About 15 minutes to set up · claude.ai only

Write the pre-shift note the team actually reads

Today

The schedule shifted, two people are on new stations, there is a large party at seven and a new special nobody has tasted. All of it goes out as a group text that nobody finishes reading.

With Claude

You dump the messy details into one chat and get back the same structured note every day, plus a version short enough to paste straight into the staff group chat.

The prompt

Paste this into claude.ai and replace anything in brackets.

You are writing the pre-shift note for [business name], a [restaurant, hotel front desk, or event operation] in [city]. The audience is hourly staff reading this on a phone, standing up, two minutes before service.

Here are today's raw details, in whatever order I remembered them:
[paste everything: covers or occupancy expected, large parties or groups and their times, repeat guests or VIPs described by role rather than by name, station and section assignments, who called out and who is covering, the special and how you want it described, what is out of stock, deliveries or maintenance happening during service, and the one thing we are trying to do better today]

Write the note in this structure every time:
1. Today in one line
2. Timing to watch, listed by clock time
3. Who is where
4. Say this about the special, in one sentence a server can repeat word for word
5. Out of stock and substitutions
6. One focus for tonight

Rules:
- Short lines, no paragraphs, no motivational language.
- Do not invent a detail I did not give you. If something important is missing, list it under a heading called NEED FROM ME.
- Do not write allergen or dietary claims about any dish. Where one belongs, write see the chef.
- Do not include guest names, phone numbers, or reservation contact details.

Then give me a second version, under 60 words, that I can paste straight into the staff group chat.

What to skip in restaurants, hotels, and event businesses

  • Allergen, dietary, and food safety language. Claude will produce a confident sounding gluten free or nut free line, and it can be wrong, and in a kitchen wrong means somebody in an ambulance. Menu claims, allergen matrices, cross contact procedures, cooling and holding steps, and anything that belongs in your food safety plan get written or verified by your chef, a certified food protection manager, or your local health department before they appear anywhere a guest or a cook can read them. Every prompt on this page tells Claude to leave those lines blank for exactly that reason.
  • Reviews and messages alleging illness or injury. A post saying someone got sick after eating at your place, or slipped in your lobby, is not a review to answer. It is a potential claim. Those go to you and to your insurer or your attorney before any words go public, because a well written public apology can be read as an admission. Same for anything alleging discrimination or harassment by a staff member.
  • Guest and employee personal data, and employment decisions. Do not paste card numbers, ID scans, full reservation or property management system exports, guest lists with contact details, or employee files including Social Security numbers, wage records, or write ups into claude.ai. Whether your chats are used to improve Anthropic's models is a setting in your account privacy controls, and that setting is still not a reason to put payment or personal data in a chat window. Describe people by role instead of by name and every prompt here still works. Termination, discipline, wage and hour, and scheduling law questions go to your HR advisor or attorney.

Want all 4 workflows for restaurants, hotels, and event businesses in your inbox?

Every prompt on this page plus the rest, so you still have them on Monday. One email, then four short ones on making it stick. Unsubscribe any time.

Or answer four questions and Claude writes three workflows for your specific business rather than the industry generally.

Before you try it

More for restaurants, hotels, and event businesses

Full guide for restaurants, hotels, and event businesses