Held for organizers

Held is table booking for bars, clubs, festivals and events. Guests see a live floor plan, pick a table and pay a deposit — you run it all from one admin.

€0

for you — no subscription, no commission

€1.25

per person, paid by the guest

Next morning

the deposit lands in your Stripe

This guide walks through every feature in the order you’ll use them. Each chapter has its own link — send it to a colleague who needs just one answer.

1. Register your venue and pick its type: bar (open regularly, e.g. every night) or agency (multi-day festivals and one-day events).
2. Your account waits for our approval — nothing can be published until then. We email you as soon as it’s live.
3. In Payouts → Company info, add your billing details: legal name, OIB (we check its control digit) and address — without them a festival or bar can’t be published.
4. In Payouts, connect Stripe (Stripe Connect Express) — Stripe verifies your identity and payout account there.

We can also set it up with you: floor plan, menu and venue page together, plus a walkthrough of the nightly view for your staff.

Bar — a calendar that extends itself

• The calendar is always open 90 days ahead (you can change the number) and adds each new day on its own.
• Weekly schedule: for each weekday set closed or open, opening hours and seatings (e.g. 19:00 and 22:00) — you can then sell the same table twice a night.
• Add an event to any night: name, description, start time and image — guests see it on the calendar and the night’s page.
• A closed night can’t be booked. If it already has bookings, use “Cancel this night” (see Cancellations).

Festival or event — fixed dates

• Set the dates; every festival day gets its own page and its own bookings. A one-day event is a one-day festival.
• Next edition in one step: in Festivals, open the event’s actions menu, choose Clone and pick the new first day (we suggest the same weekdays a year later). The floor plan and tables, event page, per-day programmes, booking rules and ticket tiers (sale dates moved along) come with it; bookings and tickets sold start from zero. The copy stays hidden until you activate it.
• Scheduled go-live: pick the date and time bookings open to the public; until then only you see the page.
• You move the event through its status yourself: upcoming, then active, then past (archived).

You draw the floor plan yourself in the editor: drag in tables and room elements, and guests see the same plan on your public page, with free, taken and held tables.

• Tables: round or rectangular, with a label (e.g. VIP-1), capacity and section (Terrace, Gallery…). Capacity sets how many people a booking covers.
• Room elements: bar, stage, DJ, entrance, stands, walls and room outlines — for guests’ orientation only.
• Several floors: ground floor, terrace, upstairs — each with its own plan and canvas shape.
• Per-day layout: give one day a different arrangement (e.g. a concert with a stage) without touching the main plan.
• Saved venues: save a layout as a template and apply it to a new event in one step.
• Floor plan image export (PNG) for staff or social media.

A table’s price is the deposit you set plus the €1.25 per person platform fee the guest pays. The deposit is a credit: on the night it counts toward the guest’s drinks bill. If the guest doesn’t show up, you keep the deposit.

Two booking modes

Deposit only

the guest pays the deposit and doesn’t pick drinks — they decide at the table

Deposit + drink selection

the guest must pick bottles from your menu or choose “Not sure yet”

With drink selection the guest still pays only the deposit online — the bottles are paid on site and the deposit counts toward that bill. You see the picks on the booking and in the Excel export, so you can have the bottles ready.

Menu and table conditions

• Menu: categories and items with prices, order and availability. You can keep several menus and give each event its own.
• Table conditions: your own text (minimum spend, dress code, arrival time) the guest sees and accepts before paying.
• Welcome perk (optional): a small gesture for guests with a booking, like a welcome drink — shown while they book.

1. The guest opens your page (heldtables.com/o/your-venue), picks a night on the calendar and taps a free table on the floor plan.
2. The table is theirs for 15 minutes — others see it as held meanwhile.
3. They pick drinks (if you use it), enter name, email and phone, review the cancellation terms and pay by card through Stripe.
4. They instantly get a confirmation email with the fiscal receipt (PDF) and a calendar file, and a reminder before the night.

• Guests can cancel themselves until the event starts; the table frees up, but the deposit and fee aren’t refunded.
• An R1 invoice can’t be requested online yet — a company that needs one contacts you at your enquiries email.
• The page is in Croatian and English.

For festivals and concerts with tickets, switch on paid entrance. A table then costs tickets for everyone at it instead of a deposit; drinks (if selected) are still paid on site.

