When you have a booking type set up to auto-confirm, some bookings of that type may still be received as an enquiry rather than auto-confirmed either because the booking didn't meet any of the auto enquiry rules you have set up, or because no available table was found but you have chosen to allow such bookings to continue as an enquiry (by ticking the Still take enquiries for bookings if no available area found box). In such cases, you can set up additional rules to require a minimum amount of time before a booking takes place in order for the enquiry to be accepted.
Important points to note when thinking about setting this up
Booking Types with no auto-confirm rules will still continue as an enquiry.
Bookings that are eligible for auto confirm and can be accommodated (should you have availability) will still get accepted.
If you have Still Take Enquiries if no available areas found ticked and also this activated, Collins will continue to accept enquiries up to the restriction time you put in place here so no last-minute enquiries will come in if you're fully booked.
If you have auto-confirm set up to certain number and anything more than this comes in as an enquiry, once this rule has been set up Collins will continue to take bookings up to your Same Day Bookings time but will stop any larger groups being able to make an enquiry after this rule.
This is especially useful if you have a reservations team in taking enquiries during the week but don't have someone manning the enquiries page at the weekend when service is in full swing. For example, you could choose to accept enquiries for a weekday up to 6 hours before the booking takes place, while enquiries for a Saturday would need to be received at least 1.5 days in advance, and enquiries for a Sunday at least 2.5 days in advance.
How to set this up
In the booking type, tick Restrict when bookings that can't be auto-confirmed may be accepted as an enquiry.
Once you do that, you will see a weekdays option appear. These are the days you want this to be applicable for and to the right is the number of hours/days you want to apply this restriction to.
You can apply different rules for each day, for example during the week this restriction can be enforced two hours before the time of booking as you have a team in during the day, but on Sundays, enquiries need to be made two days before, then click SAVE after you have finished.