---
title: Booking Widget Settings
description: Set up the fields, limits, cut-off times, and consent text for your online booking widget.
---
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# Booking Widget Settings
## Customise your booking widget settings for online bookings
Go to **Venue Settings → Bookings → Booking Widget → Widget Settings**.
### Choose which customer fields appear
At the top of the page, the **Online Booking Settings** table lists optional fields you can add to your booking form:
- Date of Birth
- Postcode/State
- Membership Number
- Company Name
#### For each field:
1. Tick **Show in Widget** to display that field on the booking form.
2. Tick **Mandatory** as well if you want to force customers to fill it in (this only takes effect once the field is already shown).
By default, only Company Name is shown, and it isn't mandatory.
### Set booking limits
The **Booking Limits** section controls the size and volume of online bookings. Leaving a field empty means unlimited.
- **Number of People** - the maximum number of people allowed in a single online booking.
- **Number of Days** - how far in advance customers can book online, in days.
- **Number of Options** - the maximum number of booking options (for example, sitting times or areas) offered per time interval.
### Set time restrictions
The **Time Restrictions** section sets cut-off windows for new bookings. Leaving a field empty means unlimited.
- **Stop Taking Bookings Less Than X Minutes in Advance** - the minimum notice a customer must give before the booking time.
- **Stop Taking Bookings X Minutes Before Service Starts** - stops online bookings once a service (for example, a sitting) is about to begin.
### Control booking changes and general behaviour
The **Booking Changes** section sets how late a guest can edit or cancel a booking they've already made:
- **Stop editing bookings X hours before booking starts.** - applies to every online booking, including bookings held with a pre-auth.
- **Stop cancelling bookings X hours before booking starts.** - applies to every online booking **except** bookings held with a pre-auth.
### Bookings held with a pre-auth
Guests can cancel a pre-auth booking online right up until the booking starts. What happens to the hold depends on **Charge pre-auth for cancellations within X hours**:
- Cancel inside that window - the pre-auth is charged. The widget warns the guest before they confirm.
- Cancel outside that window - the hold is released.
To change the window, go to **Venue Settings → General → Venue**, open the **Pre-auth** tab, and enter the hours in **Charge pre-auth for cancellations within X hours**.
**Note**: there's no setting that stops a pre-auth booking being cancelled online. To cover late cancellations, set the charge window to the same number of hours as your cancel cut-off.
### Below that are three general on/off settings:
- **Allow Customers to Choose Which Section of Your Restaurant They Book In** - lets customers pick a specific seating section themselves.
- **Allow Online Bookings** - the master switch for the widget. Untick this to take the booking widget offline entirely.
- **Enable Next Available Booking** - offers customers the next available time slot when their preferred time is full.
### Set up compliance and consent text
The **Compliance** section covers the legal and marketing text shown to customers during booking.
1. **Booking Agreement Text** - the text shown next to the agreement checkbox (default: "I agree to the booking ").
2. **Privacy Policy URL** - a link to your venue's privacy policy, referenced in that text.
3. **Terms and Conditions Pop Up** - a rich-text editor for the full terms shown when a customer opens the pop-up.
4. **Text Shown for Optional Marketing Opt-In Field** - the wording next to the marketing consent checkbox (default: "I agree to receive special invitations and updates from...").
5. **Default Opt-In Setting for Subscription Field** - whether the marketing checkbox is ticked or unticked by default, set separately for the Diary (staff-entered bookings) and the Widget (online bookings).
6. **SMS Opt-In – Show SMS Opt-In on Widget** - adds an SMS marketing consent option to the widget.
**Note**: update the booking agreement and terms text to match your venue's actual policies before going live, and keep the Privacy Policy URL current.
### Configure verification and reCAPTCHA
Two settings at the bottom of the page add extra protection against spam and fraudulent bookings:
- **Allow Verification** - an additional customer verification step (off by default).
- **Enable reCAPTCHA** - turns on Google reCAPTCHA for the widget. Once enabled, tick which actions require it: Cancel Booking, Edit Booking, Confirm Booking, Book Now.
**Note**: enabling reCAPTCHA on more actions adds friction for genuine customers, so it's worth weighing up against how much spam or abuse your venue actually sees.
### Save your changes
When you're done, use the buttons at the bottom right of the screen:
- **Save** - saves your changes and stays on this screen.
- **Save & Next** - saves and moves on to the Widget Messages tab, where you can customise the confirmation and notification text shown to customers.
- **Cancel** - discards unsaved changes.
Note: once saved, changes apply immediately to your live booking widget. Use the **Booking Widget** button at the top of the page to preview it.
- [Getting Started](https://help.nowbookit.com/knowledge-base/getting-started?hsLang=en#main-content)
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