For restaurant owners · Bookings and no-shows

Answer reservation requests for a busy holiday

Replies to holiday table requests that offer only the seatings you have left, explain the holiday menu and send everyone else to the waitlist.

By Aaron Byrne, KeenHand

The prompt

Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and fill in each part in [BRACKETS]. Restaurant owners, managers and whoever handles reservations.

I run a restaurant. A holiday is coming and the book is nearly full, but requests keep coming in by message, email and voicemail. I want each one answered with what I really have left, the same way every time.

What I have:
- The requests, one per line, copied as they came in: [HOLIDAY REQUESTS]
- The holiday plan: the seatings, the menu, how long tables are held and how the waitlist works: [HOLIDAY PLAN]
- What is still open, by seating and table size: [WHAT IS STILL OPEN]
- How I sound with guests: [MY TONE]

What I want:
1. Check each request's day, time and party size against what is still open.
2. Write a short reply that offers the open seatings that fit, or the waitlist if nothing does.
3. Explain the holiday menu and how long the table is held in one or two sentences, the same way in every reply.
4. If two requests could take the same open table, do not choose. Tell me, and I will pick.

Rules:
- Write a draft for me to read. Do not send anything.
- Use only what I gave you. If something is missing, ask me instead of guessing.
- Never quote a price, promise a table or claim anything I did not give you.
- Offer an open seating as open to book, never as held. Nothing is held until it is in my reservation system.
- Leave out guests' card details and anything about their health.

Give me back:
- A reply for each request
- The requests competing for the same table
- Who goes on the waitlist

When to use it

The book for Mother's Day, Valentine's Day or New Year's Eve is nearly full, and messages keep coming in asking for times that are already gone.

When not to

Do not use it to squeeze in an extra table, bump a booking or make an exception for a regular. Those decisions are yours.

What to paste in

[HOLIDAY REQUESTS]: The requests as guests sent them, one per line, without last names or phone numbers.
[HOLIDAY PLAN]: Your seatings, the menu in a line or two with the prices taken off, how long a table is held and how the waitlist works.
[WHAT IS STILL OPEN]: What your reservation system shows open for each seating, and the table sizes.
[MY TONE]: Three or four words for how you sound, or a reply you have sent before that you liked.

Never paste

Guests' last names, phone numbers or card details
Anything a guest told you about an allergy or their health

A filled-in example

Sample. Fictional business, fictional client.

HOLIDAY REQUESTS: Table for 4 on Mother's Day around noon? / Anything for 2 at 1 on Sunday? / We'd like a table for 8 for Mother's Day brunch, any time / Can I get on a list for the 10:00 if something opens?
HOLIDAY PLAN: Mother's Day is brunch only, seatings at 10:00, 12:15 and 2:30; set brunch menu with a kids menu; tables held for 90 minutes; waitlist by reply with first name and party size, and we text if a table opens.
WHAT IS STILL OPEN: 10:00: one table for 2. 12:15: one table for 4. 2:30: two tables for 2 and one table for 6.
MY TONE: Warm, short, a little festive.

What you should get back

A short reply to each request, offering only seatings you still have
The holiday menu and table time explained the same way in every reply
Requests that compete for the same table, left for you to pick
A waitlist of everyone who could not be fit

What stays with you

The prompt writes a draft. You decide what happens to it, and nothing should reach a guest until you have read it. Decisions about money stay with a person every time, and so do health questions and complaints. When KeenHand builds a routine like this, every message carries the same four decisions: Automate, Approve, Revise, Reject.

Reply to a large-party reservation request. A reply to a big-table request that offers only the times your large-party rules allow and says what the guest needs to do to hold the table.
Write a no-show policy for large tables. Plain wording for your large-table no-show and cancellation terms, plus confirmation lines and phone words, built only on the terms you already set.
Answer hours, parking and menu questions. Replies to the everyday guest questions about hours, parking, walk-ins and tonight's menu, written only from the answers you paste in.

More: every prompt for restaurants, bookings and no-shows, and AI for restaurants.

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