An online booking has landed in your garden, your bar or upstairs when you’d rather it was somewhere else. NomNom never picks an area at random. Either the guest chose it, or they weren’t given the choice and NomNom gave them the best-fitting free table in any area. Here’s how to tell which, and what to change.
Did the guest choose the area?
With Display rooms switched on, which is how it starts, your booking page shows each time under the name of its area, with the area’s description underneath if you’ve written one. The guest chooses the area when they choose the time, and NomNom always gives them a table in that area.
The areas appear in the same order as your list under Configuration → Areas, so the area at the top is the one guests see first. A bistro with an outdoor terrace asked us, as the summer ended, to show the bistro first on their booking page instead of the terrace. The answer was that list: once the bistro is dragged above the terrace, the booking page shows the bistro’s times first.
When the guest doesn’t choose
If you’ve turned Display rooms off, or the booking came through Reserve with Google, the guest never sees your areas. NomNom then looks at every area that serves that meal at that time and is Bookable online, and gives the guest the best-fitting free table among them all: the smallest table that fits comes first, wherever it is.
So a couple goes on a free two-top in the garden rather than a free six-top in the restaurant. That’s deliberate: it keeps your bigger tables for bigger parties. Only when the free tables are equally good does the area’s Booking priority decide, and after that the order of your list. The full order is in How NomNom picks a table for an online booking.
In NomNom Web: Configuration → Areas, then click an area to open Area details. In the phone app: Configuration → Areas → tap an area.
Started happening in October?
Until October 2026, the first area in your list with a suitable table free took the booking, so the area at the top always filled first. Now the best-fitting table wins in any area, so if you have Display rooms off you may see couples and small groups going into a different area than before, without changing anything yourself. Dragging your areas into a new order no longer changes this. Use Booking priority instead, as below.
Causes and what to do
- You want one area to fill first. Open the area, set Booking priority to 5 — Highest and click Save. Every area starts on 1 — Lowest. Priority decides between equally good tables, so a couple will still take the garden’s two-top if the restaurant only has six-tops free. To stop that, use the next two points.
- The area shouldn’t take online bookings at all. Open the area, switch off Bookable online and click Save. Its row then shows Offline. The area and its tables are hidden from your booking page, and your team can still book it as normal.
- Only some of its tables should go online. Switch off WEB on those tables, or limit the days they can be booked. See Choosing when each table can be booked. To keep a big table for bigger parties instead, give it a Smallest party online: see Keeping big tables for bigger parties online.
- Guests keep choosing an area you’d rather they didn’t. Drag your preferred area to the top of the list, using the handle on the left of each one, so guests see it first. Then give each area a short Description in Area details, such as Outdoor seating, not covered. It shows under the area’s name on your booking page.
- You’d rather decide the area yourself. Turn Display rooms off so guests just pick a time, then move bookings between areas on the day. NomNom will give each booking the best-fitting table in any area, using Booking priority to break ties.
Display rooms: in NomNom Web and the phone app, Settings → Online Booking & Discover → Display rooms, under BOOKING OPTIONS.
Moving a booking to another area
In NomNom Web, right-click the booking and choose Move to table. Pick the area along the top of the window, then click a free table. The booking moves to that area along with its table. In the phone app, tap the booking and choose Move to.
Good to know
- Bookings already made don’t move. Changing an area’s priority or order, or switching it off, only affects new online bookings.
- Your team always chooses. A booking you take yourself goes in whichever area you pick.
- Reserve with Google never shows your areas, whatever Display rooms is set to, so its bookings always get the best-fitting table in any area, with Booking priority breaking ties. See Getting the Reserve button on Google (Reserve with Google).
- Renaming an area is safe. Its tables and bookings follow the new name.
- Only admins can open Configuration and Settings.