A walk-in is a guest or customer who turns up to a hospitality business without a booking or reservation. This applies to all sorts of businesses, hotels, restaurants, bars and cafes. Walk-ins are spontaneous visitors who decide to come in on the day, often because of convenience, curiosity or need.
Walk-ins are important in hospitality as they can boost revenue and fill empty spaces. For hotels, walk-ins can help fill occupancy rates during off-peak or slow periods. For restaurants and bars, walk-ins can increase table turns and overall sales. But managing walk-ins requires flexibility and quick decision making to balance them with pre-booked guests or bookings.
Imagine this: You're the manager of a busy bistro on a Saturday night. Your restaurant is full, but you've left a few tables open for walk-ins. At 7:30pm, a group of four walks in hoping for a table. You quickly assess the situation and see that a table of six hasn't arrived yet. You decide to seat the walk-in group at a four top, knowing you can fit the reserved party at the six top if they turn up. You've managed to grab the walk-in and still have flexibility for your bookings. By the end of the night, both the walk-in group and the reserved party have eaten, and you've maxed out your restaurant's capacity and revenue.
If you want to build more consistent deskless teams, add your email to the waitlist, we're launching very soon.