How much do reminders actually reduce no-shows?

SMS reminders typically eliminate half to two-thirds of missed bookings. If you have 5-8 no-shows a week today, 2-3 is a realistic target.

Why not just use an off-the-shelf booking app?

You can, and for some venues that's enough. But ready-made apps charge monthly fees or commissions. If a ready-made app is the better choice, I'll say so in our first call.

What about guests who want to book by phone?

Nothing changes for them — the host enters phone bookings into the same calendar.

Can I exclude certain periods from online booking?

Yes. For example, weekday lunch online, weekend brunch phone-only — you define the rules.

Online table booking

Guests book when it suits them.

A significant share of booking attempts happen outside service hours — if you give guests the chance. I build table booking that knows your capacity and table layout.

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When the phone is the bottleneck

In most restaurants, booking still happens by phone — and that's bad for both sides.

The host spends half the evening on calls

Booking, rescheduling, cancelling — all by phone. Guests already in the restaurant get less attention.

No-shows eat your revenue

One missed party is a 2-4 cover table, 30-60 minutes of lost turnover. Without reminders this adds up weekly.

No booking outside service hours

Guests want to book in the evening or on weekends, but all they get is voicemail.

Calendar and capacity don't talk

How many tables free, for how many covers, which room — reconciled by hand. Double bookings and overbooking are common.

Here's what I build for you

You don't get a generic calendar widget — you get a booking system built on your venue's rules, broken down by tables, rooms and party size.

24/7 online booking

Guests book from your website, choosing party size and time. The system only offers genuinely free tables.

SMS and email reminders

Automatic reminders 48 and 24 hours before the meal. This alone typically cuts no-shows by half.

Self-service rescheduling and cancellation

Guests cancel or move their own booking within your rules. Freed tables are offered to the waiting list automatically.

Table and room management

Multiple rooms, different layouts, special events — the system knows all of it.

Host dashboard

Phone bookings go into the same calendar the online system uses. One calendar, not two.

Guest history

If you have guest CRM, every booking links to the guest record — allergies, preferences, returning guests.

What does it cost?

An MVP of a restaurant-tailored booking system is live in a few weeks. The one-off development fee is often in the range of 1-2 years of booking-app subscriptions — with no per-booking commission.

Put your requirements together in the configurator and see a ballpark price instantly.