JOURNAL / INDEX · 410 ENTRIES · PAGE 23 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

265–276 of 403 Newest first · Articles Articles ✕

August 2026

2026-08 12 entries
FIG. 266 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-08-29

Where the supplier is registered decides whether restaurant guest data leaves the UK

The servers are in London, so the owner stopped worrying. The transfer test is where the supplier is registered, and the wrong answer leaves the restaurant exposed.

FIG. 267 Guest data and privacy
Guest data and privacy 2026-08-29

Why a CCTV privacy notice on the website does not, by itself, discharge a UK restaurant's duty

A guest asks for the terrace footage after a fall. The recorder overwrites fortnightly, other diners are in frame, and the retention setting can remove the evidence mid-dispute.

FIG. 268 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-29

The wording a restaurant booking confirmation email may keep

A discount code at the foot of a table confirmation makes the whole message direct marketing. The exposure behind that mistake is far higher than older guidance suggests.

FIG. 269 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-29

Your refund deadline runs from the day you were told, not the day you process it

A credit note, an administration fee and a refund left to the month-end run are three separate breaches of one regulation, on a clock that started the day the message arrived.

FIG. 270 Bookings and reservations
Bookings and reservations 2026-08-29

When a guest cancels a booking without phoning the restaurant

Ring at 19:15 and the cancellation lands on a docket. The four-top is released at cash-up, long after the cover was lost, and nothing in the building counts it.

FIG. 271 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-29

Telling search engines about a new restaurant page, and what the receipt proves

A new page can wait days or weeks to be crawled, and a seasonal menu has only six weeks to sell. Nothing tells the restaurant whether a search engine was ever told it exists.

FIG. 272 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-29

Every mandatory charge belongs in the first number a guest sees, and a consumer card fee belongs nowhere

A service charge, a packaging fee and a card fee arrive after the guest has already chosen. The risk is refunds on every affected order, a penalty on top, and the basket abandoned.

FIG. 273 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-29

Why a restaurant checkout refuses a card that has money on it

A £62 order fails at the last screen with money still on the card. The guest reorders through a commission-charging app, and the restaurant never learns why the basket was lost.

FIG. 274 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-29

Google withdrew star eligibility from restaurant pages that mark up reviews of themselves

Google withdrew star eligibility in September 2019 from a restaurant's own review markup. An undisclosed incentive behind those ratings adds legal exposure to the wasted effort.

FIG. 275 Menus and allergens
Menus and allergens 2026-08-29

Where written allergen information is the law, and where it is not

A wall matrix left unchecked becomes an inaccurate written claim about a named allergen. The rule that binds a dining room answering out loud turns on where the guest chooses.

FIG. 276 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-28

Restaurant card payment disputes: the evidence file you build before the chargeback arrives

Twenty-three days after a guest collected the bag, the issuer pulls the money back. The dispute is answered from whatever the system recorded that night.

FIG. 277 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-28

Why a restaurant's search result shows the wrong name and a blank icon

A listing that shows a bare domain and no icon loses the click to a directory charging commission on the same table. Google will not change a wrong site name on request.

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