How to set up the table assignment strategy

The table assignment strategy lets you control how Resos automatically assigns tables to bookings. Depending on your restaurant’s workflow, you can choose whether the system should prioritize the best-fitting table or always follow your configured area and table priorities.

Choosing the right strategy helps optimize table usage while giving you full control over how bookings are allocated.

Before you begin

The table assignment strategy applies whenever table management is on, whether you use Add table(s) to bookings automatically or Manually add table(s) to bookings. It decides the order tables are offered, and in automatic mode, which table Resos preselects for the booking. If table management is off, this setting does not affect your bookings.

Read more about how to set up table management.

Choose your table assignment strategy

To configure your preferred strategy:

Step 1: Open the table management settings

Go to Menu → Settings & add-ons → Bookings → Managing bookings.

Make sure table management is set to Add table(s) to bookings automatically or Manually add table(s) to bookings (not Don’t use table management).

Step 2: Select your preferred table assignment strategy

Under table assignment strategy, choose one of the following options.

Optimized fit (default)

This is the recommended option for most restaurants.

With optimized fit, Resos automatically selects the smallest suitable available table for the booking, even if another area has a higher priority.

This helps:

• maximize table utilization
• reduce wasted seats
• improve availability for larger parties
• increase the number of bookings your restaurant can accept

Example: if a party of 2 can fit at both Table 2 in the Restaurant area and Table 6 in the Bar area (higher priority), Resos will assign Table 2 if it is the best fit.

Priority-first (legacy)

Choose priority-first if you always want Resos to respect your configured area and table priorities.

The system will:

• first select the highest-priority area
• then assign the highest-priority available table within that area

This option works similarly to the previous table assignment behavior.

Example: if the Restaurant area has a higher priority than the Bar area, the booking will be assigned to the Restaurant whenever a suitable table is available, even if a better-fitting table exists elsewhere.

When is the table assignment strategy used?

The selected strategy decides the order tables are offered and preselected whenever a booking is created or edited, including:

• online bookings
• manually created bookings with automatic table assignment enabled

The automatic table reassignment optimizer works differently: it always prefers the best-fitting table, and only falls back to your configured area and table priorities as a tiebreaker when multiple tables fit equally well.

FAQ

Which strategy should I choose?

For most restaurants, optimized fit is recommended because it maximizes seating capacity and improves table utilization.

Choose priority-first if your restaurant prefers to seat guests in specific areas first or follows a fixed seating order.

Can I change the strategy later?

Yes. You can change the strategy at any time in Menu → Settings & add-ons → Bookings → Managing bookings. New bookings will follow the newly selected strategy.

We hope you found this guide useful. If you have any questions about the table assignment strategy or any general questions about Resos, do not hesitate to contact us at hi@resos.com. Our support representatives are excited to offer their help!