Two reservations on the same table at 7pm and 7:15pm. That does not fit, yet it happens when your reservation duration is wrong. Guests feel the pressure of the next table, your service team has to rush and the kitchen gets everything at once. The opposite: a table sitting empty for two hours while your waitlist is full is missed revenue.
Reservation duration and table turnover determine how many guests you can host per evening or lunch shift, and how comfortable that experience feels. In this article you learn how to choose a realistic duration, what differs per shift and how to set it up in Restotailor, included in €65 per month.
Why reservation duration matters
Every reservation blocks a table for a set time. That time must match how you really work: from welcome to dessert and payment. Set it too short and bookings overlap, creating stress at the table. Set it too long and you book too little while tables sit unused and the phone rings for last minutes. Good table turnover is the balance between maximum occupancy and relaxed service.
For online reservations this is especially important. Your widget only shows time slots that fit your rules and table plan. If your reservation duration is wrong, bookings come in that your dining room cannot handle, or too few. Your team then has to adjust on the night itself. Better to set your rules correctly now than apologise to waiting guests afterwards.
Lunch, dinner and groups: not everything takes the same time
A business lunch often lasts 60 to 90 minutes. Guests are in a hurry, order lightly and want to move on. A Friday evening dinner easily runs two hours or longer: aperitif, wine, multiple courses, coffee. Fine dining or tasting menus sometimes need three hours. Groups of eight or more are another category: orders come later, courses do not leave the kitchen together and paying takes longer. More on that in our article on group reservations.
So choose a different reservation duration per shift. In Restotailor you configure lunch, dinner, breakfast or continuous service separately in your calendar settings. Terrace in summer? Guests often stay longer in nice weather; allow a bit extra, as we describe in our article on terrace and summer season. One fixed duration for everything is rarely realistic.
Multiple rounds within one shift
Many restaurants run two seating rounds on an evening: first service around 6pm, second around 8:30pm. Or at lunch: first round at noon, second at 1:30pm. For that your system needs to know how long a table stays occupied after the reservation start time. In Restotailor this is table occupied after start time: per shift you set how many minutes a table is blocked. That way the same table can be booked multiple times within one dinner or lunch shift, as long as times do not overlap.
In your reservation overview you see occupancy per shift: how many covers are booked versus how many physical seats you have. With multiple rounds the first number can be higher than the second, for example 80 booked guests on 40 physical seats. That is normal and means you reuse tables efficiently. Only running one round per evening? Set the duration more generously so guests do not feel you want them to leave.
Too tight or too loose: common mistakes
Setting it too tight is the classic mistake. You want maximum revenue and schedule tables every 75 minutes. In practice guests stay longer, the kitchen falls behind and service has to bring the bill while the next reservation is already waiting. That feels unprofessional and leads to bad reviews. Rather add ten to fifteen minutes buffer, or plan a short gap between two rounds so your team can reset.
Setting it too loose costs revenue. A table for two blocked for 3 hours while you are full at 9pm and turn away walk-ins is a waste. Look at your average stay: how long does a typical table really sit? Measure for a few weeks during busy and quiet shifts. Then adjust your settings. For exceptions, a birthday or a slow group, you can manually adjust one reservation duration in the table plan without changing your whole system.
Set up in Restotailor
Open your calendar settings and define your shifts: lunch, dinner, breakfast or continuous. Per shift you set start and end time and under table occupied after start time the number of minutes a table stays blocked. Many restaurants choose 90 to 120 minutes for lunch and 120 to 150 for dinner by default, but your kitchen and style decide what fits. The widget uses these values to calculate available time slots based on your table plan.
During service you follow everything in the timeline or floor plan: who is expected when, which tables are occupied and where space opens up. Need one reservation longer or shorter? Adjust the duration in the overview. Combine your settings with a waitlist for when a table frees up early, and with analytics to see which shifts are busiest. That way table turnover is not guesswork but a conscious choice.
Conclusion
How long a table stays occupied determines your capacity and your guest experience. Too tight creates stress, too loose costs revenue. Align your reservation duration with lunch versus dinner, groups and how many rounds you run per shift. In Restotailor you set per shift how many minutes a table is blocked, so online bookings are correct and you can plan multiple seating rounds. Start with realistic defaults, measure your actual stay duration and adjust. Everything is included in your €65 per month subscription, linked to table plan and widget. One well-configured Friday evening teaches you more than weeks of guessing.