Direct answer: To handle restaurant private hire and group booking enquiries, collect the same short list of facts every time before anyone quotes: date and sitting, party size, set menu or à la carte, budget per head, allergens and dietary needs, exclusive or partial hire, who to invoice, and whether your cancellation terms are accepted. Then let the manager, not the system, make the final call.
Most enquiries arrive half-finished. "About 30 of us in December?" tells you nothing about the night, the budget or the person paying. This guide gives you a qualification checklist, a reply template, a clearly fictional sample conversation, and four ways to keep the decision in your hands when a restaurant chatbot takes the first contact.
We build Heeya, an AI chatbot for websites. The product details below describe how its appointment tool works. The checklist and the template work with or without a chatbot.
In short
- An incomplete enquiry is normal. The fix is a fixed list of questions, asked in the same order, by phone, email, form or chat.
- Eight facts qualify an enquiry: date and sitting, numbers, menu, budget, allergens, hire type, billing contact, terms.
- Recurring questions belong in one document: your group menus and terms. A chatbot can answer from it. It should not invent anything outside it.
- Keep control: manual confirmation, the guest proposing dates, or a share link so the head chef or GM decides.
- "Per slot" counts bookings, not covers. Two group bookings per sitting is a rule about events, not seats.
Table of Contents
Why Group and Private Dining Enquiries Arrive Incomplete
A table for two books itself. A group booking does not. The person asking is often an office manager or a friend who volunteered to organise, not the person who knows the budget or the dietary list. They send what they have.
Bigger restaurant groups cope with an enquiry form and a small events team. An independent with one manager and a phone that rings during service needs something lighter.
The usual failure is the back-and-forth, not a lack of enquiries. Three emails to learn the date, two more for the menu, a phone call about a vegan guest, and by then the group has booked somewhere that answered faster.
The Eight-Point Qualification Checklist for Group and Private Hire Enquiries
Whatever the channel, ask for the same eight things. Phone, email, contact form and chat all produce the same record, so the manager reads one format.
| What to ask | Why it matters | Example wording |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Date and sitting | Lunch, early evening and late evening are different products. Peak December dates go first. | "Which date, and lunch or evening? Give me a second choice too." |
| 2. Party size | Decides the room, the layout and whether a minimum spend applies. Ask for a range and a final-numbers date. | "Roughly how many, and when can you confirm final numbers?" |
| 3. Set menu or à la carte | Large tables usually run on a set menu or a pre-order. It shapes the kitchen's timing. | "Would you prefer one of our group set menus, or ordering from the carte?" |
| 4. Budget per head | Tells you which menu to offer and whether drinks are included. Say what the budget covers. | "Do you have a budget per person in mind, food only or with drinks?" |
| 5. Allergens and dietary needs | A safety matter first, a planning matter second. Collect it early, then again before the event. | "Any allergies or dietary needs we should know about now?" |
| 6. Exclusive or partial hire | Exclusive use blocks the whole room, so it needs a different answer from a long table in the main dining room. | "Do you need the whole venue, a private room, or a reserved area?" |
| 7. Company contact and invoicing | Corporate bookings need a named contact, a billing address and sometimes a purchase order. | "Who should we invoice, and who is the day-to-day contact?" |
| 8. Terms and cancellation | Better stated before the quote than argued after a drop-out. | "Our group terms cover deposits, final numbers and cancellation. Shall I share them?" |
The question order that works
Start with date and numbers: they decide whether you can say yes at all. Then menu and budget. Leave allergens, invoicing and terms for after the visitor is clearly interested. Eight questions in a row feels like a form. Four, then a pause, then four more feels like a conversation.
Allergens: what the rules actually say
Group menus make allergen information more important, not less. According to the Food Standards Agency's allergen guidance for food businesses, there are 14 allergens: celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts.
For meals served in a restaurant, which are non-prepacked food, the guidance says you can give the information in writing (a menu, a chalkboard or an information pack) or verbally, with a written notice explaining how customers can get it. The prepacked-for-direct-sale label rule, also known as Natasha's Law, covers food packed on the premises before the customer orders it, such as a sandwich on a counter. It does not describe a plated dinner at a group table.
In practice: ask about allergies at enquiry, repeat the question when final numbers are confirmed, and make sure a person in the kitchen has the final list. A chatbot can collect the information and pass it on. It should not declare a dish safe. That answer comes from the kitchen.
