A Resy drop is the moment a restaurant releases a new batch of reservations on Resy. Some restaurants drop on a fixed schedule, such as opening the next month at a set time on a particular day, while others roll one new date onto the calendar each morning. The most in-demand slots can be gone within seconds of a drop, so timing and a ready account matter.
Prime time means the most sought-after dining hours, usually Friday and Saturday evenings between about 7 and 9 pm. These slots book up first and are the hardest to get at a popular restaurant. Booking an earlier or later time, or an off-peak weeknight, is often the easiest way to get in.
A cover is a single dining guest, so a reservation for a party of four counts as four covers. Restaurants use the term to measure how many people they serve in a service. It is why availability is tied to party size rather than to the number of tables.
A rolling release adds one new bookable day to the edge of the calendar each day, so a restaurant booking 30 days out opens a single fresh date every morning. A fixed release opens a larger block of dates at once, such as the whole next month on a set day and time. Knowing which model a restaurant uses tells you when to be ready to book.
Resy Notify is a Resy feature that lets you join a list for a specific date, time, and party size so Resy can email you if a matching table opens. It does not hold or guarantee a table, and it does not put you ahead of other diners. Whoever books the freed seat first still gets it, so speed matters when a notification arrives.
A ticketed or prepaid reservation is one you pay for in advance, either as a deposit hold on your card or as full payment like an event ticket. This model is common on Tock and is used mainly by tasting-menu and high-end restaurants to cut down on no-shows. The booking usually comes with a cancellation policy that sets whether and when you can get the money back.
A reservation tracker is a service that watches a restaurant's availability and tells you when a table opens, typically by email or text. It is useful for restaurants that are almost never openly bookable, where most seats come from cancellations at unpredictable times. SnagRes is an alert service of this kind, and it notifies you when a seat appears rather than booking it for you.
No. A reservation bot is automated software that tries to book a table for you the instant one appears, which most platforms disallow and which can get accounts banned. A reservation alert, by contrast, only tells you that a table has opened and leaves the booking to you. SnagRes is an alert service, so it notifies you but never books on your behalf.
Most hard-to-book restaurants in New York and San Francisco take their reservations through one of a handful of online platforms. Knowing which platform a restaurant uses tells you where to look, how bookings are released, and whether you will need to pay anything up front. The platform is usually the first thing to figure out, because a Resy-only room and a Tock ticketed room work in completely different ways.
Resy: Resy is an online reservation platform, owned by American Express, that many popular restaurants use to take bookings through its website and app. A large share of the hardest tables in New York and San Francisco are Resy-only, with no phone line or second platform to fall back on.
OpenTable: OpenTable is one of the oldest and largest online reservation networks, used by tens of thousands of restaurants worldwide. It tends to cover a broad mix of venues rather than only high-demand rooms, and it also runs a points program for frequent diners.
Tock: Tock is a reservation platform, now owned by American Express, known for prepaid and ticketed bookings at tasting-menu and high-end restaurants. On Tock a reservation often works like an event ticket, where you pay some or all of the cost in advance to hold the table.
SevenRooms: SevenRooms is a reservation and guest-management system that restaurants use to run their own booking pages and track regulars. Because it is built for the restaurant rather than as a consumer marketplace, diners usually reach it through a venue's own website instead of one central app.
Resy Notify: Resy Notify is a built-in Resy feature that lets you join a list for a specific date, time, and party size so Resy can email you if a matching table opens. It is a request to be told about an opening, not a held reservation, and being on the list does not guarantee a seat.
Popular restaurants do not simply have tables sitting open all the time. They make reservations available in batches, on their own schedule, and the busiest slots are often claimed within seconds. These terms describe how and when new bookings appear, which is the difference between showing up at the right moment and finding an empty calendar.
Drop / release: A drop, also called a release, is the moment a restaurant makes a new batch of reservations available on its booking platform. Many sought-after restaurants drop new dates on a set schedule, and the most in-demand slots can be gone within seconds.
Rolling vs fixed release window: A rolling release adds one new bookable day to the far edge of the calendar each day, so a restaurant that books 30 days out opens a single fresh date every morning. A fixed release instead opens a larger block of dates at a set time, for example loading the next month all at once on a particular day.
