Tips
Bookings vs Reservations: Which Does Your Lebanese Business Need?
YellowPOS has two different systems for managing scheduled visits: Reservations and Online Bookings. They sound similar but serve different needs. Here's what each one is for so you can pick the right one — or use both.
Reservations: you manage the calendar
The Reservations feature is your internal tool. Customers call or message, and you enter the booking into the system. You record the date, time, party size, table, and any notes. The system keeps everything organized so your team knows what's coming each day — no paper notebooks, no WhatsApp scroll-backs.
This works best for restaurants, cafés, and venues where the customer calls ahead and you confirm verbally. The flow is: customer contacts you → you add the reservation → you confirm it with them. The system is your record, not a customer-facing tool.
Online Bookings: customers manage their own slot
The Online Bookings feature is a public-facing page your customers visit themselves. They see your services, pick a date, choose an available time slot, and submit their request — all without calling you. You get notified, then confirm or decline from your Bookings calendar.
This works best for appointment-based businesses — salons, spas, clinics, barbershops, physiotherapists — where you have fixed service durations and recurring daily schedules. The customer self-serves, which saves you time and removes the back-and-forth.
The key difference
The distinction comes down to who enters the booking. With Reservations, you do it — it's a staff tool for logging customer requests that come in by phone or in person. With Online Bookings, the customer does it themselves from your public booking page. One is internal record-keeping, the other is a self-service customer portal.
Can you use both?
Yes. A restaurant might use Reservations for phone-in table bookings and Online Bookings for a private dining room or chef's table experience where customers self-schedule online. A spa might use Online Bookings for regular appointment slots and Reservations to log group events that require a custom arrangement.
Both systems are available in your dashboard and can run at the same time. There's no conflict between them — they just serve different intake channels.
Quick decision guide
Use Reservations if: customers contact you to book (phone, WhatsApp, in person), you have a table-based venue, or you want an internal log your staff can check before service.
Use Online Bookings if: you want customers to book without calling, your services have fixed durations, and you want a public booking page you can share on Instagram or WhatsApp.