> ## 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.
# Set up locations and venues
Set each location's timezone, then add a venue for every bookable space. Find
both under **Settings → Venues & floor maps**.
Riserva has two levels above your tables:
* A **location** is a property. It comes from Shopify, so you don't create one
here.
* A **venue** is a bookable space inside that property: the tasting bar, the
restaurant, the cave, the lawn where tours meet.
## Before you start
* Make sure your properties exist as locations in Shopify
(*Settings → Locations*).
## Check that your Shopify locations synced
Your locations sync automatically. There's no sync button. Every time you open
**Venues & floor maps**, Riserva pulls your locations from Shopify and updates
them.
What always follows Shopify: **name, address, phone, and whether the location is
active**. Edit those in Shopify (*Settings → Locations*) and they change here on
your next visit.
Riserva **deactivates** the location rather than deleting it. Your reservation
history and its venues stay intact, listed under **Inactive locations**.
The list may look stale. Riserva is showing you the last successful sync
rather than an empty page. Reload in a moment.
## Set each location's timezone
**Every bookable time at every venue under a location is generated in that
location's timezone.** The timezone is the one location field that is yours,
not Shopify's. It matters more than anything else on the page.
1. Open **Settings → Venues & floor maps**.
2. Click the pencil icon beside the location's timezone, in its header.
3. Pick a zone — Pacific, Mountain, Arizona, Central, Eastern, Alaska, Hawaii,
or **Other (enter IANA name)** to type one such as `Europe/Paris`.
4. **Save.**
On first sync, Riserva uses your Shopify store's timezone.
Set the timezone before you take reservations. Changing it later doesn't
rewrite the dates and times already stored on existing reservations. Those
can sort and read in the old zone.
## Add a venue
1. On **Settings → Venues & floor maps**, find the location.
2. Click **Add venue**.
3. Give it a **name** — "North Tasting Bar", "The Restaurant", "Cave Tour
meeting point".
4. Pick a **type**: Tasting bar, Restaurant, Tour, Event space, or Other.
5. Optionally open **Arrival pacing (optional)** and set a limit. See
[Pace arrivals at a venue](#pace-arrivals-at-a-venue).
6. **Create venue.**
You can add as many venues to a location as you like. Venues on a location
that's inactive in Shopify can't be added to.
A venue has no address and no timezone of its own. It inherits both from its
location. It also has no capacity number: capacity comes from the tables you
put in it. See [Tables and the floor map](/getting-started/tables-and-floor-map).
## One venue or two? How capacity is shared
Every experience you schedule at a venue draws from the **same tables and
seats**. Riserva never holds seats back for one experience. If the Estate
Flight and the Library Tasting both run at your tasting bar, whichever party
books first gets the seats. That's deliberate: it keeps the room full, and it
matches how the room actually works.
When that's *not* what you want, you have three levers. Try them in this
order:
1. **Share the room (the default).** Right whenever the offerings genuinely
share the space. An empty seat serves whoever books it.
2. **Split the schedule.** Same venue, different hours — tastings 11–3, dinner
from 6. The experiences never overlap, so they never compete.
3. **Split the space.** Give the experience its own venue — "Reserve Room"
beside "Main Tasting Bar", each with its own tables. A venue is the unit
capacity belongs to. So a separate venue is how you dedicate capacity to an
experience. Venues are free to create, and both can live on one location.
You can also cap one experience *within* a shared room. **Max per slot** on
the experience limits how much of the pool a single time can take, without
reserving anything.
No. Keep a venue to one kind of capacity. Riserva treats a venue's resources
as one interchangeable pool. So give the tour fleet its own venue ("Tour
departures") and the dining room its own.
A whole-venue buyout takes the venue it's scheduled at. That's one more reason
the room being bought should be its own venue.
## Pace arrivals at a venue
Arrival pacing caps how many guests can **start** a visit in any 15-minute
window. Guests who don't fit are offered a later time instead. Pacing is the
quiet feature that stops a good service turning into a bad one. Even when
tables are free, seating too many parties at once overwhelms the kitchen or
the pour staff.
Set **Max new guests per 15 minutes** when creating the venue. Or edit it
later on the venue page as **Arrival pacing — max new guests per 15 min**.
* A good starting point is how many first courses (or first pours) your team
can comfortably begin in 15 minutes.
* Leave it blank for no limit.
* Pacing counts **every experience** running in that venue. So a tasting and a
lunch service share the same arrival budget.
## Edit a venue
Open the venue from its location card. The venue page has:
* **Venue details** — name, type, arrival pacing, description
* **Photo** — drag one in, or replace / remove an existing one
* **Tables and seating** — see [Tables and the floor map](/getting-started/tables-and-floor-map)
* **Floor map** button — the visual layout editor
* **Status** — Active or Inactive, in the page header
## Turn a venue off
Set a venue to **Inactive** to retire it. That's the only way: there is no
delete. This is deliberate. Reservation history, reports and floor maps all
point at venues, and deleting one would put holes in your past.
An inactive venue stops being offered for new reservations. Existing
reservations stand.
## Connect venues to experiences
An **experience** decides what happens in a venue, not the venue itself. One
experience can run in several venues. You link them on the experience itself,
under **Where it runs**. Each schedule you add is attached to one of those
venues.
That's how a single "Estate Tasting" can run at the bar Thursday through Sunday
and in the barrel room on Saturdays only.
## Close dates with blackout periods
The **Blackout periods** card closes dates to new reservations — a holiday, a
private buyout, the harvest crush. Existing reservations stand. A blackout only
stops new ones. So if you must close a date that already has reservations,
cancel them and contact the affected guests yourself.
Click **Add blackout period**, then:
1. **Name** it for your team — "Christmas and New Year". Guests never see the
name; they simply see no availability.
2. Choose **Applies to**: **All venues and experiences**, or **Specific venues
or experiences**.
3. Pick the **Date range** on one calendar. Click the first closed day, then
the last. Both ends are included. For a single day, click it once.
Each period lists with its name, dates and coverage. **Edit** reopens the same
dialog. **Remove** deletes the period and reopens those dates instantly. With
none set, the card reads "No blackout periods".
Under **Specific venues or experiences**, tick whole venues. Or expand a
venue's list and tick just the experiences to pause there.
* Ticking a venue ticks everything in it.
* A partially ticked venue shows a dash.
* A fully ticked venue closes the venue itself, including experiences you add
to it later.
**What things mean on this screen:** [What things mean: Settings](/reference/settings)
## Related
* [Tables and the floor map](/getting-started/tables-and-floor-map)
* [Create your first experience](/getting-started/create-your-first-experience)
* [Capacity strategies explained](/core-concepts/capacity-strategies)
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