Once you have Lightspeed Reservations up and running, you can create and manage your reservations via the Back Office. Accessing reservations through the Back Office is generally meant for management and administration. Restaurant staff can also create, view, and manage reservations via the POS with additional functionality such as assigning tables and updating their status.

Adding a reservation

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Add reservation.
4. Fill in the Reservation details:
   • Number of guests
   • [Optional] Expected duration
   • Date
   • Time
   • [Optional] Floor plan
   • [Optional] Table
5. Fill in the Guest details:
   • First name
   • Last name
   • [Optional] Phone
   • [Optional] Language
   • [Optional] Email
6. Click Show additional details to add the following information:
   • [Optional] Tags
   • [Optional] Dietary restrictions
   • [Optional] Allergens
   • [Optional] Internal notes
7. Click Save to confirm the reservation.

Viewing reservations

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Set the timeframe of reservations to be listed by clicking the date range button with the clock icon.
4. The date range window presents various options for selecting the start and end dates. Using the filter options, you can:
   • Select: Today,This week, Last week, This month, or Last month.
   • Manually enter the start and end dates in the From and To windows.
   • Create a custom range by selecting dates from the calendar.
5. Click Apply to use the selected date range.

Click the Reset button to clear your selected dates or click Cancel to leave the date selector.

Editing reservations

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Select the appropriate date range to see the reservation you wish to edit.
4. Click ⋯ in the row of the reservation.
5. Click Manage reservation.
6. Make any necessary changes.
7. [Optional] Click Cancel to exit without saving changes.
8. Click Save to exit and save changes.

Canceling reservations

This action cannot be undone. To restore it, a new reservation with the same details must be created.

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Select the appropriate date range to see the reservation you wish to cancel.
4. Click … in the row of the reservation.
5. Click Cancel.
6. [Optional] Click Keep reservation to exit without canceling the reservation.
7. Click Cancel reservation. 

Pausing online reservations

If you do not wish to take online reservations, perhaps because of a holiday, renovations, or an emergency, you can manually pause taking reservations on your website. Existing reservations remain active and new reservations can still be created via the Back Office or POS.

Pauses cannot be scheduled in advance and must be managed manually in the Back Office.

To pause taking online reservations:

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Pause online bookings.
4. In the pop-up window, click Pause online bookings to confirm.

When reservations are paused, a message will appear in the Back Office to indicate a pause is in effect and the reservation website will display a message informing users that online reservations are temporarily offline.

To resume taking online reservations:

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Resume online bookings.

Emailing customers with reservations automatically

The online reservation system automatically emails customers in three situations:

1. A confirmation email sent after booking. This email includes a cancellation link.
2. A cancellation email sent if the reservation is canceled, either by the customer or by the business.
3. A reminder email sent one day before the reservation (for advance bookings).

These emails are not user configurable and are not sent if the reservation is made via the Back Office or POS.

Receiving email summaries and notifications

Lightspeed Reservations has email update features that can assist managers to see upcoming bookings, total covers, and peak hours throughout the day.

Daily email summaries

You can designate people to receive a twice-daily email summary of the day's upcoming reservations, once at 8:00 AM local time with the full day's reservations and again at 5:00 PM with the up-to-date list of reservations for the remaining hours of operation.

To add a summary recipient:

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Notifications, enable Activate daily reservation summary.
5. Enter the email address of the desired recipient.
6. Click Add or hit Enter.
7. Click Save.

New reservation notifications

You can designate people to receive an email whenever a new online booking is made. 

To add a new reservation notification recipient:

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Notifications, enable Send an email notification when a new online booking is received.
5. Enter the email address of the desired recipient.
6. Click Add or hit Enter.
7. Click Save.

Setting guest limits per 30 minute windows

Restaurants can limit online bookings per 30-minute window to distribute reservations more evenly throughout operating hours and avoid overloading staff.

To set a guest limit per 30 minute block of time:

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Automatic booking settings, enable Set guest limit per 30 minutes.
5. Set the maximum number of guests that can make an online reservation in any 30 minute period of operating hours either by typing it directly into the text box or by using the + or - buttons. The default value is 20 guests.
6. Click Add or hit Enter.
7. Click Save.

Disabling same-day online reservations

The reservation website can accept same-day reservations. However, you may disable this feature and only accept online bookings for future dates.

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Settings.
4. Under Automatic booking settings, disable Accept same-day online bookings.
5. Click Save.

The online reservation page will no longer accept bookings for the same day. Customers are still able to book for future dates.

Adding the booking widget to your website

Instead of using the Lightspeed-generated guest website, you may add a booking widget to your existing website. The widget appears as a floating window that sits on top of your website. Clients can enter information and book their own reservations according to your availability. The reservation information is automatically and immediately integrated into Lightspeed Reservations in the Back Office and POS.

To add the widget to your site:

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Settings.
4. Click Add booking widget.
5. Click Copy code.
6. Open your website editor (e.g., WordPress, Wix, Squarespace).
7. Locate the global code injection area. This is often called "Custom Code," "Footer Code," or "Site-wide Code Injection."
8. Paste the copied code into this area.
9. Save your changes and publish your website.

Lightspeed Reservations Widget FAQ

• Paste the widget code directly before the closing </body> tag on all pages where you want the widget to appear. If you use a templating system, ensure the code is in the main layout file.
• There are several methods, but the easiest is using a plugin that allows for custom header and footer injection (e.g., "Insert Headers and Footers"). Alternatively, you can directly edit your theme's footer.php file and paste the code just before </body> (advanced users only).
• Log in to your Wix account > Settings > Development & Integrations > Custom Code > Click Add Custom Code > Paste widget code in snippet section > Name the widget > Select pages on which you want widget to appear > Select Place code in “Body - end”.
• Log in to your Squarespace account > Pages > Custom Code > Code Injection > Place widget code in the Footer section.
• The current version of the widget does not support any appearance or placement changes. But we constantly update our widget according to feedback, so please let us know if you are interested in this.