Floor & tables
Table, seat and party statuses
What each table, seat, and party-member status means on the floor, and how party states roll up to partially seated and partially arrived.
Updated Jul 23, 2026
The floor view is colour-coded so your team can read the room at a glance. There are three separate status systems at work — one for tables, one for seats, and one for each party member — and understanding how they relate is the key to reading the floor.
Table statuses
A table's status answers one question: can I seat someone here?
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Available | Free to seat. |
| Reserved | Held for an upcoming reservation. |
| Partially seated | Some of the party is down, but not everyone has arrived. |
| Occupied | A party is seated here. |
| Needs cleaning | The party has left; the table needs bussing. |
| Blocked | Taken out of service (maintenance, a private hold). A blocked table is never offered by availability. |
Tables move between these states in sensible directions only — for example, an Occupied table can go to Needs cleaning, and Needs cleaning returns to Available once it's bussed. When a party departs, their tables are set to Needs cleaning automatically.
Seat statuses
Within a table, each seat has its own state during service. Seat status is derived, never set by hand — it's computed from who's actually sitting where:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Empty | No one assigned. |
| Held | Reserved for a party member who hasn't arrived yet. |
| Occupied | Someone is sitting here. |
This is what lets the floor show a half-seated table honestly — some seats occupied, some held for people still on their way.
Party member statuses
Each cover in a party is tracked individually as they arrive:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Not yet arrived. |
| Waiting | Checked in at the host stand, not yet seated. |
| Seated | At the table. |
| Completed | Their visit is finished. |
| No-show | Never arrived. |
Tracking arrival per person is what makes large-party check-in work: a table of eight can trickle in, and the host marks each guest as they appear.
How party states roll up
Here's the part that ties it together. Party-level states are derived from the members, never set directly — think of a flight's boarding status, computed from who's been scanned rather than typed in by hand.
- A "waiting party" isn't a stored status at all. It's derived: a party where at least one member is Waiting and at least one is still Pending. That's the signal to your host that a group is partly at the stand.
- When some — but not all — of a party has arrived, the reservation rolls up to Partially arrived and the table to Partially seated, automatically.
- Once everyone's down, the table becomes Occupied and the reservation Seated.
Because these roll up from the members, your team never has to keep a party-level status in sync by hand — they just check people in, and the floor reflects it.
Live everywhere
Every one of these changes broadcasts to every screen watching the venue the moment it happens — the floor, the kitchen display, and any other open view. The floor never needs a manual refresh.
What this affects
- The service lifecycle — seating and departing drive table statuses; departing sets tables to Needs cleaning.
- Availability — Blocked tables are off the market; Reserved tables reflect upcoming bookings.
- The kitchen display — reflects the same live party data.
What affects this
- Reservations holding tables mark them Reserved; seating a party marks them Occupied. See the booking flow.
- Party members checking in drive the partially-arrived and partially-seated roll-ups.