A party seated without a booking made in advance.

It varies widely by venue, day and season. Count it rather than assuming.

Because the rota, the prep and the forecast depend on the total number of guests.

Like bookings: party size, time and table, every time.

On the days and services where the door is busy, yes.

Tell them at the start when the table is needed again.

Offer the waiting list with an honest wait, or a booking for another time.

Often, if they are welcomed well and given a reason to return.

What is a walk-in? A party seated without a booking. Walk ins can be a small share of trade or most of it, varying by venue, day and season, so count every unbooked party rather than estimating, because the rota, the prep and the forecast all depend on the total.

Set booking capacity with the door trade in mind and hold tables back where it is busy. Practise mixing bookings and walk ins by telling guests when a table is needed, use honest waitlist management when the room is full and welcome every guest at the door as one who may come back.