JOURNAL / INDEX · 376 ENTRIES · PAGE 20 OF 31 LAST ENTRY 2026-10-09
THE JOURNAL PUBLISHED FROM LONDON · 51.5072°N 0.1276°W

Everything we learn, written down

Bookings, menus, online ordering, search. Written by the people building the product, between services.

Last published 9 Oct 2026 — the TableSpark team, London
ARTICLES369
FILMS14
TOPICS9

All entries

229–240 of 369 Newest first · Articles Articles ✕

August 2026

2026-08 12 entries
FIG. 230 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-29

Why a restaurant checkout refuses a card that has money on it

A £62 order fails at the last screen with money still on the card. The guest reorders through a commission-charging app, and the restaurant never learns why the basket was lost.

FIG. 231 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-29

Google withdrew star eligibility from restaurant pages that mark up reviews of themselves

Google withdrew star eligibility in September 2019 from a restaurant's own review markup. An undisclosed incentive behind those ratings adds legal exposure to the wasted effort.

FIG. 232 Menus and allergens
Menus and allergens 2026-08-29

Where written allergen information is the law, and where it is not

A wall matrix left unchecked becomes an inaccurate written claim about a named allergen. The rule that binds a dining room answering out loud turns on where the guest chooses.

FIG. 233 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-28

Restaurant card payment disputes: the evidence file you build before the chargeback arrives

Twenty-three days after a guest collected the bag, the issuer pulls the money back. The dispute is answered from whatever the system recorded that night.

FIG. 234 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-28

Why a restaurant's search result shows the wrong name and a blank icon

A listing that shows a bare domain and no icon loses the click to a directory charging commission on the same table. Google will not change a wrong site name on request.

FIG. 235 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-28

When VAT actually falls on a restaurant gift voucher

Whether voucher VAT falls at sale or at redemption turns on a two-limb statutory test. Guess wrong and an unused voucher can leave tax paid with nothing to reclaim.

FIG. 236 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-28

Google Business Profile suspended: the appeal path for a UK restaurant, and the sixty-minute form

The pin vanishes on a Friday, taking the hours, the phone number and four years of reviews. The walk-in trade is lost while the appeal runs.

FIG. 237 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-28

Registrant details can suspend a paid-up .uk domain

Nominet suspends .uk domains whose registrant name or address it cannot validate. A paid-up domain stops resolving, and the trade behind it is lost until it is fixed.

FIG. 238 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-28

One order page, two VAT rates, and a guest who sat down

The collection or eat-in toggle records a tax fact, not a delivery preference. Most order pages keep no record of what the guest did next, and the risk sits with the restaurant.

FIG. 239 Building the website
Building the website 2026-08-28

Where the right to work check belongs on a restaurant careers page

Ask one applicant about immigration status and not the others and the exposure flips from a capped civil penalty to tribunal compensation with no upper limit.

FIG. 240 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-28

The restaurant complaints page still points at a revoked duty

A dispute-body block left over from a repealed regulation describes a route the guest may find closed, and transitional cover for unaccredited providers ends by 5 October 2026.

FIG. 241 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-28

What Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook now require of a restaurant's email

Gmail can now reject a booking confirmation outright, with no bounce and nothing red on the screen. Six spam complaints in two thousand is the whole margin.

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