How an Irish bar in Scotland handles big group bookings

An Irish bar with live music in Scotland moved its bookings from its previous booking system to Sidedoor, alongside the other venues in its group. Between 15 September and 30 October 2026, almost half of its bookings (48%) were groups of 8 or more. Staff approved 389 booking requests, and 48% of guests got an automatic message before they arrived.

This case study is anonymous. It does not name the bar or its group, and it describes the venue only as far as it can without identifying it.

About the bar

The venue is an Irish bar in Scotland with live music. It is one of several venues in a group.

Its bookings lean towards groups. In the period this case study covers, almost half of them were for 8 or more people, which shapes how the bar needs to take a booking in the first place.

The challenge

Before the switch, the bar took bookings on its previous booking system, and the group ran a separate system at each of its venues.

The group wanted four things from a change:

• One platform for all its venues, rather than a system per site.
• The ability to offer private hire.
• Lower operating costs.
• Bringing the business and its bookings into the 21st century.

For a bar where so many bookings are big groups, the booking flow matters. A large party that hits a “no availability” message on the website is a booking the bar may never hear about.

What they set up

The group moved its venues onto Sidedoor, with every venue under one operator account. The bar’s bookings then run on Sidedoor reservations, with two features doing most of the work: booking requests for big groups and private hire, and automatic pre-arrival messages.

Big groups send a request, not a dead end

A venue sets the largest party it takes as an instant booking online. When a bigger group tries to book on the booking widget, the widget tells them how many it can take online and offers a Make enquiry button instead. The same option appears when the requested date has no availability.

The guest gives the party size, the date and time they want, and a message. The request lands in the venue’s Requests inbox in Sidedoor, sorted so the nearest requested dates come first.

Private hire requests come in the same way

A venue can also set up private hire options. These show on the venue’s page in the Sidedoor app, and tapping one opens the same request form, tagged Private hire. Staff see the tag in the inbox, and it carries over to the booking when they accept it.

Approving a request

Staff open a request from the inbox to see its details in a side panel. From there, Book now opens a new reservation already filled in with the guest, the party size and the requested date and time. Staff pick a table or adjust anything that needs it, then save.

Saving books the guest in, marks the request as booked and posts a note in the guest’s request chat saying the venue has accepted it. If the bar can’t take the group, it can decline the request instead.

A message before the guest arrives

The bar also turned on Sidedoor’s pre-arrival message. The venue writes the message and chooses how many minutes before the booking it goes. Sidedoor then posts it into the booking’s chat at that time, so the guest can reply in the same place if their plans change.

The venue chooses whether the message reaches guests through the Sidedoor app, by email or both. A booking made inside that window does not get one, so a guest is not told something they already know.

The results

These are the bar’s own figures from Sidedoor.

Almost half the bookings are big groups

Between 15 September and 30 October 2026, 48% of the bar’s bookings were for groups of 8 or more. That makes how the bar handles large parties central to how it takes bookings.

389 requests approved

Staff approved 389 booking requests through Sidedoor. Each approved request became a booking on the bar’s reservations list, with the guest’s details carried over from the request.

Pre-arrival messages sent automatically

48% of the bar’s guests received an automatic pre-arrival message. Nobody on the team had to send them: the message went out on the timing the bar set.

What other bars can take from this

If big groups make up a large share of your bookings, it is worth checking how your booking flow treats them:

• What a large group sees online. If the answer is “no availability”, you may be losing bookings you would happily take.
• Where requests land. Group and private hire requests are easier to manage in one inbox than spread across email, phone and social messages.
• How many steps it takes to say yes. A request that turns into a filled-in booking saves your team retyping the details.
• Whether guests hear from you before they arrive. An automatic message keeps the conversation in one place if plans change.

If you run several venues, it is also worth asking whether each one needs its own system. For more on how Sidedoor works for a bar, see Sidedoor for bars.