Floor intelligence guides
Host stand and waitlist management: quote waits you can keep
The host stand is where full nights are won or lost. Quote a wait too long and the party leaves; too short and they stew in your lobby and open the meal annoyed. Both failures have the same root: the host cannot see the floor.
Why wait quotes go wrong
A quote is a prediction built from two inputs: how many parties are ahead, and how fast tables are coming back. Hosts know the first precisely, because the list is in front of them. The second they guess, from memory of a floor they last walked ten minutes ago. During a rush the floor changes every minute, so the guess is stale the moment it is made, and the host either pads the number, losing walk-ins, or shaves it, breaking promises.
A quoting method that holds up
- Know your turn times by party size, from measurement, not instinct. A four-top and a two-top do not free up at the same rhythm.
- Count the tables that fit the party, not all tables: a free two-top does nothing for a party of six.
- Add your real reset time to every quote. A table freeing in five minutes is sellable in five plus however long your resets actually take.
- Quote a range and beat it. “Fifteen to twenty” kept at fourteen builds trust; “ten” broken at eighteen burns it.
Run the stand on live state, not on memory
Waitlist apps put the list on a screen, which helps, but they still ask a human to tell them when tables free up. The missing input is a live, self-updating view of the floor. With one, the host seats from the screen, quotes from real turn data, and never abandons the door to walk the room. Reservation platforms stay useful for booking demand; the live floor is what makes their promises keepable.
What TableWave puts on the host screen
TableWave feeds any TV or tablet at the stand from the CCTV cameras you already have: every table coloured by state, how long each party has been seated, which tables are being reset right now, and, on the Pro plan, a prediction of the next tables to free up so quotes stop being guesses. It is silent, needs no taps, and keeps working when the internet drops because everything runs on a computer inside your restaurant. Plans and setup fees are on the pricing page; a 30-day pilot lets your hosts run a real Friday on it before any monthly billing starts.
Questions owners ask
Does TableWave replace my reservation system?
No. Keep taking reservations wherever you take them today. TableWave runs the room side: live table states, timers and alerts. You can mark held tables as reserved so walk-ins are never seated on a booking.
What screen does the host stand need?
Any TV or tablet on your network. The host view is a floor plan with colours and timers, deliberately readable from a couple of metres away mid-rush. There is no app to install at the stand.
How does the next-table prediction work?
The Pro plan learns your floor’s actual turn patterns by party size and flags the tables most likely to free up soon, so the host can quote from data. It is a planning aid measured on your own floor, not a guarantee.
We only use a paper waitlist. Is that a problem?
Not at all. Paper plus an accurate live floor beats a waitlist app plus a stale one. The screen tells your host what is free and what is coming; the clipboard can keep holding the names.
Prove it on your own floor
The 30-day pilot is paid, on purpose: you cover your plan’s setup fee, we install in person, and you read your own payback report before any monthly billing starts.
The install is $1,500. If it earns its keep in 30 days, your first month’s on us. If it doesn’t, we take it out and you owe nothing more.
Prices in USD, before tax. Setup is non-refundable once installed; monthly starts only if you continue.