A reservation’s status is the most important field on it. It tells the whole team where a guest is in their journey, drives the colors in every view, frees tables when guests leave, and decides what happens to deposits and card holds. This page documents every status, what it means, and when to use it.
You rarely need all of these by hand. In day-to-day service you’ll mostly move guests through Confirmed → Seated → Done, and occasionally No-show. The rest are set automatically or used in specific situations described below.
The lifecycle at a glance
Read it as three families: confirmation (the booking is agreed), service (the guest is here, moving through the meal), and closed (finished, or it didn’t happen).
Confirmation statuses
These cover the period between a booking being made and the guest walking in.
| Status | What it means | When to use it |
|---|
| Pending | A request that hasn’t been confirmed yet. | Rare in day-to-day use — mostly legacy or a request awaiting your action. |
| Pending payment | A booking waiting on a payment to be completed. | Legacy/automatic — set by the system, not by hand. |
| Confirmed | The booking is agreed and counts as a real cover. | The normal state of an upcoming reservation. |
| Confirmed, pending payment | Confirmed, but a deposit or prepayment is still outstanding. | Set automatically when a booking has a pending payment. Resolves to Confirmed once paid. |
| Manually confirmed | Confirmed by your team (e.g. you called the guest back, or confirmed by email). | Use when you confirm on the guest’s behalf rather than them confirming online. |
| Double confirmed | The guest re-confirmed via the double-confirmation email. | Set automatically when the guest answers a double-confirmation request (only on shifts that use it). |
Confirmed, pending payment is managed for you. If a reservation has an unpaid deposit or prepayment, EatNow puts it here; when the payment clears, it returns to Confirmed. You normally don’t set this one manually.
Service statuses
These track the guest through the meal. Keeping them current during service is what makes the floor plan, the Cockpit Turn alerts, and walk-in availability accurate.
| Status | What it means | When to use it |
|---|
| Showed up | The party has arrived but isn’t at the table yet. | When there’s a gap between the door and the table (the table isn’t ready, or they’re checking coats). Skip it if you seat them immediately. |
| Seated | The party is at their table. | The moment you walk them to their seats. The most-used status of the night. |
| Seated for drinks | The party arrived early and is waiting at the bar / lounge. | When guests come ahead of time and you sit them for an apéritif before their table is ready. |
| Partially seated | Some of the group is seated; the rest haven’t arrived. | Large or split parties — you’ve sat the people who are here while you wait for the others. |
| Done | The meal is over and the table is being cleared. | When the guests leave / pay. This frees the table and closes the line. |
Seated for drinks and Partially seated are the “special” seating statuses. They exist so a guest who’s physically in the room but not fully at their table doesn’t get mistaken for a no-show — and so your table-turn timing stays honest.
Closed and negative statuses
These end a reservation that won’t (or didn’t) complete normally.
| Status | What it means | When to use it |
|---|
| No-show | The guest never arrived. | After their slot has clearly passed with no arrival. Important for guest history and for capturing/releasing a card hold or deposit. |
| Canceled by user | The guest canceled the booking. | When the guest cancels (online they may do this themselves; otherwise set it when they call to cancel). |
| Canceled by restaurant | Your team canceled the booking. | When the restaurant cancels — e.g. you can’t honor the booking, or a payment deadline expired. You can attach a reason. |
| Rejected | You declined a booking request before it was ever confirmed. | For requests you choose not to accept (fully booked, outside policy) before they became a confirmed cover. |
Always mark genuine no-shows as No-show. Leaving them as Confirmed inflates your covers, skews your reports, hides repeat no-show behavior in the guest’s profile, and — if there’s a deposit or pre-authorization — costs you the chance to act on it.
Deposits & card holds on no-show / cancellation
If a reservation carries a deposit or a card hold (pre-authorization), the closing status is what triggers the money:
- Marking No-show on a booking with an active card hold lets you capture (charge) or skip the hold — EatNow asks which when you change the status.
- Cancellations can offer a refund of any payment taken, depending on your refund window.
See the reservation form’s Payment section for how deposits and prepayments are set up.
How statuses appear in the app
- Colors. Across the Cockpit, Planning, and floor plan, each status has a color so you read the room at a glance — green-ish for confirmed, blue for guests in service, red for negative outcomes, grey for done.
- Only sensible transitions are offered. When you tap a reservation in a grid, EatNow shows just the next statuses that make sense (e.g. from Seated you’ll see Done, not Pending). To force any status, open the full reservation form and use the Status dropdown.
- Some statuses are automatic. Confirmed, pending payment and Double confirmed are set by the system in response to payments and double-confirmation replies — you don’t usually set them by hand.
FAQ
What’s the difference between “Confirmed” and “Manually confirmed”?
Both mean the booking is agreed. Confirmed typically reflects the guest confirming (e.g. online); Manually confirmed means your team confirmed it on their behalf, such as after a callback. For running service they behave the same.
A guest arrived but their table isn’t ready — what do I set?
Use Showed up (or Seated for drinks if you sit them at the bar). When you walk them to the table, change it to Seated.
The guest canceled — should I use “Canceled by user” or “Canceled by restaurant”?
Use Canceled by user when the guest cancels, and Canceled by restaurant when your team does. Picking the right one keeps your stats and the guest’s history accurate.
Can I move a reservation back to an earlier status?
The quick-action menu only offers forward, sensible transitions. If you genuinely need to go back (e.g. you marked Done too early), open the reservation’s full form and choose the status from the Status dropdown. 