> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.riservahq.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Capacity strategies explained A capacity strategy answers one question for an experience: **what does a reservation use up?** There are four. The strategy decides when a time stops being offered. You'll rarely pick one cold. The template you choose when creating an experience sets it for you. Read on when you want to change it, or when availability isn't behaving the way you expected. Find it in the experience editor under **Capacity & party → Capacity strategy**. | Strategy | A reservation uses up | Use it for | | - | - | - | | **Manual capacity** | Part of one start time's allotment, like tickets | Tours, classes, ticketed dinners and events | | **Venue floor map** | Real tables or seats, for the length of the visit | Restaurant service, anywhere a party occupies a specific table for a duration | | **Whole venue** | The entire room — a buyout, priced flat | Private events, corporate buyouts, wedding receptions | | **Open (no limit)** | Nothing in particular — only pacing, and an optional per-slot cap | A walk-in-friendly patio, a self-guided experience | *** ## Manual capacity **With Manual capacity, a reservation uses up part of a start time's allotment — like tickets.** You set a number, and each start time can take that many guests. A party of four takes four of the 2:00 allotment. When 2:00's number is used up, 2:00 stops being offered. But 2:30 still has its own full allotment. **The allotment doesn't carry across start times, even when visits overlap.** This is the part that surprises people. Sixty-minute visits starting every 30 minutes sell independently at 8:00 and 8:30. The 8:00 guests don't consume 8:30's number, and the venue's floor map isn't consulted at all. That's the point of Manual capacity. It's for experiences whose capacity is a stated number per departure, not a shared set of physical seats. Use it for tours, classes, ticketed dinners and events, anywhere each start time is its own sitting with its own count. **When overlapping visits share the same seats, use Venue floor map instead.** Think of a tasting bar where a party stays 60 minutes and new parties arrive every 30. That is the **Venue floor map** strategy's job. Or space Manual capacity's start times at least a full visit apart. *** ## Venue floor map **With Venue floor map, a reservation uses up real tables or seats, for the length of the visit.** There's no per-slot number; your tables *are* the capacity. A party is offered a time only if a table, or a combinable pair, can actually seat them. Riserva accounts for every other reservation overlapping that window, across **all** experiences in that venue, not just this one. When you'd rather an experience have capacity of its own, see [One venue or two?](/getting-started/locations-and-venues#one-venue-or-two-how-capacity-is-shared). **Communal tables give up seats rather than being taken whole.** A shared bar or farm table lets three parties share it until its seats run out. A communal table is never combined with another table. Use it for restaurant service, anywhere a party occupies a specific table for a duration. Per-table availability is the strategy that most depends on your floor being accurate. Say a party of six is told there's nothing available at a time you know is quiet. Check that a table with **max covers of 6** exists. Or check that two four-tops are marked **combinable with** each other. *** ## Whole venue — a buyout **With Whole venue, a reservation uses up the entire room.** The venue must be completely empty for the whole booking window. Once someone books it, every other time overlapping that window disappears from every experience in that venue. Use it for private events, corporate buyouts and wedding receptions. ### Buyouts are priced flat **A whole-venue price is one price for the room.** This is the important bit, and the one that catches people out. The price does not multiply by party size. A \$1,500 buyout costs \$1,500 whether eight people or forty come. Every screen shows a buyout's price as **"\$1,500 for the venue"**, never "per guest". That covers your admin, the register's **Book reservation** tile, your store's **Experiences list** and the booking window. **Changing the party size on a buyout moves no money.** Tell your staff this. Adding four guests doesn't create a balance, and removing four doesn't earn a refund. If a bigger party genuinely costs you more, charge for that with an add-on. Or set up a separate buyout experience priced for the larger group. Don't expect the party size to do it. The edit screen's summary says so before you save: > A buyout is one price for the whole venue — changing the party size doesn't > change what's owed. Change it with **Adjust party size** from Host or the iPad, and Riserva says the same once it's saved: "Party size updated. A buyout is one price for the whole venue, so nothing owed changed." A buyout with seatings every 30 minutes reads like a tasting bar to guests. Set the slot interval so a buyout offers one or two sensible start times, not eleven. *** ## Open (no limit) **With Open, a reservation uses up nothing in particular** — only pacing, and an optional per-slot cap. Use it for a walk-in-friendly patio, a self-guided experience, or anything where the only real limit is how fast your team can absorb arrivals. If you give it a per-slot capacity, it behaves like Manual capacity. If you don't, it's limited by arrival pacing alone. *** ## The limits that apply to every strategy Whatever strategy you choose, Riserva checks all of these before offering a time: | Check | What it does | | - | - | | **Party size** | The party must be within the experience's min and max | | **Members only** | Non-members get no times for members-only experiences (they see the card with a members-only notice behind **Book**, or nothing, as the experience is set) | | **Online booking cutoff** | Online booking closes this many minutes before the seating | | **Buyouts** | Any whole-venue reservation blocks everything overlapping it | | **Arrival pacing** | Guests *starting* in the same 15-minute window, capped per venue | | **Groups per slot** | Optional — the number of distinct parties in one seating | **Arrival pacing is set on the venue, not the experience.** It counts every experience running there. That's deliberate: your kitchen doesn't care which menu the eight people arriving at 12:30 chose. **Staff bypass the cutoff and the members-only gate.** A guest who calls at 2:50 for a 3:00 tasting can be booked by your team. That works even though the website has closed that time. *** ## Changing a strategy later You can change a capacity strategy from the editor. Each choice shows a one-line description under the selector. A blue box explains how that model behaves, so you can judge the switch before saving. Fields that don't apply to the chosen strategy hide themselves, like **Max per slot** under Venue floor map. Existing reservations keep the strategy they were booked under. Money and capacity already settled don't shift under you. New availability uses the new strategy. *** **What things mean on this screen:** [What things mean: Experiences](/reference/experiences) ## Related * [Tables and the floor map](/getting-started/tables-and-floor-map) * [Party size, cutoffs and who can book](/core-concepts/party-size-and-visibility) * [Payment policies](/core-concepts/payment-policies) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.