Christmas party bookings, without the spreadsheet

When should you open Christmas bookings?

Office parties are usually booked in October and early November, and the best Friday and Saturday nights in December go first. Have your menu, prices and booking link out by the middle of October. If you open in late November, the big groups have already gone elsewhere.

Set it up as an event, not ordinary tables

Christmas lunches and party nights work best as their own event with its own capacity, price and menu, running alongside your normal tables or taking the whole place over on the busiest nights. In Nabsie that is an event on the Pro plan: a name ("Christmas Party Nights"), dates and times, how many covers, a price per head and an optional deposit. Tick "close normal table bookings" for nights the party menu takes the whole venue.

Use pre-orders for groups

The kitchen needs to know it is fourteen turkeys and six salmon before the night, not at 8pm. Attach your festive set menu to the event and parties above a size you choose get a link to pick their dishes online, one per person, before they arrive. The kitchen screen shows the totals. No more chasing a party organiser for a list on a napkin.

Deposits: yes, for groups

A no-show table of twelve on a December Saturday is a few hundred pounds you will not get back. For parties of six or more, ask for a deposit (taken when they book, taken off the bill) or a card hold (nothing taken unless they do not turn up). Nabsie takes both through your own Stripe account, so the money goes straight to you. Our deposits vs card holds article explains which to use, and how to take deposits walks through the set up.

Cap the covers, protect the kitchen

Set a maximum number of covers per sitting and a cap per 15 minutes, so forty people do not all sit down at 7.30. Two sittings (say 6pm and 8.30pm) on the busiest nights often take more money than one long one.

Cut no-shows

Reminder emails go out automatically the day before, with a link to cancel or change. On busy nights a text reminder and a "still coming?" text a few hours before catch the rest. See how to reduce no-shows, and work out what they cost you with the no-show calculator.

Christmas Day and New Year's Eve

Decide now: are you open, for how many sittings, at what price, with what deposit? Set them up as their own events with their own capacity. If you are closed, add the dates as closures so nobody can book them by mistake.

Checklist

• Festive menu and prices written by early October.
• Party nights and Christmas lunches set up as events with capacity and price.
• Set menu attached, pre-orders on for groups.
• Deposit or card hold for parties of six or more.
• Cover caps per sitting and per 15 minutes.
• Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Eve set: open as events, or closed.
• Booking link on your website, Google, Instagram, Facebook and a poster on the bar.
• Reminder emails on, and texts for December.