# 🥘 How to setup a restaurant booking system

> Complete guide to setting up a restaurant table reservation system with Cowlendar.

> **ℹ️ Info**
>
> Scenario: You are a restaurant with 4 available table and each table has a unique a number of seats
>
> 5 tables are for Dates (2 seats)
>
> 3 tables are for groups (4 seats)
>
> 1 table is a "family version" (8 seats)

Just thinking about food is getting me hungry haha.

Alright enough of my hunger, lets get started!

### Steps to get a table booking system setup with Cowlendar

In your Shopify admin dashboard Look at the left hand side.
Click on **products**.
Create a product by clicking on **Add product.**

![](https://orka-chat.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/help/671a5e245d077ea954b2cd4c/import/1791976337692-Cow_-_Products_4_.webp)

**Name this product** something like "Restaurant Reservation" (or whatever works for you).
Scroll down and **create a variant** with 3 options Date, Group and Family table.

![](https://orka-chat.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/help/671a5e245d077ea954b2cd4c/import/1791976336131-ScreenShot_Tool_-20250115153429.webp)

Now in your Shopify admin dashboard look to the left and click on **Apps.**
Click on **Cowlendar.**
Click on **My Services.**
Click on **New Service** and select Regular instant booking no checkout as your service type.
By using instant booking no checkout the calendar will skip shopify checkout and it will feel more like a reservation system.

![](https://orka-chat.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/help/671a5e245d077ea954b2cd4c/import/1791976335720-Cow_-_My_Services_-_New_Service_1_.webp)

When selecting the product to connect pick Restaurant Reservation and start with the "Date" variant.

> **⚠️ Warning**
>
> Select 1 variant at this step! So that we can create multiple services and attach each to only 1 variant thereby allowing for unique slots in each service (each table)

![](https://orka-chat.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/help/671a5e245d077ea954b2cd4c/import/1791976336701-ScreenShot_Tool_-20250115154513.webp)

Configure the **service tab** by tab to meet your needs.
Important go into **Advanced tab.**
Set the limit per time slot to "5" since we are creating the service for "Date (2 seats)" **which has 5 available tables.**

> **ℹ️ Info**
>
> Why 5 if we can only handle 2 people per table?<br>
> The reason for this is because each available "slot" in the calendar will act as a table and not a seat

![](https://orka-chat.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/help/671a5e245d077ea954b2cd4c/import/1791976337446-Cow_-_Service_Limit_3_.webp)

Repeat steps 9-14 for each of the tables you offer. Make sure to set the "booking limit per timeslot" accordingly.
so while making the service for the group variant set the limit to **the amount of available tables** which in this example is 3 tables.

> **✅ Success**
>
> You should now have a service which has 3 different tables and each table can only be booked X amount of times. This is ONE of many different ways you can set something like this up.

![](https://orka-chat.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/help/671a5e245d077ea954b2cd4c/import/1791976337172-ScreenShot_Tool_-20250115232536.webp)