Restaurant Table Booking on Website

Implementing Restaurant Table Booking on a Website

Table booking is a task with several non-trivial details: table capacity must match guest count, restaurant operates in shifts (lunch/dinner), and overbooking is sometimes desired behavior.

Hall and Table Model

CREATE TABLE restaurant_halls (
    id          SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    name        VARCHAR(100),   -- 'Main Hall', 'Terrace', 'VIP'
    is_active   BOOLEAN DEFAULT TRUE
);

CREATE TABLE restaurant_tables (
    id              SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    hall_id         INTEGER REFERENCES restaurant_halls(id),
    table_number    VARCHAR(10),
    min_guests      SMALLINT DEFAULT 1,
    max_guests      SMALLINT NOT NULL,
    is_combinable   BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE,  -- can move adjacent
    is_active       BOOLEAN DEFAULT TRUE
);

CREATE TABLE table_bookings (
    id              BIGSERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    table_id        INTEGER REFERENCES restaurant_tables(id),
    guest_name      VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    guest_phone     VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
    guest_email     VARCHAR(255),
    guests_count    SMALLINT NOT NULL,
    starts_at       TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,
    ends_at         TIMESTAMP NOT NULL,
    status          VARCHAR(20) DEFAULT 'pending',
    special_wishes  TEXT,
    deposit_paid    BOOLEAN DEFAULT FALSE,
    deposit_amount  NUMERIC(10,2),
    source          VARCHAR(30) DEFAULT 'website',  -- 'website','phone','walkin'
    created_at      TIMESTAMP DEFAULT NOW()
);

Shifts and Time Slots

Restaurant doesn't book a table "at 15:37" — only for a shift or fixed slot:

SHIFTS = {
    'lunch': {'start': time(12, 0), 'end': time(15, 0), 'duration': timedelta(hours=2)},
    'dinner': {'start': time(18, 0), 'end': time(23, 0), 'duration': timedelta(hours=2)},
}

def get_booking_slots(date: date) -> list[dict]:
    slots = []
    for shift_name, shift in SHIFTS.items():
        current = datetime.combine(date, shift['start'])
        end_dt = datetime.combine(date, shift['end'])
        while current + shift['duration'] <= end_dt:
            slots.append({
                'shift': shift_name,
                'starts_at': current,
                'ends_at': current + shift['duration'],
            })
            current += timedelta(hours=1)  # slots every hour
    return slots

Finding Table by Guest Count

def find_available_table(guests: int, starts_at: datetime, ends_at: datetime, hall_id: int = None):
    query = """
        SELECT t.*
        FROM restaurant_tables t
        WHERE t.min_guests <= %(guests)s
          AND t.max_guests >= %(guests)s
          AND t.is_active = TRUE
          AND (%(hall_id)s IS NULL OR t.hall_id = %(hall_id)s)
          AND t.id NOT IN (
            SELECT table_id FROM table_bookings
            WHERE status NOT IN ('cancelled', 'no_show')
              AND tsrange(starts_at, ends_at, '[)') && tsrange(%(starts)s, %(ends)s, '[)')
          )
        ORDER BY t.max_guests ASC   -- select smallest suitable table
        LIMIT 1
    """
    return db.fetchone(query, {
        'guests': guests, 'hall_id': hall_id,
        'starts': starts_at, 'ends': ends_at,
    })

Combining Tables

If there's no 8-person table but two adjacent 4-person tables exist — can suggest combining. Requires an adjacency table:

CREATE TABLE table_adjacency (
    table_a INTEGER REFERENCES restaurant_tables(id),
    table_b INTEGER REFERENCES restaurant_tables(id),
    PRIMARY KEY (table_a, table_b)
);

Confirmation and Reminders

Optional deposit when booking — payment gateway integration. Deposit is charged if guest doesn't show and hasn't cancelled N hours before.

Implementation Timeline

Basic system with one hall, shifts and SMS/email notifications — 6–8 business days. Multiple halls, table combining, deposits, CMS management, booking history — 10–13 business days.