Every change applies as soon as you save. None of these texts can be scheduled: a message stays online until you change or remove it.
At a glance
The portal banner
The banner is a coloured box shown at the top of your booking page, right under your logo and name, above the booking form. It is the only text every visitor sees, whatever date or service they end up choosing. Set it under Settings > Portal > General, section Custom message on your portal:
The preview on the right shows the box with your colours and text as you type. Click Save at the bottom of the page to publish.
What the guest sees. An info icon, the word Information in bold (translated into the guest’s language), then your text. The banner stays on screen through every step of the booking: party size, date and time, prepayment, extras and contact details. It also appears on the page where a guest modifies their reservation. It is not shown on the pages after the booking (the reservation summary and the payment page), nor on the page of a featured experience.
Languages. Pick a language in the selector next to the field (French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian) and type the text for that language. The sparkle button between the two (Auto translate) fills the other five languages from the one shown. The guest reads the version in the language of the portal; if that version is empty, they read the English one, then the French one.
Formatting. Line breaks are kept. You can use
**bold**, _italic_ and ~strikethrough~ (the reminder is shown under the field). Links are not clickable: a web address shows as plain text. There is no length limit, but a long banner pushes the booking form down the page — keep it to a few lines.
Because
_ and ~ are formatting marks, a text containing two underscores (for example an address like moga_festival_2026@…) can end up partly in italics. Check the preview.Only one banner at a time
There is a single banner per restaurant. To announce something new, replace the text; to announce two things, write them in the same text, one per line or paragraph.Removing the banner
Delete the text in every language where you wrote it, then Save. As long as one language still has text, visitors in that language (and, if it is French or English, everyone else) still see the banner. Make sure the field is really empty — a field containing only spaces or blank lines can leave an empty box on the portal. The colours you pick here are also used by the header message of the activities portal; its text is set separately.The large-group message
When a guest picks more people than your services accept online, a red box appears under the party-size buttons: Careful : followed by your message. It is set under Settings > Portal > General, section Custom message when maximum covers reached:
When it shows. As soon as the party size is larger than the highest Max covers of your services (set on each service, see Group size & booking window). When every size fits in the buttons, the last one — for example 11+ when your maximum is 10 — triggers it directly; otherwise the guest taps N+ and types the number.
What it does. The guest cannot continue: the button stays disabled with Choose the number of guests to continue. The message is your chance to tell them what to do instead — call you, send an email, fill in a privatization request.
The standard text, shown when you leave the field empty: For groups of 11 people or more, please contact the restaurant at contact@your-restaurant.com directly. — with the number worked out from your services and the contact email of your restaurant as a clickable link. The preview in the settings shows this same text, with the number worked out from all your online services (the portal uses the services open on the date the guest picked).
Languages. Same selector and Auto translate button as the banner. The guest reads the version in their language; if it is empty, the English one, then the French one, then any language you filled in. The standard text is only shown when every language is empty. The preview in the settings follows the same rule, for the language of your dashboard.
Formatting. Plain text: line breaks are kept, but
**bold** and the other marks are shown as typed. Links are not clickable.
Only the message is set here. The limit itself is the Max covers of each service: to accept larger groups online, raise it on the service.On the page where a guest modifies their reservation, a lower limit can apply: the Maximum group size for modification (see Booking rules). Above it, the guest sees a fixed message asking them to contact you, not this one.
The service description
Each service can carry a short text, set in the service form under Settings > Opening days > Shifts, field Shift description (just below Name). What the guest sees. Once they have picked a date, the time section lists the services running that day. Each one shows its name, then your description in smaller grey text, then its time slots. The description is shown even when all the service’s slots are full, and on the page where a guest modifies their reservation. It is not shown:- before the guest picks a date, nor on dates when the service doesn’t run;
- on a date fully closed by a block — the block message is shown instead;
- in the confirmation email or on the reservation page after booking.
**bold** and the other marks are shown as typed. No length limit, but two or three lines read best above the time slots.
Good uses: what makes this service different (Brunch — buffet and live music), a dress code, a set menu, special hours, or an announcement that only concerns the dates the service runs — see Event shifts.
If you use the WhatsApp AI agent, it also reads the description of your active, non-internal services when it answers guests. It does not read the portal banner, the block messages or the large-group message.
The block message
A block closes online booking for a day or a time range (see Block reservations). Blocks created from the calendar under Settings > Opening days > Calendar & Block hours have an optional field, Message to clients, to tell guests why. What the guest sees depends on the block:
The message is shown after the guest picks the date — blocked dates stay selectable, precisely so the guest can read it. It is multilingual (same fallback as the service description) and plain text with line breaks kept.
Good uses: Closed for a private event, Closed for renovation — back on 12 October, Lunch fully booked, call us for a waiting list.
The discount message
A discount can carry a text, set under Settings > Opening days > Discounts, field Custom message. What the guest sees. Discounted times show a -20%-style tag. When the guest picks one, a box titled About discount appears under the time slots with your text. It is a single text for all languages (no language selector), plain text with line breaks kept. It is not shown to guests arriving through a prescriber link that doesn’t offer discounts.Other texts guests read
These texts are also visible on the portal, but they describe something rather than announce it. They have their own pages:Product descriptions
Set menus, tickets and extras offered at the prepayment and extras steps. Supports bold, italic and strikethrough.
Custom fields
The extra questions of the booking form, with their descriptions.
Header links
The links at the top of the portal: menus, website, activities.
Privatization form
The privatization portal has its own Header message.
Activities portal
Its header message and product descriptions are set separately.
Booking rules
Cancellation reasons that guests pick from when they cancel.
Which field for which need
Example: an announcement over a few days
Your restaurant hosts the MOGA Festival on 2, 3, 4 and 5 October: a festive lunch from 1 pm to 6 pm, with music. You want guests booking online to know. Two options — and they work well together.Option 1: an Event shift with a description
The festival lunch replaces your usual lunch on those four days, so create it as an Event shift:1
Duplicate your usual lunch
Under Settings > Opening days > Shifts, duplicate your lunch service and name the copy MOGA Festival lunch.
2
Set the dates
Set Shift type to Event, Start date to 2 October and End date to 5 October. Adjust the online booking hours for the festival.
3
Write the description
In Shift description: MOGA FESTIVAL — festive lunch from 1 pm to 6 pm, with music. Click Auto translate for your foreign guests, then save.
4
Recreate the other services of those days
On an event day, all your recurring services are hidden. If you also serve dinner on those four days, duplicate your dinner as an Event on the same dates — see Changing just one service for one day.
Option 2: the portal banner
To reach everyone, including guests who book another date, add a banner under Settings > Portal > General:MOGA FESTIVAL — 2, 3, 4 & 5 October Festive lunch from 1 pm to 6 pm, with music.Two things to keep in mind:
- One banner at a time. If a banner is already online (say, Saturday 2 January — festive day from 12 pm to 9 pm), you replace it — or put both announcements in the same text, one per paragraph.
- It doesn’t disappear by itself. On 6 October, empty the text in every language and save.