The doorway, without the crowd.
Put walk-ins on a digital list and message them on WhatsApp the moment their table is ready. It runs on the same board as Seated RMS, so the waitlist and the reservation book are never two different versions of tonight.
Walk-ins are most of a Pakistani Friday. The waitlist turns the crowd at the door into a list with an order, and tells each guest when it is their turn.
The list everyone can see
A walk-in goes on the list with a name, a party size and a phone number, and the list is the same on the host stand, the floor and the manager's phone. Nobody is holding the running order in their head, and nobody has to ask.
Table ready, on WhatsApp
When the table comes free, the guest gets a WhatsApp — the channel they already read. They can wait somewhere they want to wait instead of standing in your doorway, and they come back when you are actually ready for them.
A wait time you can quote
The list gives you an estimate for how long the next party will wait, based on how many are ahead of them. It is an estimate, not a promise, and it is a great deal better than a number invented at the door.
A status page for the guest
The guest gets a link showing where they are in the queue. That is the question your host answers twenty times a night, and it answers itself.
The waitlist, answered.
Still curious? Email hello@seated.pk and we'll come back within a day.
It is part of Seated RMS — the same board runs the reservation book and the walk-in list, so the two are never separate versions of tonight. It is listed on its own because plenty of restaurants start there: walk-ins are the bigger problem on a Pakistani Friday, and the waitlist is the quickest thing to feel.
A WhatsApp message, sent the moment you free the table. They also get a link to a status page showing where they are in the queue, so they can see the wait moving without asking your host. No app, no SMS charges, no pager.
They are estimates based on how many parties are ahead, not a promise. They give your host a number to say at the door instead of guessing, and the guest a sense of whether to wait — which is usually the real question.
Yes. A restaurant that takes no bookings at all can run the walk-in list on its own. Most end up using both, because a guest who walked in tonight is the guest you want to book next month.
From the Journal
Read the thinking behind it.
Data stories and field notes from the reservation book, related to this product.
If you still take bookings by phone
Digitisation was supposed to reach restaurants as an app you download and log into. In Pakistan it arrived through the chat window already open on every phone. We looked at where bookings actually come from, and watched the paper reservation book surrender to a green tick.
To get four hours of your shift back
Confirmations, day-before reminders, "is my table ready?", chasing the no-shows — the reservation chatter nobody puts on the roster can quietly eat half a shift. Here's the real math, and how Seated RMS's WhatsApp automation hands the time back.
Clear the doorway on Friday.
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