Blocked slots & table availability

Some of the time your restaurant runs on its normal schedule, and some of the time it does not: a bank holiday, a private party that takes over the room, a table pushed aside for repairs. A blocked slot is how you tell Eighty-Six “do not take bookings here” for a specific window — so those times disappear from your booking page and from your own availability, and no guest can reserve them.

Before you begin

Blocked slots live in the Schedule panel on the Bookings page. Available on plans that include table availability (part of Bookings). You need permission to view tables (tables.read) to open and manage them. As the restaurant owner you have every permission by default; an employee needs it granted to them.

What a blocked slot is

A blocked slot removes availability for a period of time. Each block has:

• A scope — the whole restaurant (All tables) or a single table.
• A date range — a start and end date, or a single day.
• A time — the whole day, or a specific start and end time.
• A reason — a short note for your team, such as a private event or maintenance.

You can also make a block repeat (every day, every week on chosen days, or every month), which is handy for recurring closures like “closed every Monday” or “one table always out on weekends.”

Blocked slots are separate from your normal opening hours. Your service periods and time slots define when you are open for bookings; a blocked slot carves an exception out of that. Removing a block puts the availability straight back.

Where to find it

1. Open Bookings from the sidebar.
2. In the top-right corner, click Schedule (the gear button). The Schedule Setup panel slides in from the right.
3. Scroll to the Blocked Slots section at the bottom of the panel.

Each existing block is shown as a small card with its reason, a Recurring badge if it repeats, its dates and time (or All day), and the table it applies to (All tables or a table number). Use the pencil to edit a block and the trash icon to remove it. If you have not created any yet, you will see No blocked slots.

The Blocked Slots section inside the Schedule panel, with an Add block button and existing blocks.

Block a time or date range

1. In the Blocked Slots section, click Add block. The Block Time Slot dialog opens.
2. Leave Table (optional) set to All tables to block the whole restaurant, or pick a single table from the list.
3. Set the Start Date and End Date. For a single day, use the same date for both.
4. Leave All Day on to block the entire day. Turn it off to reveal Start Time and End Time, then enter the window you want to block.
5. Type a Reason — for example Private event, Maintenance, or Holiday. This is required.
6. Click Create.

Creating a block: choose the table (or all tables), the dates, whether it is all day, and a reason.

The reason is for your team’s reference only — guests never see it. On the booking page they simply find no available times in the window you blocked.

Caution

The End Date must be on or after the Start Date, and a Reason is required. If you leave either out, the form shows a message and will not save until you fix it.

Block just one table

The Table (optional) selector is what makes availability work table by table. Leave it on All tables and the block closes the whole restaurant. Pick a single table and only that table becomes unbookable for the window — every other table keeps taking reservations as usual.

This is the right tool when one table needs to come out of service for a while — say a wobbly leg is being fixed, or a table is reserved for a regular’s standing arrangement — without touching the rest of the floor.

The tables you can choose come from your restaurant’s floor map, listed by their display name or table number. If a table is missing from the list, add or rename it on the floor map first.

Tip

A blocked slot is a time-based exception. To take a table out of the bookable pool for good, change its status on the floor map instead of creating an endless block. Use blocks for anything with a start and an end.

Make a block repeat

For closures that come back on a schedule, turn a block into a repeating one instead of re-creating it each time.

1. In the Block Time Slot dialog, turn on the Repeat toggle.
2. Choose a Frequency: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
3. If you chose Weekly, tick the Days of Week the block should apply to — for example Saturday and Sunday.
4. Optionally set an End Date for when the repeat should stop. When a block repeats, the end date is optional; leave it blank to keep repeating with no end, or use the clear button to remove it.
5. Add your Reason and click Create.

A repeating block: set the frequency, and for a weekly repeat choose which days it applies to.

Combine repeat with a single table to set a lasting per-table rule — for example, block Table 5 every Monday so it is never offered on your slowest night, while the rest of the floor stays open.

Editing or removing a block

1. Open the Schedule panel and find the block in the Blocked Slots list.
2. Click the pencil icon to reopen the dialog (now titled Edit Blocked Slot), change any field, and click Update.
3. To remove a block, click the trash icon and confirm with Delete in the Delete Blocked Slot dialog.

Removing or shortening a block restores availability for those times immediately, so guests can book them again straight away.

How blocks affect availability

A blocked slot applies everywhere availability is calculated. Any time it covers is hidden from the public booking page and is treated as unavailable inside the CRM, so no one — a guest online or a member of your team taking a booking — can reserve it. Because you can scope a block to one table, you can close a single table while the rest of the restaurant keeps filling up.

Related

• Service periods
• Time slots
• Managing bookings
• Floor map