Guides
How should billiards table booking and scheduling work?
Booking a billiards table is more than writing down a name and a time. The table, time, duration, and customer details later need to connect to the live game and the payment. Heselo keeps that flow in one panel.
How does table booking work in Heselo?
In Heselo, tables and rooms are set up as separate resources. Bookings appear on the schedule, turn into a live session when guests arrive, and the final payment shows up in the cash shift.
What details should a table booking include?
The essentials are date, time, table or VIP room, duration, and contact details. If a booking is changed or cancelled, it also helps to keep a history of the change.
WhatsApp and whiteboard vs a system
Many clubs still keep bookings in a WhatsApp group or on a board. That can work in a small hall on one shift. At peak hours two staff can promise the same table, and a no-show may never appear on the schedule. In a system, bookings, free tables, and live games stay in one place — chat is only an extra channel, not the source of truth.
No-shows and peak hours
When weekend evenings stack bookings, a waitlist and a deposit rule help. Tell guests the rule up front and keep the same wording in the panel. At peak, the live floor should show a free table at a glance — otherwise reception falls back to WhatsApp.
Why shouldn’t the schedule be separate from bookings?
The schedule shows the status of every table. If bookings are kept in one place and active games in another, staff have to combine the data just to find a free table.
How can a billiards table be booked online?
A guest can choose a date, time, and table type and send their contact details. Once the request lands on reception’s shared schedule, staff can confirm, change, or decline it.
The key is that online requests do not sit apart from phone bookings. Otherwise an online booking can cause the same confusion as any other scattered note.
How does a booking turn into a live game?
When guests arrive, the booking becomes an active session. Pauses and extensions are recorded on that session, and extra orders can be added to the same bill.
The most common problems
When setting up table bookings, watch out for these:
- Phone notes kept apart from the schedule
- Relying on a timer alone
- VIP rooms kept on a separate list
- Play time and payment recorded separately
- No-show rules that exist only as spoken policy