Add dining seating sections

It is common for restaurants to have distinct seating areas such a bar or patio and different experiences, like a five-course tasting menu or wine tasting. The Actions Center supports this distinction and allows the user to specify the area to book a table.

Availability slots with room names

Figure 1: Example slot selection for a restaurant with seating sections — **Figure 1:** Example slot selection for a restaurant with seating sections

This inventory separation can be employed by setting the room_id, room_name, and fields in the resources message of an Availability slot. To include room descriptions, use room_description field inside the Resources message.

// A resource is used to disambiguate availability slots from one another when
// different staff, room or party_size values are part of the service.
// Multiple slots for the same service and time interval can co-exist when they
// have different resources.
message Resources {
  // One of staff_id, room_id, or party_size must be set.

  // Optional ID for a staff member providing the service. This field identifies
  // the staff member across all merchants, services, and availability records.
  // It also needs to be stable over time to allow correlation with past
  // bookings. (optional but required if staff_name is present)
  string staff_id = 1;

  // Optional name of a staff member providing the service. This field will be
  // displayed to users making a booking, and should be human-readable, as
  // opposed to an opaque identifier. (optional but required if staff_id is
  // present)
  string staff_name = 2;

  // An optional ID for the room the service is located in. This field
  // identifies the room across all merchants, services, and availability
  // records. It also needs to be stable over time to allow correlation with
  // past bookings. (optional but required if room_name is present)
  string room_id = 3;

  // An optional name for the room the service is located in or experience of
  // of the service. This field will be displayed to users making a booking,
  // and should be human readable, as opposed to an opaque identifier.
  // A room name should only be used for seating areas or prepaid experiences.
  // Examples of room names include "Bar", "Patio", "Dining Room". Examples of
  // dining experiences using room names include "Five-Course Tasting Menu",
  // "Chef Omakase". It is strongly recommended that the default seating area
  // does not have a room associated with it.
  string room_name = 4;

  // Applicable only for Dining: The party size that can be accommodated
  // during this time slot. A restaurant can be associated with multiple Slots
  // for the same time, each specifying a different party_size, if for instance
  // 2, 3, or 4 people can be seated with a reservation. (optional)
  int32 party_size = 5;

  // Localized room description with a limit of 500 characters. If set,
  // a default value must be provided, it is preferred to use the common
  // languages for the merchant's locale.
  Text room_description = 7;
}

This information is an integral part of a slots definition and will need to be included in the feeds as well as all booking and real-time update operations. You can see examples of the room_id and room_name being specified in the Dining, Vertical-Specific Feed example.

Availability Slots using Room Names for Experiences

If you have implemented or are in the process of implementing Reservations Payments Redirect, you may use room_name and room_descriptions to power prepaid dining experiences. The following screenshot details how the experience is shown on the web.

Figure 1: Example slot selection for a restaurant with seating sections including room descriptions — **Figure 1:** Example slot selection for a restaurant with seating sections and room descriptions

Room Sample

{
  "availability": [{
    "merchant_id": "dining-A",
    "service_id": "reservation",
    "start_sec": 1535853600,
    "duration_sec": 2700,
    "spots_total": 2,
    "spots_open": 2,
    "resources": {
      "room_id": "A-dining-room",
      "room_name": "Bar",
      "party_size": 2,
      }
    }
  }]
}

Experiences Sample

{
  "availability": [{
    "merchant_id": "dining-A",
    "service_id": "reservation",
    "start_sec": 1535853600,
    "duration_sec": 2700,
    "spots_total": 2,
    "spots_open": 2,
    "resources": {
      "room_id": "A-dining-room",
      "room_name": "Wine Tasting Menu Pair",
      "description": "This Wine Tasting Menu Pair showcases American cuisine rooted in the nostalgic flavors of the 20th century American experience. Each experience is hand-crafted, with a progression from small bites to more substantial plates.",
      "party_size": 2,
      }
    }
  }]
}