Answer Recurring Questions from One Group Menus and Terms Document
Read your last twenty enquiries. The same questions come up: minimum numbers, set menu prices, whether a private room has a minimum spend, when the final headcount is due, what happens if three people drop out. The answers do not change between enquiries.
Write them once, in a single document called something like "Group menus and terms". It should hold:
- the festive and group set menus, with prices per head and what each includes;
- vegetarian, vegan and allergen notes for each menu, as your kitchen sees them;
- room options, capacities, and what exclusive hire means in your venue;
- how and when you want deposits, final numbers and dietary lists, if you ask for them;
- your cancellation and no-show terms, in plain words;
- how to reach the person who decides.
A staff member can read from it on the phone. It can be attached to a reply email. And an AI agent can answer from it. With Heeya you import documents such as a PDF, a Word file or a PowerPoint, and the agent answers from them, along with your site pages and any Q&A you add by hand. If a question is not covered, you can tell the agent through its instructions to say so and take the guest's details instead of guessing.
Once the agent is live, read its conversations. Heeya shows a reliability score per answer and lets you add a corrected answer to your Q&A. For the general case, see our guide to AI chatbots for restaurants, reservations and orders.
One rule for the document: if a price, a date or a policy changes, update the file the same day. A chatbot that quotes last year's festive menu costs you more than no chatbot.
Keeping Control of the Decision on Private Hire and Group Bookings
A group booking ties up a room, a kitchen and often a whole night. Nobody wants software to confirm it on its own. The goal of a first-contact tool is to prepare the decision, so the person who owns it can say yes, no or "how about the 12th?" in one reply.
Here are four ways to do that. They are the confirmation modes of an appointment tool like the one in Heeya's Premium plan, described in more detail in our guide to booking appointments through a chatbot.
| Mode | How it plays out for a group enquiry | Good fit |
|---|---|---|
| Manual confirmation | The guest picks a slot from the card. The request waits. You confirm, refuse or propose another date. | Most restaurants for anything above a few covers |
| Guest proposes dates | The guest offers several dates, including ones outside your usual slots. You pick one or counter-propose. | Christmas parties where the date is still flexible |
| Share link | You forward the pending request by link. The head chef or GM opens it without an account and chooses the date. | Owner and manager are different people, or a group has an events lead |
| Automatic | The slot is confirmed at once. | A standard table on a quiet night, rarely a private hire |
Why manual confirmation suits private hire
Your kitchen cannot do two 40-cover events at 7:30pm. A human knows that. With manual confirmation the guest gets a "request received" message, you get an email, and nothing is final until you say so. Counter-proposals are limited to three per appointment in Heeya, which keeps a negotiation from running on for ever.
Share links when the chef decides
In many restaurants the person who answers enquiries is not the person who decides. A front-of-house lead handles the inbox. The head chef knows whether the kitchen can take another event that Friday. A share link lets the lead forward a pending request, and the chef or GM picks a date from the guest's options, with no account to create.
"Per slot" counts bookings, not covers
This is the setting people misread. In Heeya, the number of appointments per slot is a number of bookings. It is not seats and not people. If you set it to 2 for the 7:30pm sitting, two separate group bookings can sit in that slot. The size of each party is a field you ask for ("how many guests?"), and you read it before confirming.
So a rule like "no more than 2 group bookings per sitting" fits the setting directly. A rule like "no more than 60 covers in total across all groups" is a check you make when confirming, using the party size field. That is one more reason to choose manual confirmation.
Deposits, EPOS and calendars
Many venues ask for a deposit on large groups, and that is handled by your payment tool, not by the conversation. Table-management and EPOS systems may hold your floor plan, and a booking tool may or may not sync with your calendar. Ask each vendor what it covers instead of assuming.
Sample Conversation and Reply Template for a Christmas Party Enquiry
Below is a fictional conversation to show the shape of a good first contact. The restaurant, the prices and the people are invented, and the details come from an imagined "group menus and terms" document.
Fictional example: The Copper Pot, a made-up restaurant
Invented conversation. Not a real customer.
Guest: Hi, about 30 of us in December? Work do.
Agent: Happy to help. For a group of around 30, we offer our festive set menus in the main dining room or a private room. Which date are you thinking of, and would you prefer lunch or evening?
