A WhatsApp booking link guests can find
Some guests would rather send a message than phone during service. WhatsApp's click-to-chat link opens a chat with the restaurant in one tap. This guide shows how to build that link, what to write beside it, and how to place it on a restaurants.Best hub next to the menu and the other ways to book.
What to put on it
A click-to-chat link
WhatsApp's click-to-chat link is wa.me/ followed by the full number in international format, digits only, with no plus sign, spaces or leading zero. Test it on a phone before you publish it, and use the number the team actually answers during service.
A pre-filled message
WhatsApp also accepts a pre-filled message added to the link with ?text=, so the chat opens with a request for a table, a date, a time and the number of guests. It saves back-and-forth and gives the team everything it needs in the first message.
When you reply
Write next to the row when bookings are answered, for example between 10 and 18, so a guest messaging at midnight knows to expect a reply in the morning. The row label can carry it: Book on WhatsApp, replies by noon.
Another way to book
Not every guest uses WhatsApp. Keep a phone link and, if you have one, the online reservation page as rows nearby, so the chat is one option among several rather than the only door into the dining room.
Group and event enquiries
Large tables, private hire and birthday dinners need more detail than a quick chat. Give them their own row, perhaps a separate chat link with its own pre-filled message, or a link to an enquiry form you already use.
What restaurants.Best does differently
The chat link sits with everything else
A WhatsApp link on its own answers only one question. On a hub it sits beside the menu, the opening hours and the online booking page, so a guest can check what they want to eat and then book in the way they prefer, all from the one address in your bio.
Change the number, keep the address
If the restaurant changes its WhatsApp number or moves to an online booking system, only the row on the hub changes. Printed cards, the bio and the Google profile all carry the hub address, so none of them needs replacing when the booking channel does.
Bookings today, regulars tomorrow
A WhatsApp chat ends when the booking is confirmed. The Super Follow button on the same hub keeps the guest in touch with the restaurant afterwards. On Premium you can message Super Followers from the hub, for instance when the terrace opens or a Sunday table frees up.
How to set it up
Build and test the link
Write the click-to-chat link with your number, add a pre-filled booking message if you want one, and open it on a phone to check that it starts a chat with the right account and that the text reads well.
Create the hub
Sign up on the free Starter plan and choose restaurants.best/yourname. It comes with unlimited links and the Super Follow button, which is all a WhatsApp booking row needs to sit alongside the rest of the restaurant.
Add the booking rows
Add the WhatsApp link as a row labelled Book on WhatsApp, then the phone link, the online booking page and the menu. On Pro, Prompt It can lay them out from a description, and a second prompt moves any row to the top.
Share the hub address
Use the hub address in the Instagram bio, on the Google profile and on printed material instead of the bare chat link. Guests then see every way to book, and anyone who presses Super Follow can hear from the restaurant later.
Questions
- How do I make a WhatsApp link for reservations?
- Use WhatsApp's click-to-chat format: wa.me/ followed by the full international number, digits only. To open the chat with text already typed, add ?text= and your message, encoded for a web address. Put that link on your hub as a row so guests find it beside the menu.
- Does restaurants.Best manage my bookings?
- No. The hub links to the way the restaurant already takes bookings, whether that is WhatsApp, a phone number or an online reservation service. Confirming, declining and keeping track of tables all stay with that channel and with your team.
- Can I use a WhatsApp Business number?
- The hub does not mind which account the link opens: any WhatsApp number in the click-to-chat format works as a row. Whether to use WhatsApp Business is a question of the tools you want for replying, which WhatsApp describes on its own pages.
- Can I tell guests when a table frees up?
- On Premium, yes, to your Super Followers: write a message from the hub and it reaches each of them in their super box. That suits a Saturday cancellation or a new booking window. Guests who only messaged you on WhatsApp will not receive it unless they have also Super Followed.
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