Gustaio Experiences

Gustaio Experiences is a premium ticketed dining and reservation module. Create customizable events, themed dinners, tasting menus, and special occasions — complete with online booking, dynamic capacity management, and no-show protection.

What Are Experiences?

Experiences let you offer special dining events that guests can discover and book online. Unlike regular orders, Experiences are reservation-based with set dates, times, and capacities.

Examples of Experiences:

  • Wine tasting evenings
  • Themed multi-course dinners (e.g., "Italian Truffle Night")
  • Mother's Day brunch
  • Seasonal menus (Christmas, New Year's Eve)
  • Private dining events
  • Chef's table experiences

Creating an Experience

Where to do it: Gustaio Studio → Experiences → Create New

Basic Information

  • Title: Name of your experience (multilingual)
  • Description: Detailed description of what guests can expect
  • Duration: How long the experience lasts (used for capacity planning)
  • Cancellation Policy: How many hours before the event guests can cancel for free

Pricing

Experiences support tiered pricing with flexible configurations:

  • Price Tiers: Define different guest categories (e.g., Adult, Child, VIP) with individual prices
  • Pricing Mode: Choose between inclusive pricing (everything in one price) or separate menu pricing
  • No-Show Fees: Set per-tier fees charged when guests don't show up

Payment Collection

  • Charge: Collect payment upfront at booking
  • Authorize: Verify the payment method without charging (charge later or for no-shows)
  • None: No payment required at booking (for phone/walk-in reservations)

Experience Menus

Experiences can be linked to different menu types:

Set Menus

Pre-defined multi-course menus where guests see exactly what they'll eat. Create them in the Menu Builder with courses and dishes.

À La Carte

Let guests choose from your regular menu items during the experience.

Add-ons & Upsells

Offer optional extras during checkout:

  • Experience Add-ons: Special items like welcome drinks, flower arrangements, or photo packages
  • Wine Pairings: Recommended wines from your wine collection
  • Guest Preferences: Special requests like window seating, high chairs, or occasion decorations

Availability & Capacity

Slot Rules

Slot Rules define when your Experience can be booked and how many guests you can accommodate.

  • Daily Rules: Apply every day (e.g., "Dinner service 18:00–22:00")
  • Weekly Rules: Apply on specific days (e.g., "Brunch only on Sundays")
  • Date-Based Rules: Apply to specific dates (e.g., "New Year's Eve special")

Priority: Date-based rules override weekly rules, which override daily rules.

Capacity Management

  • Shared Capacity: All experiences share the restaurant's total seating capacity. When one experience fills up, it reduces availability for others.
  • Isolated Capacity: The experience has its own dedicated capacity (e.g., a private room). Other bookings don't affect it.

Booking Intervals

Set how frequently time slots are offered:

  • Interval-based: Slots every 15, 30, or 60 minutes (e.g., 18:00, 18:30, 19:00)
  • Fixed start: A single start time for the experience (e.g., "Dinner at 20:00 sharp")

Live Dashboard

Where to find it: Gustaio Studio → Experiences → Live Dashboard

The Live Dashboard is your real-time operations view during service:

  • Today's Reservations: See all bookings for the current day
  • Status Filtering: Filter by confirmed, checked-in, completed, cancelled, or no-show
  • Check-In: Mark guests as arrived when they show up
  • Table Assignment: Assign tables to reservations with overlap awareness
  • Walk-In Management: Quickly add walk-in guests

Reservation Sources

  • Online: Guests booked through your website
  • Phone: Reservations taken over the phone (manual entry)
  • Walk-In: Guests who arrive without a reservation

Guest Communication

Gustaio automatically handles guest notifications throughout the booking lifecycle:

  • Booking Confirmation: Sent immediately after a successful booking with QR code
  • Pre-Visit Reminder: Sent 5 hours before the experience
  • Thank-You & Review Request: Sent 15 hours after check-in
  • Cancellation Confirmation: When a guest cancels
  • No-Show Receipt: When marked as no-show (with fee details if applicable)

Provider Alerts

Restaurant staff receive instant notifications when:

  • A new booking is made
  • A guest leaves feedback
  • A cancellation occurs

Experience Analytics

Where to find it: Gustaio Studio → Analytics → Experience Analytics

Track the performance of your experiences:

  • Revenue per Guest: Average spend per person
  • No-Show Rate: Percentage of guests who didn't show up
  • Lead Time: Average booking advance time
  • Reservation Funnel: Confirmed → Checked-in → Completed → Expired/No-show
  • Revenue Breakdown: Base price, wines, add-ons, à la carte
  • Booking Sources: Online vs. phone vs. walk-in distribution

Best Practices

Pricing Strategy

  • Set no-show fees to reduce cancellations (recommended: 30–50% of the menu price per person)
  • Use tiered pricing for different guest types (adults, children, VIP)
  • Consider inclusive pricing for a premium feel

Capacity Planning

  • Use shared capacity for standard dining experiences
  • Use isolated capacity for private rooms or exclusive events
  • Set appropriate durations to allow proper table turnover

Guest Experience

  • Fill in detailed multilingual descriptions
  • Add high-quality images to your experiences
  • Offer relevant add-ons and wine pairings for upselling
  • Enable guest preferences for personalized service