Restaurant online booking: where guests give up

A booking widget often has one default party size and a maximum that the restaurant set for a normal night, not for a group. A guest who picks nine finds that every time is grey, and the widget says nothing about larger groups. The guest concludes the restaurant is full, when it may only be that the form cannot take nine. Time slots add a second trap. A slot can show as open, then disappear when tapped, because another diner took it a moment earlier. The guest sees an error and starts again, often on another site.

• On a phone, is there a route for a party larger than the widget's maximum?
• When a party is too big, does the page say to call or email instead?
• After a time is tapped, does it stay held while the guest fills in details?
• Does the phone number field accept a number typed with a country code?
• Does a birthday note fit in the special requests box without an error?

Restaurants set a party maximum for the room and the kitchen, and most booking widgets treat it as a hard stop. The guest never sees the rule, only the result. A party of six for a birthday is a bigger decision than a party of two, and it is often planned days ahead on a phone. Check the largest party the widget will take, then check what the screen says when a guest picks one above it. If the answer is nothing, the restaurant has lost the group before the group has decided whether to come.

A time list is a snapshot. The guest loads the page, sees a slot at a quarter past seven, taps it, and gets a message that the slot is no longer available. That is a race between the guest's tap and another booking. The page can handle it by holding the slot while the details are filled in, or by offering the nearest open time with a clear label. A plain error that says try again sends the guest back to the start. Test it by picking the last open slot of the evening on a phone and reading what the page says after the tap.

The host needs a phone number to reach a guest about a table, so that field matters on a busy night. A number typed with a country code, or with spaces and brackets, can fail a strict check and show an error that never names the problem. A birthday note in the special requests box is ordinary, but some forms reject punctuation in it. If a deposit holds the table for a party, that step usually comes after the guest has given every detail. A visitor in a test stops there, because it cannot pay with a real card. Read the deposit message before that step, since it is the last place a guest decides.

The first run finds the control that turns a guest away. The fix changes it: a line for large parties, a held time, a plain message when a slot goes. Run the same six-person Saturday guest again and check whether a time appears that she can book. Repeat it after you change the party limit, add a Saturday menu or move the widget to a new page, since each change can empty the time list for guests.