Limit covers per slot and leave gaps between bookings

Cover limits, slot limits and table buffers pace how busy a service gets. What each one does and where to set it.

1 min read · Updated 21 October 2026

In short: cap each slot in Booking Options, part of a day in Cover Limits, and add a gap with Table buffer.

Choose your venue

Ordering

Bookings

Combinations

Main Settings

Bookable Times

Booking Options

Stripe

Landing Page

Reviews

where to find it

If you use booking types, open Base configuration first on each page.

Limit each time slot

Go to Bookings › Main Settings › Booking Options, then choose your venue.
Switch on Affects daily covers. This counts bookings towards your limits and shows the per-slot fields.
Set Covers per time slot and Bookings per time slot.
Click Save changes.

Booking Options

Affects daily coversOn

Save changes

this shows the per-slot fields

Go to Bookings › Main Settings › Cover Limits. You can pick a booking type instead of Base configuration.
Click a day and switch on Cover limits active.
Set the Start, End and Max covers of each slot (Add slot for more, or Copy from another day).
Click Save. Each day saves on its own.

Go to Bookings › Main Settings › Party Sizes.
Switch on Table buffer and set the Buffer duration, the time held after each booking.
Click Save changes.

Booking types have their own Daily cover limits, and their settings override the main ones.
A booking type with Affects daily covers off does not count towards daily cover limits.
Staff can still book over a limit, with Create anyway or Save anyway.
Ignore buffers on a table (Bookings › Tables › Edit) lets it take back-to-back bookings.
FOH, Bookings Manager, Marketing and IT cannot see Main Settings.