Decision: where the cutoff sits between Foodie auto-booking a reservation and Foodie capturing a private-event lead. Get this wrong and you'll either lose group bookings or annoy your events team with junk leads.
What "large" means at your venue
There's no universal answer. Some venues consider "large" 8+; some consider 6+; some treat anything above 4 as a group. The number depends on:
Your OpenTable max party size — the ceiling for automated booking.
Whether larger parties trigger different policies — deposits, prix-fixe menus, automatic gratuity.
Whether you have a dedicated events team — if yes, the cutoff goes lower; let them handle the relationship.
A common pattern at the venues we work with: 6+ goes to events, 5 and under is normal reservations.
How Foodie handles it
Party size | What Foodie does |
1–your auto-book limit | Books normally (per How reservations get booked). |
Above your auto-book limit | Asks qualifying questions, captures contact + event details, drops a "Group Reservation Request" card in your Inbox. |
The Group card is purple in the Inbox. Foodie never auto-books it. Your events team always sees the request before any commitment is made.
Lead handling — four flavors
When a group request comes in, what should happen?
Capture-and-alert (default)
Foodie collects details, drops the card in the Inbox, sends a notification to whoever owns events.
Your team replies by text from inside Tablevoice.
Best for: venues with an events coordinator who handles group requests during business hours.
Send a form link
Foodie texts the guest your private-events form link.
Guest fills it out themselves.
Best for: high-volume venues where a structured form gathers info more reliably than a voice conversation.
Transfer to a live person
Foodie attempts to transfer the call to your events team during their hours.
Falls back to capture-and-alert outside those hours.
Best for: when the relationship matters from the first call — luxury venues, large hospitality groups.
Send a CRM-side form
Foodie posts the lead directly into Tripleseat / Perfect Venue / SevenRooms Events.
Your CRM workflow takes over — auto-replies, lead scoring, assignment.
Best for: events-heavy venues already deep in a CRM.
Most groups we work with start on capture-and-alert and move toward CRM-side as their volume grows.
CRM integrations we support
CRM | How it connects | Notes |
Tripleseat | Direct API | Most common at the venues we work with. Lead lands as a new inquiry. |
Perfect Venue | Direct API | Same flow. |
SevenRooms Events | Direct API | Beta — ask if you're on it. |
Other | Webhook | We can usually post a JSON payload; talk to us. |
Buyouts
If you do full-restaurant buyouts, this is a separate sub-flow under Private Events. Foodie can:
Quote your max-capacity buyout pricing on demand.
Capture buyout inquiries.
Tell guests you don't do buyouts (if that's the answer).
Buyout pricing is configured at the venue level. See Private events & rooms for the field-level details.
How to change it later
Reversible. The cutoff is a number; the lead-handling flavor is a setting. Both can be changed any time. Your CRM connection is set-once.
Common questions
What if a guest claims they're 4 people but they're really 12?
It happens. Once the booking lands in OpenTable and the host sees it, your team handles it like any other walk-in size mismatch. Foodie can't verify head count over the phone.
Can Foodie quote private-event pricing?
Yes — if you've put pricing into your private-events configuration. Most venues prefer Foodie to capture the lead and let an events person handle pricing in a follow-up. Your call.
What about same-day large groups?
We can route same-day group requests to a transfer-to-live workflow even if your usual setting is capture-and-alert. Useful for venues where same-day groups represent real revenue. Ask during your onboarding call.
Wizard decision_key: large-parties