How to transfer a restaurant booking to a friend in Dublin

If you cannot make a Dublin booking you made on Mosey, you can transfer it to a friend who uses Mosey: they get a request, have 24 hours to accept, and once they do the booking is in their name, the place is told, and any deposit you paid is refunded to you. If no friend can take it, offer it up as a last-minute table instead; if somebody claims it you are refunded in full, and if nobody does, the place's normal cancellation terms apply.

Why passing a booking on beats cancelling

A cancellation at lunchtime for a table that evening is hard for a small place to fill, and if the booking carried a deposit, a late cancellation often means losing some or all of it. Passing the table on solves both at once: the place still has the table sat, and you are not out of pocket.

It also matters more than it looks for the place. A table of four that goes empty on a Saturday is food bought and staff rostered for nobody, which is the whole reason deposits exist in the first place.

How do I transfer a booking to a friend?

1. Open the booking in Mosey and choose to transfer it.
2. Pick the friend you want to send it to. They need to be on Mosey, and you can add a short message ("it's the table for Gráinne's birthday, ask for the corner").
3. They get a request and have 24 hours to accept or decline. Only one transfer can be pending on a booking at a time.
4. When they accept, the booking moves into their name, the place is told it has changed hands, and you are notified. If they decline, or let the request lapse, nothing changes: the booking is still yours.

That last point is the reason to start early. If your friend does not answer, you still have the booking and the time to try somebody else or offer it up.

What happens to the deposit?

If you paid a deposit, it is refunded to you when your friend accepts. No money moves between you and your friend through Mosey, and Mosey takes nothing from a deposit at any point.

A few related details:

• If you used a voucher towards the deposit, it follows the refund and comes back to you.
• If the place only held your card rather than charging it, the hold is yours and does not move with the booking. It is released rather than left attached to a meal you are no longer having.
• If the deposit was split between a group, the people who paid shares are refunded.

Your friend should look over the booking once it is theirs. Where the place was holding a card against it, the new holder may be asked to add their own.

What if no friend can take it?

Offer it up as a last-minute table. It appears on Mosey for anybody to claim, and the people most likely to want it are the ones who tried to book that exact place and could not.

• If somebody claims it, they pay their own deposit (where one applies) and yours is refunded in full.
• If nobody claims it, the place's normal cancellation policy applies, exactly as if you had cancelled.
• The deadline is two hours before the booking time. After that it can no longer be offered.

When you go to cancel a booking that has a deposit at stake, Mosey points this out before you confirm: offering the slot gives you a chance of getting the deposit back that a cancellation does not.

The other side of this is useful too. If you are the one trying to get in, those offered-up tables are what getting a last-minute table in Dublin tonight is about.

Transfer or offer it up: which should I use?

• Transfer when you know someone who would like the table and will be on Mosey to accept. It keeps an occasion booking (a special menu, a particular table) with somebody you know.
• Offer it up when you have nobody in mind, or when your friends have not answered and the time is getting close.
• Cancel when you are well inside the free-cancellation window anyway. Cancelling early is always fine, and cancellations never count against you; only not turning up does.

Etiquette when someone takes your table

A transfer is quick, but a couple of small courtesies make it go smoothly on the night.

• Pass on what the place needs to know. If the booking said "one coeliac, high chair needed" and your friend's party is different, they should update the place. On Mosey they can message the place about the booking directly.
• Mention the occasion if it has changed. If the booking said it was a birthday, the place may have planned a candle or a card for somebody who is no longer coming.
• Check the party size. A table set for six that arrives as three is still a problem for the place, so if numbers have changed, say so.

Bookings made outside Mosey

Transfers work on bookings made through Mosey. If you booked a Dublin place by phone, email or on its own website, ring and ask to change the name on the booking. Most places would far rather do that than lose the table, and asking a day ahead is much better than on the day.

Before you book next time

If you often book for a group and end up rearranging, look at the cancellation terms when you book, and consider who pays the deposit. Splitting a group booking deposit with friends explains how a group can share it so one person is not left holding the risk. And when you want somewhere new to book, Mosey's Dublin page is built from what people have actually rated.

Open your booking in Mosey, transfer it to a friend or offer it up, and let the table go to somebody who will use it.