JOURNAL / INDEX · 410 ENTRIES · PAGE 26 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

301–312 of 403 Newest first · Articles Articles ✕

August 2026

2026-08 12 entries
FIG. 302 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-26

Your order page never agreed a delivery time, so the Consumer Rights Act supplied one

Your order screen takes a postcode and a card but never records a time the guest agreed to. When the kitchen runs ninety minutes late, the law fills that silence and your staff absorb the cost.

FIG. 303 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. 304 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. 305 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. 306 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. 307 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. 308 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. 309 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. 310 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. 311 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. 312 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. 313 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.

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