JOURNAL / INDEX · 116 ENTRIES · PAGE 1 OF 10 LAST ENTRY 2026-08-25
THE JOURNAL PUBLISHED FROM LONDON · 51.5072°N 0.1276°W

Everything we learn, written down

Bookings, menus, online ordering, search. Written by the people building the product, between services.

Last published 25 Aug 2026 — the TableSpark team, London
ARTICLES111
FILMS19
TOPICS9

Featured note

FIG. 01 Building the website
Featured 2026-07-24

What is TableSpark? The best-value restaurant website platform

TableSpark is the best-value, complete restaurant-ready website platform for independent UK restaurants: scan your menu, publish a site you own, and keep the bookings, the guests and the margin.

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JUST PUBLISHED NEWEST 5
01 Menus and allergens Menu health claims to check against the Great Britain authorised register 2026-08-25 02 Bookings and reservations Is that booking refusal solely automated, and where is the human review? 2026-08-25 03 Bookings and reservations Your bookings arrive on an analogue line that is being switched off by January 2027 2026-08-25 04 Guest data and privacy How long to keep a booking record when retention rules and accounting records disagree 2026-08-25 05 Rules and compliance Labelling the order button with an obligation to pay, and adding nothing after it 2026-08-25

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1–12 of 115 Newest first

August 2026

2026-08 12 entries
FIG. 02 Menus and allergens
Menus and allergens 2026-08-25

Menu health claims to check against the Great Britain authorised register

Immunity boosting broth read fine on a chalkboard for years. On a published menu it is a marketing communication, and the wrong wording is a breach rather than a flourish.

 FIG. 03 Bookings and reservations
Bookings and reservations 2026-08-25

Is that booking refusal solely automated, and where is the human review?

A regular tries to book and the form says nothing is available. Nothing was wrong with the night: a no-show flag from last winter refused her, with no human involved.

 FIG. 04 Bookings and reservations
Bookings and reservations 2026-08-25

Your bookings arrive on an analogue line that is being switched off by January 2027

On a Friday the line goes quiet, and the card terminal sharing the socket goes with it. BT retires the analogue network by January 2027, and attached equipment may fail.

 FIG. 05 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-08-25

How long to keep a booking record when retention rules and accounting records disagree

A booking from two years ago still holds a name, a phone number and an allergy note. Data kept longer than it is needed is exposure the restaurant chose to keep.

 FIG. 06 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-25

Labelling the order button with an obligation to pay, and adding nothing after it

The last button on your checkout says Confirm. Regulation 14 wants an obligation to pay spelled out, and the wrong label leaves the guest not bound by the order.

 FIG. 07 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-25

Google Search conduct requirements: which publisher controls a restaurant can use

A guest searches your dish and reads an answer assembled above the results, with nothing to click, leaving the restaurant dependent on a page nobody reaches.

 FIG. 08 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-25

Your takeaway page still sells wine. Check the premises licence still covers off-sales.

Pandemic rules let you sell alcohol for takeaway without touching your licence. They expired on 31 March 2025, leaving delivery pages advertising the wrong permission.

 FIG. 09 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-25

If the festive menu goes live in December, the pre-orders are already committed.

The week beginning 8 December took 34% of festive bookings last year. Groups commit long before that, so a menu published in December misses most of them.

 FIG. 10 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-25

The afternoon gap: publish lunch and dinner as two service windows

One hours line claims continuous service from noon to close. The kitchen stops at 14:30, so the site keeps taking afternoon bookings for the wrong hour.

 FIG. 11 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-08-25

Can you answer a guest subject access request inside one month?

A message on Instagram asks for everything you hold on her. Nobody on the floor recognises it as a request, and days of the statutory month are already lost.

 FIG. 12 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-24

Who is the guest actually contracting with? The details your restaurant site must show

A booking dispute begins with an argument about which business the guest actually dealt with, because the site never made the trading identity easy to find.

 FIG. 13 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-24

When the restaurant stops showing up, can you actually see why? Verify the property first

When the restaurant stops appearing in search, the pages go undiscovered and nobody can see what is being reported about them, because the site was never verified.
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