walk-in-vs-booking-fairness

---
name: walk-in-vs-booking-fairness
description: Sets one written rule for splitting tables between people who booked and people who walked in, so the decision is not made table by table on the host's judgement of who looks like they'll tip. Holds back a stated share of covers for walk-ins, orders the walk-in queue by wait time, and checks every seating decision against the Equality Act 2010 duty to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled guest who cannot simply wait their turn the usual way. Use when deciding how to divide tonight's tables, or when a seating decision is challenged as unfair.
---

# Walk-ins and bookings, seated by one fair rule

Give it tonight's total covers, the number booked, and the walk-in queue as it stands. Get back a stated split, the order the queue should be seated in, and a check of whether any waiting guest needs an adjustment the standard order does not cover.

## What it does

1. **Decide the split before service, not table by table during it.** Guidance frames the choice as cooperative, not a contest: "the question isn't just which one is better, but how restaurants can make both work together... the answer... is both."

2. **Hold back a stated number**, not a vague intention. Guidance recommends "setting aside specific tables for walk-ins", so there is a known number walk-ins compete for.

3. **Order the walk-in queue by wait time**, the same logic as a formal waitlist: whoever joined first is seated first, with any exception recorded and reasoned.

4. **Check every decision against the duty to adjust, not just the duty not to discriminate.** The Equality Act 2010 duty on "employers, services and education providers" is to "try to remove the barriers you face because of disability", engaged at a "substantial disadvantage."

5. **Know "reasonable" has no fixed definition, and document rather than skip.** "There is no set definition of 'reasonable' in the Equality Act"; it depends on "cost", "practicality", "effectiveness", "disruption" and "health and safety."

6. **Write the rule once, apply it every night**, so it is the venue's policy, not one host's judgement.

## Then it checks

1. Tonight's split is a stated number, decided before service.
2. The walk-in queue is ordered by join time, exceptions reasoned.
3. Every waiting guest is checked for an adjustment request, logged.
4. No decision rests only on "the host's judgement" with nothing written down.

Any check fails: redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only. Never invent a fact, number or quote. Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never let an unwritten, in-the-moment judgement decide a seating order.
- Never refuse an adjustment request without recording what was asked and why.
- Working document for the owner, and for a disability adviser or solicitor where a request is disputed. Not legal advice.

## Built from
- Eat App, "Why Don't Restaurants Take Reservations?", restaurant.eatapp.co, 10 Mar 2025, read 4 Nov 2026: step 2.
- Waitly, "Reservation vs Walk-In: What's Best for Restaurants in 2025?", waitly.com, 15 Sep 2025, read 4 Nov 2026: step 1.
- Scope, "Asking for reasonable adjustments", scope.org.uk, reviewed 12 Nov 2025, read 4 Nov 2026: steps 4 and 5.

# walk-in-vs-booking-fairness

## You are given
Tonight's total seated capacity in covers. The number of covers already booked. The stated hold-back number or percentage reserved for walk-ins, decided by the owner before service. The walk-in queue as it stands: name or contact method, party size, and join time. Any adjustment request from a waiting guest, and what was offered or why it could not be, already decided by the owner or manager.

## Produce
Write into a `./walk-in-vs-booking-fairness-output/` folder:

1. `split-plan.csv` with columns: `total_capacity`, `booked_covers`, `walk_in_holdback_covers`, `holdback_percent`, `decided_before_service`. `holdback_percent` is `walk_in_holdback_covers` divided by `total_capacity` as a percentage to one decimal place. `decided_before_service` is `yes` or `no`.
2. `walk-in-queue.csv` with columns: `row_ref`, `name_or_contact`, `party_size`, `join_time`, `queue_position`, `seated_out_of_order`, `reason_recorded`. `queue_position` is ranked by `join_time`. `seated_out_of_order` and `reason_recorded` are `yes` or `no`.
3. `adjustment-log.csv` with columns: `row_ref`, `request_description_verbatim`, `offered_or_declined`, `reasoning_verbatim`, `factors_considered`. `offered_or_declined` is `offered` or `declined`. `factors_considered` lists, separated by semicolons, which of `cost`, `practicality`, `effectiveness`, `disruption`, `health and safety` were recorded as considered.
4. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: any night with no `split-plan.csv` row marked `decided_before_service` as `yes`; any `seated_out_of_order` row with `reason_recorded` of `no`; any `adjustment-log.csv` row with `offered_or_declined` of `declined` and no `reasoning_verbatim`; any row missing `factors_considered`.

## Rules
- Codex ranks, checks and records. It never decides the holdback number, never decides a queue-jump reason, and never decides whether an adjustment is reasonable - those are supplied by the owner or manager.
- Never write guidance that assigns priority by party size, appearance, or likely spend; the only ordering rule it applies is join time, unless an exception reason is supplied.
- Never mark an adjustment request `offered` or `declined` without the verbatim reasoning supplied for it.
- Use British English and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write; flag any supplied text containing one in `gaps.md`.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own service capacity, and for a disability adviser or solicitor to check where a specific reasonable adjustment request is disputed. It is not legal advice.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. The split plan for the night, and whether it was decided before service. The walk-in queue order and any out-of-order seating with its reason. Every adjustment request logged, with whether it was offered or declined and the factors recorded. The `gaps.md` item count.