JOURNAL / INDEX · 410 ENTRIES · PAGE 17 OF 35 LAST ENTRY 2026-10-24
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 24 Oct 2026 — the TableSpark team, London
ARTICLES403
FILMS33
TOPICS9

All entries

193–204 of 409 Newest first

September 2026

2026-09 12 entries
FIG. 194 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-09-14

When a Guest Disputes a Booking Deposit: Which Evidence Route the Card Network Opens

Visa's enhanced evidence route needs two earlier undisputed charges on the same card, so a first-time diner's deposit fails it on day one. The ordinary evidence route stays open.

FIG. 195 Menus and allergens
Menus and allergens 2026-09-13

The Menu Photo On Your Google Listing Might Not Be Yours

A guest's photograph of an old chalkboard can be the first menu a diner sees. Here is how to check the Menu tab, and what Google's own rules say about removing a wrong one.

FIG. 196 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-09-13

Your Own Restaurant's Name Search, and Who Actually Wins It

A clean, indexed site can still lose its own brand search to a directory page whose menu is as current as the last copy, and whose booking button may not be the restaurant's.

FIG. 197 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-09-13

The Business Profile Does Not Sell With the Restaurant

Reopening week is when the Google listing matters most, and exactly when the previous owner still controls it. The three-day clock, and the duplicate that is invisible.

FIG. 198 Menus and allergens
Menus and allergens 2026-09-13

You Changed the Price. Prove It Reached Every Guest-Facing Surface.

A saved price edit settles one surface. Three others — Google's last-crawled copy, the Business Profile menu, a printed card — can still be showing a stale figure.

FIG. 199 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-09-13

The Order Link on Your Google Listing May Not Be One You Chose

The ordering button on a restaurant's Google result can point at a page the owner never chose. Provider-supplied links arrive automatically, carrying a commission nobody priced.

FIG. 200 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-09-13

One guest list, two trading names: what the ICO says a restaurant group should not assume

Two restaurants, one company, one guest list — and a guest who never agreed to hear from the second name. The ICO's answer bites at the send; the risk starts with an assumption.

FIG. 201 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-09-13

Restaurant Customer Data Platform: What a Segment Actually Needs Before You Buy One

Before buying a platform to unify guest data, count the systems that actually disagree about who a guest is. For one site the merge is usually a merge of one, at a recurring cost.

FIG. 202 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-09-13

The Restaurant CRM System With No Live Feed Goes Stale the Week You Sign It

A guest list fed by hand is only ever as current as the last upload — and the opt-out recorded on Monday is missing from Wednesday's send.

FIG. 203 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-09-13

The Restaurant CRM App Nobody Opens During Service

Guest notes kept one login away are lost to the rush. Three reachability questions, not a feature list, decide this purchase.

FIG. 204 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-09-09

The supplier's bank details changed by email. A headcount decides which door you claim through.

Reimbursement covers individuals, microenterprises and charities. On ONS bands two in five licensed restaurants are outside the ten-person limb — excluded from one route, not all.

FIG. 205 Menus and allergens
Menus and allergens 2026-09-09

The free refill is the one promotion rule restaurants are not excluded from

The restaurant exclusion in the promotion rules is real, and it stops one regulation short of the free refill. What decides the risk is a fifty-employee headcount, not the sector.

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