JOURNAL / INDEX · 410 ENTRIES · PAGE 22 OF 34 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

253–264 of 403 Newest first · Articles Articles ✕

August 2026

2026-08 12 entries
FIG. 254 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-31

Nobody chose the scripts running where your guests type their card numbers

Four or five third-party scripts nobody chose can read the card fields on a restaurant's own checkout page, and the exposure can run undetected before anything looks wrong.

FIG. 255 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-31

Your reviews wall is probably outside the Online Safety Act, and the one feature that would change that

Switching on a photo gallery or a guest message board can end a website's Online Safety Act exemption for the whole service, and the risk is one an owner must judge alone.

FIG. 256 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-30

The code on the table was printed once. The address behind it was not.

A printed table code will never be edited again, yet the address behind it can lapse, move or drift out of date, and the failure lands on a guest mid-service.

FIG. 257 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-08-30

The supplier still has the guest list: what Article 28(3)(g) lets a restaurant demand on the way out

A departed booking supplier can still hold the whole guest list, and the restaurant that never instructed deletion carries the risk when a guest complains.

FIG. 258 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-08-30

The guest wifi list is not a marketing list

Two thousand addresses came off the wifi splash screen, and the Christmas send is booked. A network login is not negotiations for the sale, and the risk sits with the restaurant.

FIG. 259 Building the website
Building the website 2026-08-30

The four-megabyte hero photograph, and the Core Web Vital it actually moves

Heavy restaurant photographs are routinely blamed for the wrong metric, and a fortnight of work is spent against the wrong number. The report that settles it is field data.

FIG. 260 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-30

A security fix was published on Tuesday. Nobody at the restaurant knows whether it has reached the site.

A published security fix reaches a restaurant's live site only when somebody applies it, and by default that is nobody's job. The exposure lands on the restaurant either way.

FIG. 261 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-30

A customer harassed your server. Which duty already binds the restaurant, and which is only announced

A manager who serves the difficult table himself and writes nothing down may already put the restaurant in breach, and no complaint is needed before the regulator acts.

FIG. 262 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-30

Less healthy food advertising restrictions: the headcount that decides whether a UK restaurant may boost a post

Boosting a burger post is a payment to place an advertisement. Its lawfulness turns on a headcount taken on a day the Regulations never name, and the risk sits with the payer.

FIG. 263 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-30

A guest wants a VAT invoice for last week's online order, and the rule everyone quotes is wrong twice over

The statutory duty is narrower than most restaurants fear and the document shorter, though HMRC's guidance asks for more, and the rate on each line is where the exposure sits.

FIG. 264 Bookings and reservations
Bookings and reservations 2026-08-30

A dated event loses the fourteen-day cancellation right, and “all sales final” still does not follow

Forty places are sold, one guest changes their mind, and the no-refunds line at checkout may not bind. The exposure is the term itself, and the price shown before it.

FIG. 265 Bookings and reservations
Bookings and reservations 2026-08-30

The booking only one person knows about

Bookings agreed in message threads can bind the restaurant, yet the only copy of what was promised walks out with the phone long before any dispute arrives.

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