Restaurant event booking: sell paid seats to your experiences
Create an experience or event with a fixed price per seat, take payment up front when the guest books, and see the guest list per sitting. The money is in before the night starts.
- Paid up front, per seat
- 3% per seat sold
- No overselling
An experience in Goboblo is a sitting with a fixed price per seat that the guest books and pays for up front. You set the price, the number of seats and the time, and you see the guest list per sitting. The money is in before the night starts, so you never set up a paid event and face empty chairs.
- Tasting menu
- Wine tasting
- Quiz night
- Set-menu dinner
- New Year's dinner
- Theme night
What is an experience in Goboblo?
An experience is a sitting with three things set in advance: a price per seat, a number of seats and a time. The guest buys a seat instead of just booking a table, so you know what the night is worth as soon as it fills up. A wine tasting, a tasting menu, a quiz night or a set-menu dinner — anything a guest pays to be part of.
Experiences run on the same backbone as your everyday restaurant reservation software — the same calendar, the same guests, the same overview. The difference is that an experience has a price and a seat count, so the guest pays for a seat instead of booking for free. Ordinary table bookings stay in your booking; experiences are what you add when you want to sell a whole night in advance.
Take payment when the guest books, not when they arrive
When you set a price per seat, the guest pays by card right in the booking view. The payment runs through Stripe straight into your own account. Goboblo takes 3% per seat sold. Stripe's card fee is charged to your own Stripe account, just like any card terminal. The money is yours before the night even starts.
- The guest pays for their seat by card as they book
- The money goes straight to your own Stripe account
- Goboblo takes 3% per seat — Stripe's card fee like any card terminal
- A prepayment holds the party — fewer late drop-outs
Pay for your seat
Card details
Pay and bookBuild the whole season with a season package
With Create a season package you build a whole series of sittings at once. You pick dates, weekdays and times, and the whole series is created in one go — up to 100 at a time. Change a price or a time and you edit the whole series in one go instead of one night at a time.
- Dates × weekdays × times → every sitting created at once
- Up to 100 sittings in one go
- Edit the price, time or capacity for the whole series at once
- A template you reuse next season
The guest picks a night, pays and is on the list
The guest sees your sittings by date, picks a night, pays for their seat and is on the guest list. You don't send a single invoice. Goboblo counts the seats down and closes the sitting once it's full, so you never sell more seats than you have.
- Sittings by date, pay per person
- No overselling — the seats count down automatically
- A guest list per sitting, ready for the night
- Paid and confirmed on the spot — no invoice to send
On an experience the guest buys a seat, not a specific table. If you'd like guests to choose their table when booking on ordinary table bookings, add that step to the booking instead.
Seats sold and money in — before the night starts
What can you sell as an experience?
Experiences fit anything you set up and charge for in advance. Here are a few nights operators sell this way.
- Set-menu holiday dinners. Sell each sitting with a price per cover and take the money up front.
- New Year's dinner. A fixed menu, a fixed price, the seats sold in good time.
- Seasonal feasts. A seasonal night with a set number of seats per table.
- Wine tastings and tasting menus. A paid seat, the guest list ready for the night.
- Quiz and theme nights. Charge per guest and keep track of how many are coming.
Who are experiences for?
Experiences are for you if you want to sell a whole night in advance instead of hoping the tables fill up.
- You run recurring events. Tasting nights, quiz nights or dinners that come around again.
- You want the money before the night. Prepayment per seat instead of drop-outs and empty chairs.
- You sell a fixed menu at a fixed price. Tasting menu, New Year's dinner, theme night.
- You want to skip the invoice and the paper list. The guest books, pays and lands on the guest list themselves.
More ways to take payment in advance
Experiences are one way to get money in before the guest arrives. If you'd rather sell a present the guest redeems later, restaurant gift cards work the same way — money up front, a visit in the future. See how it all fits together across Goboblo's features.
Experiences are part of Goboblo's booking, which is free to start. On paid experiences we take 3% per seat sold, and the rest goes straight to your own account. Book a demo and we'll show you how to create your first experience and the season package for the next season.
What operators ask about experiences
Can the guest book and pay on their own?
Yes. The guest picks a sitting, pays for their seat by card right in the booking view and gets a confirmation. The payment runs through Stripe straight into your own account, and the guest lands on that night's guest list.
What does it cost?
You start free. On paid experiences Goboblo takes 3% per seat sold — the rest goes straight to your Stripe account. Free experiences cost nothing and book without payment. See more features.
Does the experience have to cost money?
No. You can create a free experience — the guest books a seat without paying, and you still get the guest list and the capacity protection. Payment only kicks in once you set a price per seat.
What happens when a sitting sells out?
Goboblo counts the seats down and closes the sitting once it's full, so you never sell more seats than you have. Every sitting has its own guest list.
How do I handle cancellations and refunds?
The prepayment is taken when the guest books and lands straight in your Stripe account. If you want to refund a seat you do it there, just like any other card payment — you set your own cancellation terms.
Can I create a whole season at once?
Yes. With Create a season package you pick dates, weekdays and times, and the whole series of sittings is created in one go (up to 100). Change a price or a time and you edit the whole series in one go.
Want to sell your next night in advance?
Book a short demo and we'll show you how to create an experience with a price per seat, take payment up front, and build the whole season with a season package.