Why would the hostess tell us, that they had no booths available, when we were standing there looking at some empty booths??? This was at about 12 noon today...they weren't busy at all.all

I have never understood that at any place

If there is not enough staff they would like to search you when they do. They are normally fast.

Because they are short staffed. It's not about a physical table, but whether they have a server available.

Sometimes people reserve certain seats, so that might have been the case

many times will tell you they don't have any boost available because they're dirty at the time and they're probably short staff to get over there and clean it so all you had to do is say we'll wait for a booth there's one over there then we get it cleaned that's what usually happens in most restaurants but anyway Olive garden's okay