Restaurants
Table booking and ordering systems for restaurants
A restaurant lives or dies on covers. Every empty table on a Saturday night is money that cannot be earned back on Tuesday, and every party of ten that does not turn up has usually blocked three tables to do it.
Saturday - 19:00 sitting
14 tables · turn time 105 min
An illustration of the kind of screen this builds towards - yours is built around how your restaurant actually runs.
The reality
Where the time and money goes in a restaurant
No-show tables on the nights that matter
A party of eight books for Saturday at seven and does not appear. You have turned away walk-ins to hold it, and there is no way to recover the covers at half past seven.
The booking book does not know your seating plan
Twenty covers at seven is not the same as twenty covers if they arrive as one party of ten and five twos. Booking against a total rather than against tables leads to a full book and an empty room, or the opposite.
Bookings arrive during service
The phone rings at half past eight on a Friday and somebody has to break off to take a booking for a fortnight on Thursday.
Christmas and set menus are a paperwork exercise
Pre-orders for a party of twenty on a set menu, collected by email, chased by phone, and written on a sheet that goes missing on the night.
Delivery apps own your customers
Any collection or delivery trade going through an app costs you thirty per cent and tells you nothing about who ordered.
The approach
How we'd fix it
The booking side needs to understand tables rather than a headcount. Your actual seating plan goes in - how many twos, fours and sixes you have, which can be joined, and how long each sitting realistically takes. The system then only offers times it can genuinely seat, and can run two sittings on a table where that suits you. That alone usually adds covers on the busiest nights, because the room stops being booked to a number that does not match the furniture.
Deposits are the other half. Not on a table for two on a Wednesday, but on large parties, Saturday evenings and anything on a set menu. It is normal, customers expect it, and it turns the worst kind of no-show into either a table that turns up or a cancellation you can resell. Alongside that, your own collection ordering keeps the commission and, more valuable in the long run, builds a customer list that belongs to you.
What we build
Built for restaurants
Bookings against your real seating plan
Table sizes, joinable tables and realistic turn times, so the system only offers what you can actually seat.
Deposits on the bookings that matter
Set by party size, day and time - large parties and Saturday evenings covered, quiet midweek tables left friction-free.
Set menus and pre-orders
Party organisers collect everyone's choices through a link, and the kitchen gets one clean list instead of a chased email thread.
Collection ordering with no commission
Your own ordering for collection and delivery, keeping the margin and the customer details.
Automatic confirmations and reminders
A reminder the day before with a one-tap cancel link, which turns silent no-shows into resellable tables.
Allergen information built in
Allergens attached to every dish and shown before ordering, which is what the law expects and what saves awkward calls.
What changes
The difference it makes
- Fewer no-shows on the nights where a lost table cannot be recovered
- More covers from the same room, because bookings match the seating plan
- The phone stops interrupting service for bookings a fortnight out
- Collection trade earns its full margin and builds a list you own
In practice
A worked example: the party of ten
A restaurant took a booking for ten on a Saturday at seven, joined three tables to make it work, and turned away two walk-in couples on the strength of it. The party did not turn up and did not ring. That is not one lost booking - it is the best table in the room, empty, on the best night of the week.
A ten-pound-a-head deposit on parties of six or more changed the picture entirely. Most groups pay it without a second thought, because every restaurant does it now. The few who will not were never certain they were coming. And the ones who genuinely cannot make it now ring to cancel, because there is money on it - which gives you a Saturday evening table back with time to resell it.
The systems behind it
What this is built from
Everything on this page is put together from the same handful of systems, shaped around how restaurants actually work.
Questions
Restaurants - the questions I get asked
Will asking for a deposit put customers off?
Not on the bookings where it matters. Deposits on large parties and peak evenings are completely normal now and customers expect them. The trick is not applying them everywhere - a table for two on a Wednesday needs no deposit, a party of ten on a Saturday absolutely does. The people who object were rarely the ones who were definitely coming.
Can it handle our actual table plan rather than just a headcount?
Yes, and this is where most booking systems fall short. Your table sizes, which ones join together and how long a sitting really takes all go in, so the system only offers times it can genuinely seat. Booking to a covers total is how you end up with a full book and a half-empty room.
Can we take collection and delivery orders directly?
Yes, and on any real volume it is worth doing. Your own ordering keeps the thirty per cent the apps take, and more importantly it builds a customer list you own - names, numbers, what they order and how often - so you can bring people back without paying for them a second time.
How do set menus and party pre-orders work?
The organiser gets a link to share with their group. Everyone picks their own courses, allergies are captured with them, and the kitchen gets one clean list well before the night. It replaces the usual routine of chasing a spreadsheet round an email thread and then deciphering it on service.
Do we still need to be on the booking platforms?
Depends what they are bringing you. If a platform genuinely sends you new diners, keep it and pay for what it delivers. What you should not be doing is paying a per-cover fee for regulars who would happily book direct if there were an obvious way to. Run both, and make direct the easy option.
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Run a restaurant? Let's have a look at it
Tell me how things work at the moment and I'll come back with a clear, fixed quote - and an honest view on whether it's worth the money. No pressure and no jargon.