How to set up your restaurant on Opraly (step-by-step)

Setting up a new system the week before a busy service is nobody’s idea of fun. The good news: getting your restaurant live on Opraly is a short, linear checklist — account, menu, tables and staff, hours, online reservations, payments, then go live. Work through it in order and you can be taking online bookings and running a digital waitlist the same afternoon.

Before you start: what to have ready

You will move faster if you gather a few things first:

• Your restaurant name, logo and brand colors for the booking page.
• A rough floor plan — how many tables and how many covers each seats.
• Your opening hours and the days you take reservations.
• Your shift roster — who hosts, who serves, who manages.
• A bank/payout account if you plan to take deposits or payments.

None of this has to be perfect on day one. You can refine every part later from settings.

Step 1: Open your account

Head to Start free and create your Opraly account. When you pick your vertical, choose Restaurants & delivery — this turns on the restaurant-specific tools (the host waitlist, tabs, and table management) instead of the appointment-style layout. If you run more than one site, you can add each one under multi-location so they share a login but keep their own calendars and reports.

Step 2: Build your menu and bookable experiences

In Opraly, the things guests reserve or pay for are your services — for a restaurant that means your bookable experiences and menu items:

• Reservation types — a standard table, a bar seat, a chef’s counter, a private-dining room.
• Set menus and experiences — tasting menus, brunch sittings, or a fixed holiday menu.
• Add-ons — a celebration cake, a bottle of wine pre-ordered for the table.

Give each one a name, a duration (so the calendar knows how long a table is held), a price where relevant, and a short description. This is also where you decide which experiences require a deposit — more on that in Step 6.

Step 3: Set up tables, resources and staff

Restaurants are really about resources — the tables themselves. Add each table with its cover count so Opraly can match a party size to a seat and avoid double-booking the same table.

Then add your staff and assign roles & permissions:

• Hosts work the host stand and the waitlist.
• Servers open and run tabs, take tips, and close out payments.
• Managers see reporting & analytics and change settings.

Roles keep the right tools in front of the right people — a host does not need your sales reports, and a server should not be editing your payout account.

Step 4: Set your hours and service windows

Open your calendar & scheduling settings and enter your opening hours by day. You can view bookings by day, week or month, and drag-to-reschedule a reservation when a party calls to move. Set your service windows — lunch, dinner, late seatings — and how many covers you will accept per slot so you never over-promise the kitchen.

Tip: leave a little buffer between large bookings. A 12-top needs longer to seat and clear than a 2-top, and the calendar will respect the duration you set per reservation type.

Step 5: Turn on online booking and the branded page

This is the moment your restaurant starts working for you 24/7. Switch on online booking and Opraly generates your branded booking page — your name, logo and colors, not a marketplace. Guests pick a date, party size and time, and the booking lands straight on your calendar.

Two things to enable here:

• Online check-in so walk-up guests can join the waitlist from their phone before they arrive — the same queue your host works at the stand.
• Reminders plus reschedule and cancel notices, with 2-way messaging so a guest can simply reply to change a time or ask about dietary needs.

Step 6: Connect payments, deposits and no-show protection

Connect your payout account, then decide how money moves. Opraly lets you choose the capture timing per experience:

For everyday tables, card-on-file with a no-show fee is usually enough — nothing is charged unless a party no-shows or cancels late. For Friday and Saturday peaks or big groups, add a deposit. Set a fair cancellation window so guests who give you notice are never charged. At the table, servers run a tab and capture tips at close.

Step 7: Do a test run, then go live

Before you announce it, book a test reservation through your own branded page and walk it end to end: confirmation message, reminder, check-in, seating from the waitlist, opening a tab, and closing payment. Check that the table shows correctly on the calendar and that the reminder text reads the way you want.

When it looks right, share your booking-page link everywhere your guests find you — your website, Instagram bio, Google profile and email footer. That is it: you are live.

What to do next

Setup is the start, not the finish. Once reservations are flowing, your next job is filling the quiet shifts and turning first-timers into regulars. Read how to grow your restaurant and get the most out of Opraly for the levers that move revenue — and see the full picture on the restaurants page.

Ready to set yours up? Start free and have online reservations and a digital waitlist running today.