Guest: Friday 12th, evening. Maybe 28 to 32 people.
Agent: Thanks. Do you have a budget per person in mind, and should it include drinks? Our festive set menus are listed in our group menus document, and I can walk you through them.
Guest: Food only, around £45 each. Two vegetarians, one person with a nut allergy.
Agent: Noted: two vegetarians and one nut allergy. Our kitchen confirms allergen details for the final menu, and we ask for the full dietary list when final numbers are due. Our terms also cover deposits and cancellation. Would you like me to set out the options for a request?
Guest: Yes please.
Agent: I need a name, an email and the company name for the invoice. After that you can choose your preferred slot on the card, or offer a few dates. The manager confirms the booking personally.
Notice what the agent does not do. It does not promise the date, it does not say a dish is safe, and it does not quote anything outside the document. The decision lands with the manager, who sees a complete request instead of one line.
A reply template for email and phone follow-ups
Not every enquiry comes through chat. For email, keep a template that asks only for what is missing. Here is one you can adapt:
Hello [Name],
Thank you for thinking of [Restaurant] for your [Christmas party / event]. We would be glad to host you.
To check availability and prepare a proposal, could you tell us:
- your preferred date and sitting, plus a second choice;
- the expected number of guests (a range is fine);
- whether you prefer a set menu or to order from the carte, and your budget per person;
- any allergies or dietary needs;
- whether you would like a private room or exclusive use;
- the name and address for the invoice.
Our group menus and terms are attached, including our deposit and cancellation policy. Once we have these details, [Manager name] will confirm availability personally.
Kind regards,
[Name], [Restaurant]
Setting up the chat version
Import your group menus and terms file. Write instructions that list the eight questions and tell the agent never to confirm a date itself. Choose the fields on the booking card (name, number of guests, company, dietary needs). Choose manual confirmation, then test with five or six realistic enquiries. The restaurant chatbot page shows the agent on a site; the appointment tool is in the Premium plan on the pricing page.
A note on data: Heeya stores conversations and knowledge bases in the EU (OVH, France); message content is sent to AI providers (Google, OpenAI) that may process it outside the EU under standard contractual clauses or the Data Privacy Framework, with no training on your data. Corporate guests give names and company details in the chat, so tell them in your privacy policy.
FAQ: Restaurant Private Hire, Group Bookings and Christmas Party Enquiries
What information should a restaurant collect for a private hire enquiry?
Eight things: date and sitting, party size, set menu or à la carte, budget per head, allergens and dietary needs, exclusive or partial hire, the company contact and invoicing details, and acceptance of your cancellation terms. With those, a manager can quote without a second round of emails.
How do I answer "about 30 of us in December" without losing the booking?
Reply quickly, acknowledge the number and the month, and ask for the missing facts in a short list: which date, lunch or evening, menu preference and a contact email. Speed matters more than a perfect first answer. Do not ask the guest to start over.
Can a restaurant chatbot confirm a Christmas party booking?
It can, if you set it to automatic, but for groups most restaurants choose manual confirmation. In Heeya, the visitor selects a slot on a card, the request waits, and the restaurant confirms, refuses or proposes another date. The chatbot never confirms a date in free text.
Does "appointments per slot" mean covers?
No. It counts bookings. Setting 2 for a sitting allows two group bookings in that sitting, whatever their size. The party size is a field you collect and check yourself before confirming.
How can the head chef or general manager decide on a request?
Use a share link. You forward a pending request to the head chef or GM, who opens it without an account and picks a date from the guest's options or proposes another. You are notified by email.
What are the 14 allergens a UK restaurant must be able to tell customers about?
Celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites, and tree nuts, according to the Food Standards Agency's guidance. For meals served in a restaurant, the information can be written or given verbally with a clear written notice.
Does Natasha's Law apply to restaurant group menus?
Natasha's Law covers prepacked-for-direct-sale food, meaning food packed on the premises before the customer orders it, such as a sandwich on a counter. A plated group dinner is non-prepacked food, which has its own allergen information rules. Check your obligations with the Food Standards Agency or your local authority.
Where do deposits and table management fit in?
Deposits and table management are handled by the tools built for them. Ask any vendor you consider whether it covers payments, EPOS or calendar sync, and decide how much each matters to you. Heeya's role here is to answer questions from your documents and collect a complete request.
