Never miss a table: cancellation watches in Dublin

A cancellation watch is a standing request on Mosey: you describe the table you want (the date or days, a time window and your party size) at one Dublin place or across a list of places, and when somebody gives up a matching booking, you are told. It is the most reliable way into a place that is booked out weeks ahead, because the tables there do come free; they just come free at moments you would never think to look.

Why booked-out places still have tables

Every full diary leaks. People cancel because plans change, because a group shrinks, or because a free-cancellation window is about to close and they would rather decide now than lose a deposit. On a busy Dublin Saturday that can mean several tables reappearing between Thursday and the afternoon of the day itself.

The trouble is timing. A table that comes free at quarter past three on a Thursday is gone by half past, usually to whoever happened to be looking. A watch makes sure that person is you.

What can a cancellation watch look for?

A watch has four parts, and getting each one right is the difference between a useful notification and a useless one.

• When. Either one exact date, or certain days of the week up to an end date. "Any Thursday, Friday or Saturday until the end of next month" is a perfectly good watch. You can set one up to a year ahead.
• What time. A window rather than a single time, such as seven to nine.
• How many. A range of party sizes. If you are two but would happily bring two more, say two to four.
• Where. One place, or a list of places you have saved on Mosey.

When a table that fits all four is offered up, you get a notification and can go straight to claiming it.

How to set a watch that actually fires

The common mistake is a watch so precise it never matches: one place, one date, eight o'clock exactly, a table of five. Loosen whatever you genuinely can.

1. Widen the time. A two-hour window catches far more than a single slot. Early sittings free up as often as prime-time ones and are less contested.
2. Add days. If any evening that week would do, use days of the week rather than a single date.
3. Use a list. Make a Mosey list of four or five places you would be equally pleased to get into, and point the watch at the list. Your odds multiply and you still end up somewhere you chose. Building your own Dublin food guide with Mosey lists shows how to put one together.
4. Be honest about party size. A watch for two will not match a table for four, and a table for two will not seat four. If the group might change, set the range to match.

You can keep up to ten watches running at once, or more if you hold a membership at a place on Mosey. When a watch reaches its last date it stops, and you are told it has expired so you can set another if you still need one.

Cancellation alerts: the simpler option

If you do not mind when and only care where, turn on cancellation alerts for a place instead. You are then told whenever any table there is offered up, with no criteria to set. Alerts suit a neighbourhood favourite you would go to any night; watches suit a specific occasion.

You will not be told twice about the same table: if it matches a watch and an alert, the watch wins and you get one notification.

What happens when a watch matches?

The table is listed as a last-minute table, and the notification takes you to it. To claim it, you book it as your own. If the original booking had a deposit, you pay your own to the place and the person who gave it up is refunded in full; Mosey takes nothing from a deposit either way.

Act quickly. Other people may have alerts or watches on the same place, and at places that run a membership, members are told about freed tables an hour before everybody else. A table can only be offered until two hours before its booking time, so evening matches tend to arrive in the afternoon.

If you miss a notification, the watches screen keeps a record of recent matches from the last month, so you can see what came up and how often. That record is useful in itself: if a place has offered up three Thursday tables and no Saturdays, you have learned which night to aim for.

Watches, waitlists and booking ahead: which to use?

• Booking ahead is still best when a place opens its diary on a known schedule. Find out when and be there.
• A waitlist, where a place runs one, puts your name down for a particular date directly with the place, which offers you a freed table and gives you a window to claim it. More in joining a waitlist for a full restaurant.
• A watch covers everything that is offered up as a last-minute table, across several dates and places at once.

They are not exclusive. For a birthday at a place that is very hard to book, use all three.

A few Dublin habits worth adopting

Weeknights free up more readily than weekends, and late afternoons are when the evening's tables reappear, so keep notifications on around then. Around big Dublin weekends (match days, concert nights, the run-up to Christmas) watches are especially worth having, because demand is high and cancellations still happen. And when a watch has done its job, delete the ones you no longer need so the next notification is one you actually want.

If you are trying to get in tonight rather than next month, getting a last-minute table in Dublin tonight covers the faster tactics.

Open the Dublin place you keep failing to book on Mosey, set a watch with a generous time window, and let the next cancellation find you.