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A common need is to accept online reservations for dinner only (or lunch only). This is often confused with “blocking” reservations — but blocks are the wrong tool for a permanent schedule. The right approach is to control each shift’s visibility: whether customers can see and book it, or whether it exists for staff only.
Blocks are temporary, visibility is permanent. Use Block Reservations for one-off closures (holidays, private events, emergencies). Use the visibility settings on this page for your ongoing schedule — e.g. “we never take online lunch bookings.”

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Shift States

Every shift has two independent switches that, together, determine who can book it.
  • Active shift (is_active) — turns the shift on or off entirely. An inactive shift accepts no bookings from anyone.
  • Internal-only shift (is_internal) — when on, the shift is hidden from your online booking portal. Staff can still create reservations on it manually; customers never see it.
There’s also a third option: simply don’t create the shift at all. If a time period has no shift, there is nothing to book — no blocking and no internal shift required.

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Where to Find These Settings

  1. Go to Settings → Opening days → Shifts
  2. Click an existing shift to edit it, or + New shift to create one
  3. Active shift is in the General tab, under General information
  4. Internal-only shift is in the Advanced tab, under Shift settings
Active shift toggle in the General tab of the shift form
Internal-only shift toggle in the Advanced tab of the shift form

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Choosing an Approach

To offer online booking for one service but not another, you have two clean options:

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Option A — Only create the public shift

Create the shift you want customers to book, and simply don’t create the other one.
  • Best when the other service has no relevance to your reservation flow — you never seat or track those bookings in EatNow.
  • Example: a fine-dining restaurant that only opens for dinner creates a Dinner shift and nothing for lunch.

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Option B — Make the other shift internal-only

Create both shifts, but mark the one you don’t want online as Internal-only.
  • Best when staff still need to record reservations for that service (phone bookings, walk-ins, internal events) even though customers can’t book it online.
  • Example: a café serves lunch to walk-ins; staff occasionally log a phone reservation, but the lunch shift never appears on the online portal.
Both options give customers the same experience — they only ever see the public shift online. The difference is purely whether your staff can book the hidden service internally.

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Step-by-Step: Evening-Only Dinner Service

You want customers to book dinner online, with no online lunch bookings.

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If you don’t track lunch reservations at all (Option A)

  1. Go to Settings → Opening days → Shifts
  2. Open (or create) your Dinner shift
  3. In the General tab, make sure Active shift is on
  4. In the Advanced tab, make sure Internal-only shift is off
  5. Save
  6. Do not create a Lunch shift
Customers now only see dinner slots online.

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If staff still book lunch by phone (Option B)

  1. Go to Settings → Opening days → Shifts
  2. Open (or create) your Dinner shift — Active: on, Internal-only: off, then Save
  3. Open (or create) your Lunch shift
  4. In the General tab, keep Active shift on
  5. In the Advanced tab, turn Internal-only shift on
  6. Save
Customers see only dinner online; staff can still log lunch reservations manually.

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Step-by-Step: Lunch-Only Service

You want customers to book lunch online, with no online dinner bookings (e.g. a lunch-only café).
  1. Go to Settings → Opening days → Shifts
  2. Open (or create) your Lunch shift
    • General tab → Active shift: on
    • Advanced tab → Internal-only shift: off
    • Save
  3. For dinner, choose one:
    • Don’t create a Dinner shift if you never serve or track dinner reservations, or
    • Create the Dinner shift with Active: on and Internal-only: on if staff still need to record dinner bookings manually
Customers now only see lunch slots online.

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More Use Cases

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When to Use Each Approach

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FAQ

Should I block lunch every day to stop online lunch bookings? No. Blocks are meant for temporary, dated closures. For a permanent “no online lunch” rule, make the Lunch shift Internal-only or don’t create it. If a shift is Internal-only, can my staff still add reservations to it? Yes. Internal-only only hides the shift from customers. Staff can create reservations on it as usual. What’s the difference between Inactive and Internal-only? An Inactive shift accepts no bookings from anyone — it’s switched off. An Internal-only shift is still active and bookable, just not visible to customers online. Will existing reservations disappear if I make a shift internal-only? No. Changing visibility affects only new online bookings. Existing reservations are kept.