Prime time: Prime time refers to the most in-demand dining hours, typically Friday and Saturday evenings between roughly 7 and 9 pm. These slots disappear first at a popular restaurant and are the hardest to book, while off-peak times like early weeknights are easier to get.
Table hold: A table hold is a reservation a restaurant keeps in reserve rather than releasing to the public, often for walk-ins, regulars, VIPs, or last-minute requests. Because held tables are not listed online, the availability you see on a platform does not always reflect every seat in the room.
Once you are trying to book, restaurants and reservation systems use a shared vocabulary for guests, tables, and timing. These are the words that show up in a booking flow, a confirmation email, or a conversation with the host, and understanding them helps you read availability correctly.
Cover: A cover is one dining guest, so a table booked for four people counts as four covers. Restaurants track covers to measure how many diners they serve in a night, and reservation systems fill a set number of covers per seating.
Party size: Party size is the number of people in your reservation. Tables are configured for certain sizes, so availability often differs by party size, and a platform may show an opening for two guests but nothing for six on the same night.
Seating: A seating is a scheduled window during which a table is booked, and some restaurants run more than one seating per table in an evening. Under a timed-seating model your table may be yours for a fixed length, such as two hours, before the next party is seated.
Corkage: Corkage is a per-bottle fee a restaurant charges to open and serve wine you bring yourself. Policies vary widely, and some restaurants limit how many bottles you may bring or waive the fee on certain nights, while others do not allow outside wine at all.
The book (reservation book): The book, or reservation book, is the restaurant's master record of every table and booking for a service. Saying a restaurant opens the book means it is releasing reservations, and a tightly managed book is part of why hard tables stay hard to get.
Walk-in: A walk-in is a diner who arrives without a reservation and asks for a table. Some restaurants hold seats, often at the bar, for walk-ins, so arriving early or off-peak can work even when the online calendar is empty.
Reservations fall apart all the time, and restaurants have built rules and financial guardrails around that fact. These terms cover what happens when a plan changes, why so many popular rooms now ask for a card or a payment, and where the openings you actually want tend to come from.
No-show: A no-show is a guest who books a table and then neither arrives nor cancels. No-shows cost restaurants money, which is why many popular rooms now take a deposit or a card to hold the booking and charge a fee if you do not show.
Cancellation: A cancellation is a reservation a guest gives back before the meal, which returns that table to availability. At restaurants that are otherwise fully booked, cancellations are the main way new openings appear, and they surface at unpredictable times as plans change.
Deposit / prepaid / ticketed reservation: A deposit, prepaid, or ticketed reservation requires you to pay something in advance to secure the table, either as a hold on your card or as full payment like an event ticket. This model, common on Tock, reduces no-shows and usually comes with a stated cancellation policy that determines whether you get the money back.
When a restaurant is booked solid, the game shifts from booking directly to getting in line or getting notified. This last group covers the tools people use to catch openings, and it is worth being precise about what each one does, because a bot, a waitlist, and an alert are three very different things.
Waitlist: A waitlist is a list you join when no table is currently available, so the restaurant or platform can offer you a spot if one opens or as walk-in seating frees up. Some waitlists are for same-day dining on site, while others, like a notify list, are for future dates.
Notify list: A notify list is a request to be alerted if a table opens for a date and time you want, offered on platforms such as Resy under the Notify feature. Joining it does not reserve anything and does not put you ahead of anyone else, since whoever books the freed seat first still gets it.
Reservation bot: A reservation bot is automated software that tries to book tables the instant they appear, often faster than a person can. Bots are widely disallowed by reservation platforms' terms, can get accounts banned, and are part of why some sought-after slots vanish so quickly.
Reservation tracker / alert: A reservation tracker is a service that watches a restaurant's availability across platforms and tells you when a table opens, usually by email or text. SnagRes is an alert service of this kind: it monitors the hardest tables in New York and San Francisco across Resy, OpenTable, Tock, and SevenRooms and notifies you when a seat appears, but it does not book the table for you.
A plain-English glossary of restaurant reservation terms: Resy, OpenTable, Tock, SevenRooms, drops, prime time, covers, notify lists, and more.
Plain-English definitions of the reservation terms worth knowing, from Resy drops and prime time to covers, notify lists, deposits, and the difference between a reservation bot and a reservation alert.
Keep reading: All reservation guides · Resy vs OpenTable vs Tock vs SevenRooms · How to get a last-minute table