Waitlist host pilot

Sign in with Qaema, select a venue, and open the service session. Add each party with a first name and size; a phone number and note are optional. Call parties manually when suitable seating is ready, then seat them after they arrive.

The pilot supports owners and managers and one table per party. Menu and POS connections are optional. When the browser is disconnected or stale, changes stay disabled until it reconnects.

For guest messages, choose SMS or WhatsApp only after the guest agrees, and select their preferred language. A phone number alone is not consent. Call remains a manual action; Notify is separate. Message delivery requires a configured provider, so Notify stays disabled until that connection is ready. “Accepted” means the provider accepted the message, while “Delivered” requires its delivery confirmation. If the result is uncertain, contact the guest manually rather than sending repeatedly. OTP remains future work. Guest self-join works separately without a phone number.

An owner can also connect Qaema Book from the optional Reservations section, so the host screen reads the venue’s reservations for today and seats guests straight from them. Create the key in Qaema on the API keys page with the scope Host — reservations and seating, copy it once, and paste it into Book API key on the host screen; it is kept on the host server and never shown again. Seating a reservation marks it Arrived in Book, and doing it twice changes nothing. Without a key the section simply stays empty.

An owner can connect an existing Qaema Lite POS from the optional POS section. Newly seated parties then appear in the register’s seating history. A pending handoff does not undo seating. This history is not a live table map and does not create or pay a food order. The host still confirms table release and cleaning. Disconnecting keeps the queue working; events from before connecting are not sent.

Keep an authenticated host screen open for synchronization. If all hosts close the app, pending handoffs wait until a host returns. Use the sync control to check pending work. Physical-device acceptance and real-provider testing are still required before live service.

Link a seated party to a dine-in order

On the POS register, open the party’s synced dine-in draft and use the seating link control. The order’s table label must match the host’s table label. Select the seated party by ticket and party size, confirm that the guests are still seated, then link. The seating history is not a live occupancy map: check with the host if unsure.

Link before starting checkout or sending the order to preparation. If you picked the wrong party, remove the link with a reason before either step, then choose again. Removing the link keeps its audit history. Moving an order between authorized devices keeps its seating link.

This action needs a connection and current owner, manager, cashier or waiter access. If the response is uncertain, use Retry to recover the original action. Do not create another order to work around it. Only received, tracked-table seatings from the last 24 hours are offered. Untracked seating and missing table labels cannot be linked yet.

Linking does not take payment, send food to preparation, or clear the host’s table. Continue the usual dine-in order and payment flow; the host confirms physical table clearing separately.

Set up guest joining and share the QR

1. Venue owner: Open Waitlist from the dashboard, choose your venue, then open Guest QR & link. Enable Guest joining. This is a venue setting; managers cannot change it.
2. Host (owner or manager): Set Estimated wait (minutes) and choose Save wait time, then Open queue. Enabling guest joining alone does not open the queue. The message under Guest QR & link explains the remaining step.
3. Open Guest QR & link at the top of the host screen. Copy link shares the public joining address; Preview guest page opens the customer flow; Download QR saves an SVG for your signage. Display / print QR opens a guest-facing sign in a new tab with a print button. It contains no host controls, names or phone numbers. Use this sign on a separate entrance display, rather than showing the host dashboard.

The same QR and link work across shifts. Guests see the current joining availability when they scan. Pause or close the queue without replacing the sign. If copying is blocked by the browser, select and copy the visible link. On the menu dashboard, the enabled waitlist also has a Guest QR & link shortcut.

Keep the host queue easy to reach during service: the sharing panel is collapsed on return once guest joining is enabled. Open it with the top Guest QR & link shortcut whenever needed.

Customer and host scenario

The customer scans the entrance QR, checks the estimated wait, enters a first name and party size, and receives a private ticket. No account, phone number, POS connection or menu publication is needed for this direct link. Keep the ticket open in the same browser; no SMS or WhatsApp is sent. Stay nearby and approach the host when called. Ask the host to cancel or correct a party size.

The host sees the guest in the same queue as manually added walk-ins. Call updates the ticket to ask the guest to come to the host; contact them in person or by phone when needed. Seat confirms they have arrived. A called or seated ticket stops showing a waiting estimate. For waiting parties the estimate is the range quoted when joining, not a guaranteed time or countdown.

Pause joins stops new entries and preserves existing tickets. Resume joins reopens admission. Close queue finishes the shift after all active parties are resolved. Only the owner can turn guest joining off; doing so hides public entry without removing existing tickets.

When guest joining is enabled, an entry also appears on your published dine-in menu. It is hidden on numbered table QRs, pickup menus and delivery menus. Guests can join remotely through the public link, so enable it only when this works for your venue.

Refreshing, rescanning or retrying in the same browser recovers the existing ticket. The private ticket cannot be shared with another browser. If cookies are cleared or access expires after 48 hours, ask the host for help; do not join again to recover a place.