Why should reservations and payments be managed together?
A reservation sets aside capacity for a guest on a particular date and at a particular time. A prepayment is money collected in advance, while a pre-authorization temporarily holds funds on a card. What a restaurant can do when a guest does not arrive depends on the actual reservation status, the policy explained beforehand and the outcome reported by the payment provider.
Consider an evening booking for six guests with a TRY 500 card hold per person. The total TRY 3,000 is not yet a sale. Different conditions may apply if everyone arrives, only four attend or nobody turns up.
Confusing the reservation record in Manager with the collection or permitted authorization workflow in Pay can lead to incorrect reporting, duplicate charges or avoidable refunds.
A six-step operational checklist
Step one: Decide which reservations need financial security based on the day, meal period, party size and special preparation costs. Step two: Choose between a prepayment and a card hold, and establish the amount per guest or per table. Step three: Show guests the transaction type, amount and cancellation/no-show terms before they pay.
Step four: After the payment or authorization attempt, verify the bank or provider response. Sending a link or entering card details does not mean a transaction has completed. Step five: Record the number of guests who actually attend on the service day; distinguish timely cancellation, late cancellation, partial attendance and no-show.
Step six: Reconcile reservation statuses against prepayments, holds, captures, refunds and failed transactions at the end of the day. Do not assume every reservation marked no-show was successfully charged. If the restaurant uses its own virtual POS, check the transaction identifier during bank reconciliation.
For example, if only four guests arrive for a reservation made for six, do not erase the payment history by simply changing the original party size to four before arrival. The restaurant's partial-attendance policy and the provider's refund timing must be considered separately. This distinction matters for both correct collection and guest rights.
- Was the financial security policy shown to the guest?
- Are captured payments distinguished from temporary card holds?
- Were actual attendance and the number of guests recorded?
- Are cancellations, partial attendance and no-shows reported separately?
- Have Pay and bank records been reconciled?
How responsibilities are divided between Manager and Pay
Rezervem Manager handles the operational side of reservations: date, table, party size, arrival and no-show status. When a financial rule is configured for a reservation, it can be associated with a payment or card pre-authorization step. The correct day, meal period, service area and per-person or per-table amount must be applied in the actual workflow.
Rezervem Pay is a separate product for payment requests through channels such as links, QR and WhatsApp, with appropriate virtual POS connectivity. Pay is not limited to reservation-linked payments. A restaurant can use its own virtual POS or a supported platform POS option, depending on the configuration.
Whether a charge can be collected, a card hold is still valid, or a cancellation or refund has been completed by the bank depends on the real financial transaction—not just the reservation status. For the fundamentals, read the prepayment and pre-authorization guide. For risk assessment, see what is a no-show?.