nuvelo.
Questions

The things venues ask first

Short answers. Each one links into the guide if you want the detail.

Questions any venue asks

Money, data, and what happens if things change.

Do you ever charge per cover, per booking or per child?

No. One flat monthly price per venue — £29, £59 or £99 — whether you take forty bookings a month or four thousand. A busy December costs the same as a quiet January. That is the whole point of the product.

What happens when the free trial ends?

You get 30 days with everything switched on and no card taken. Near the end we email you; if you do nothing, the venue's booking pages pause and your admin shows a subscribe banner. Nothing is deleted. Your bookings, guests and settings sit exactly where they are, and picking a plan brings the diary straight back.

What if my subscription payment fails?

If a renewal card is declined, nothing shuts off straight away — your booking pages stay live, and a banner in your admin gives you time to sort it out. Fix the card (Billing → update payment) and you're back to normal; leave it and the account eventually pauses like an ended trial, with nothing deleted. This is separate from guest payments — a failed subscription card never affects the deposits and orders landing in your own Stripe, Square or SumUp account.

Can I take my data and leave?

Yes, and without asking us. Reports export to CSV, the guest book exports, and any guest can export or delete their own record from a link in their confirmation. If you leave, everything leaves with you — there is no export fee and no notice period to serve.

My accountant wants the numbers — can I give them a clean file?

Yes. Reports has an Accounting CSV: pick a month and it exports a per-payment takings ledger — deposits, order & pay, tabs, gift vouchers and no-show fees, with refunds as negative lines — formatted to import straight into Xero or QuickBooks. Each row carries the date, the booking or payment reference, an amount and a category, so it reconciles against the money that landed in your own payment account.

Who holds the money guests pay?

You do. Deposits, prepayments and table payments go into your own Stripe, Square or SumUp account, not ours. We never take a percentage, and the money never passes through us — so there is nothing of yours sitting in our account, and nothing to chase if you leave.

What happens if nuvelo disappears?

A fair question to ask a small supplier, and the honest answer matters more than a reassuring one. Your payment processor is yours already, so takings are unaffected. Your data exports on demand, in formats a spreadsheet opens. Nothing about your data is locked to us — the worst case is moving to another booking system with your bookings and guest list in hand, which is exactly the position we would want a venue to be in.

Can guests book from Google?

Yes — partly now, and fully before long. Your booking link works on your Google Business Profile now and takes about a minute to set up. Booking without leaving the search result — "Reserve with Google" — is built and waiting: it needs us to be an approved Google Actions Center partner, which Google grants once the first venues are signed — on their timescale, not ours. So it switches on for your venue later, not on day one.

Can an AI assistant book a table for a guest?

Yes, if you switch it on. There is a toggle in Settings; it is off by default, because being bookable by an assistant is a decision about your own front door. With it on, an assistant sees your real availability and books in the guest's name — and it cannot take a payment, so a deposit still has to be paid by the guest. Assistant bookings are labelled as such in your list.

Do I need a website?

No. Every venue gets a booking page at nuvelo.net/book/your-venue that works on its own, and you can drop the booking link into Instagram, Facebook or your Google profile. If you do have a site, a quick copy-and-paste embeds the widget in it.

What do I actually have to do to get started?

Set your opening hours, add your tables or sessions, connect your payment account if you want deposits, and share your booking link. That is a morning, not a project. The guide walks through each step, and for the first ten venues we do the setup with you.

If you run a soft play

Sessions, parties and the things play centres ask about.

Can I run two parties at the same time?

Yes — if you have the rooms for it. Add your party rooms in the Parties tab, then tick which ones a package can use. Every booking is given an empty room automatically, so two rooms take two parties at once, and back-to-back parties reuse a room as it frees up. A party in its own room is a separate space, so it doesn't use up your general play capacity — an everyday session can't accidentally block a party, or the other way round. The room shows against the booking on your Bookings desk, and each party is drawn onto its room on the service screen.

Can I stop guests booking play sessions months ahead?

Yes. Alongside your overall booking window, you can also let everyday bookings open only a week or two ahead — so your near dates stay free to fill, instead of a quiet Tuesday getting booked out three months early. Parties are deliberately exempt: they still book as far ahead as your full window allows, because birthdays get planned months in advance. Leave it at zero and everything uses the one window, exactly as before. (It works on any venue type — a restaurant can hold back its far-out covers the same way; it is just most useful here.)

Do parents have to sign a waiver every visit?

No. A parent signs your waiver once — as they book, or at a door-side QR — and a returning family inside the validity window you set (12 months by default) isn't asked again; the booking form just shows "waiver already on file". They only re-sign when it lapses, or if you change the wording (a new clause is a new agreement, so everyone signs the updated version next visit). Your team sees a Waiver ✓ / needed flag on every arrival, so anyone who booked by phone still signs at the door.

If you run a restaurant or bar

Tables, covers and protecting a busy service.

Can I do anything about no-shows?

Two options, and you pick per venue. Take a deposit up front — optionally only on larger parties, so a table for two still books in one tap. Or turn on no-show protection, which takes no money at all: the guest saves a card as they book, and if they don't turn up your team decides whether to charge the fee. Nobody is charged automatically, and either way the money moves through your own payment account. (No-show card-on-file charges run on Stripe or Square; SumUp handles everything else.)

Can I stop 8pm getting slammed?

Yes — set covers pacing and nuvelo caps how many covers it will take online in any one slot, so the bookings spread instead of landing in a wall your kitchen can't cook. It only limits online booking: your team can always seat whoever they like on the floor, and phone bookings you add yourself ignore the cap.

What happens when a party of ten wants a table?

You tell nuvelo which tables push together — say 7 and 8 make a ten — and it books the pair as one when nothing single fits. It reaches for a real table first and only joins when it has to, so a party of two never ties up your biggest table. You can also stop it seating small parties on large tables at all, with as much headroom as you want to allow.

Video walkthroughsBeta

Under a minute each, showing the real product rather than a slide deck. They're early — rough edges and a synthetic voiceover — and we'll keep re-cutting them as things change. Pick the set that matches your venue.

If you run a soft play

Taking your first session booking — age bands, live prices, and where it lands.
Party packages and party rooms — including running two parties at once.
Running a Saturday: arrivals, the parties on your floor, and the waitlist.
Running a big warehouse: timed sessions, a to-scale floor plan across three rooms, and the café's order & pay.

If you run a restaurant or bar

Setting up: your opening hours, your tables, and your floor plan.
A diner books a table and pays a deposit — straight into your own account.
Running service: seating, moving and finishing tables on one screen.
Order & pay at the table: a diner orders and pays from their phone — the money's yours.
Try the demo Ask about early access

Something not answered here? [email protected] — a person reads these.