• Ticket types: day tickets, festival passes, GA or VIP — each with a price and a per-day limit.
• Sale phases: every ticket type has a sale window (from–to) and a quota, so “1st phase GA” runs until a date or until it sells out and “2nd phase GA” starts when it ends — the “Next phase” button sets it up in one click. Guests see finished phases crossed out and the next one with its start date. Any type can be switched off in one click; tickets already sold stay valid.
• Capacity per day: sales stop when the number of people you set is reached.
• QR tickets: every person gets their own QR code by email.
• Door scanner: staff open the scanner link on a phone and scan QR codes — no app, no login. You can replace the link at any time.
• Tickets in the sidebar: the “Tickets” item opens the ticket types, how full each day is and the sold tickets — for the whole festival or one day.
• Sold tickets: the “Sold tickets” tab lists every order — the buyer, tickets by type and day, the amount, and how many guests are already in. Search by name, email, order reference or ticket code, filter by day and type, resend the tickets by email, export to Excel.

If you cancel the whole festival or one day, buyers get the ticket price back; multi-day passes are refunded pro rata, in full or as your credit — your choice. The platform fee isn’t refunded.

Tonight

The staff view: the night’s floor plan with every booking on it. Tap a taken table to see who’s sitting there, how many people and which drinks they picked. Swipe the date strip to change days.

Reservations

• List of all bookings, searchable by name, email or reference, filtered by date, status and payment type.
• Booking detail: guest, table, seating, floor, drink picks, payment and fiscal receipt. Resend the confirmation or cancel from there.
• Phone and walk-in bookings: add a guest and table yourself without payment — they get the confirmation by email.
• Excel export for one night (with a floor plan sheet) or for a whole event with the deposit/fee split.
• Capacity alerts: an email when bookings reach the percentages you choose (e.g. 50% and 80%).

Guest cancels or doesn’t show

nothing is refunded — you keep the deposit

You cancel one booking

the guest gets the deposit back

You cancel a whole night

“Cancel this night”: every guest gets the deposit back, the night closes

Platform fee

never refunded

When cancelling a booking you choose who is cancelling: the guest (no refund) or you (deposit refunded). The refund goes to the guest’s card, a storno receipt is issued and the guest gets an email with the reason you enter.

Refunds come out of money we haven’t transferred to you yet — so they cost you nothing extra. A booking you’ve already been paid out for can’t be refunded this way.

• Guests pay by card through Stripe. The deposit is yours; the €1.25 per person fee is Held’s.
• Bars and free events: we transfer the night’s deposits to your Stripe account the next morning at 4:00, once Stripe has confirmed the guest’s payment. Guests pay when they book, so that’s usually done already; a last-minute booking can take up to 3 working days.
• For bars, Stripe pays out everything collected to your bank once a week, on Fridays: last week’s money, complete (weekend included), before the next weekend. One payout a week instead of seven means fewer Stripe payout fees. New Stripe accounts start with a few days’ holding period that Stripe shortens on its own over time.
• Festivals and events don’t wait for Friday: each festival day (or the event) is transferred to your Stripe the morning after it ends, and Held starts the bank payout the same morning, so the money arrives the first business day after the event. Last-minute tickets follow once Stripe releases them (up to 3 business days after purchase). Festival passes are transferred after the festival’s last day.
• Held pays Stripe’s fees — you get the full deposit.
• Fiscal receipts to guests are issued by Held on your behalf — you don’t need a certificate or a registered till.
• With every bank payout you get an e-invoice listing the platform fees in it — for your bookkeeping.
• Payouts shows every transfer, and Receipts lets you download every receipt issued.

• Venue page: one address for all your nights and events, with a cover image, description and what’s coming up.
• Event page: cover photo, description, food and drink, gallery, location with a map and directions — all editable in Croatian and English.
• Analytics: visits, where they come from (Instagram, Google, UTM-tagged campaigns) and how many end in a booking.
• Meta ads: connect your Facebook/Instagram ad account and see campaign results next to bookings.

• Billing details live under Payouts → Company info: legal name, OIB and address — printed on receipts and e-invoices.
• Alert email: where we send capacity alerts.
• Guest reminders: how many days before the night guests get a reminder (up to five).
• Capacity thresholds: the percentages that trigger an alert.