What online booking does for a restaurant
Online booking lets guests book a table without calling you. They pick a date, a time and a party size on your website, your Google Business Profile or a link in your Instagram bio, and your restaurant reservation system checks your live availability, confirms the booking and puts it in your diary.
The phone still rings in most restaurants, but bookings no longer depend on someone being free to answer it. A guest planning Saturday dinner on Wednesday at 11pm can book there and then, instead of meaning to call tomorrow and forgetting.
Beyond the diary, a good system:
- sends confirmations and reminders by email or SMS, with a link to change or cancel
- takes a card hold or deposit when the booking needs one
- shows the booking on a live floor plan alongside walk-ins
- runs a waitlist for full nights
- saves each booking to a guest profile, so you know who is coming in and how often they’ve been before
How UK guests book now
Most UK guests now prefer to book online. In ResDiary’s 2023 survey of 827 UK consumers and 208 venues, 56% of diners said they prefer to book through a restaurant’s own website. Another 28% prefer a booking app or platform, and 13% still use the phone.
Booking data points the same way. Data from 400 restaurants on Tableo’s reservation system, published by UKHospitality, found 48% of bookings in Q3 2023 came in online and 37% by phone.
| What was measured | Online | Phone | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diners’ preferred way to book (827 UK consumers, 2023) | 56% via restaurant website, 28% via app or platform | 13% | ResDiary |
| Share of actual bookings (400 restaurants, Q3 2023) | 48% | 37% | Tableo via UKHospitality |
A restaurant that only takes bookings by phone is asking most of its guests to book in a way they’d rather not. The restaurant’s own website is the channel guests prefer most, so that’s where your booking button matters most.
What a good system needs
Booking from everywhere guests already look
The booking widget should sit on your website’s homepage and menu page, and the same availability should feed your Google Business Profile, Instagram and Facebook. Guests should never be sent to a different site to finish a booking if you can avoid it. If you’re redesigning your site, our guide to restaurant website design covers where the booking button belongs.
Rules that match how you seat
Turn times by party size, table combinations for larger groups, a cap on covers per 15 minutes so the kitchen isn’t hit by 20 people at 7.30pm, and tables held back for walk-ins. If the system can’t follow your rules, staff will override it and the diary stops being trusted.
Deposits and reminders that run themselves
In ResDiary’s data, about 1 in 20 confirmed bookings between January and February 2023 ended in a no-show, at an average cost of £1,325 per restaurant over that period. A reminder with a one-tap cancel link turns many of those into cancellations you can resell. For busy nights, large tables and set menus, a deposit or card hold taken at booking gives guests a reason to turn up or cancel in good time. Our guide to no-show prevention covers how to set deposit levels without putting guests off.
A live floor plan with walk-ins
Bookings and walk-ins should land on the same floor plan, so the host can see which table is free, which is finishing and which is booked in 40 minutes. A waitlist that texts guests when their table is ready keeps people from walking away on a full night.
One guest profile for every booking
Each booking should add to a guest record: how often they come, what they spend, allergies, occasions and notes from the last visit. That record is what lets you greet a regular properly and invite a lapsed guest back. If bookings sit in one system and orders and marketing in others, that record never gets built. See what a restaurant CRM tracks.
What online booking costs
Restaurant booking systems usually charge in one of three ways.
| Pricing model | How it works | Suits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per cover | A fee for every guest booked, sometimes higher for bookings that come from the provider’s own app | Very quiet venues | The bill rises every time you get busier, and you may pay for guests who would have found you anyway |
| Flat monthly | One subscription per site | Venues with steady bookings | Extra charges for SMS, deposits, extra users or a second site |
| Monthly plus a small percentage | A lower subscription plus a percentage on deposits or prepayments | Venues that take deposits on some bookings | Check what the percentage applies to, and whether card processing is on top |
To compare providers, take last month’s covers, deposits and SMS reminders and price them on each plan. Then do it again at your December numbers, because that’s when a per-cover model costs most.
Questions to ask before you choose
- Can guests book from my website, Google and Instagram without being sent to another brand’s site?
- Is there a per-cover fee, and does it differ by where the booking came from?
- Can I take deposits or card holds on some nights and party sizes only?
- Are SMS reminders included, or charged per message?
- Do phone bookings and walk-ins go into the same diary and floor plan?
- Who owns the guest data, and can I export it?
- Does it connect to my ordering, till and marketing, or will guest records be split across systems?
- How long is the contract, and what does it cost to leave?
Test each shortlisted system against your real booking flow for two weeks rather than relying on a sales demo. A free trial with no card required makes that easy.
Setting it up in a week
- Map your tables, combinations and turn times, and decide how many covers you can seat every 15 minutes.
- Set deposit rules for the nights and party sizes that cost you most when guests don’t show.
- Put the booking button on your website, Google Business Profile, Instagram and Facebook.
- Write the confirmation and reminder messages in your own voice, with the cancel link near the top.
- Move phone bookings into the same diary, so whoever answers the phone books into the system.
- After two weeks, check how many bookings came in online, how many came outside opening hours and how your no-show rate changed.
If December is coming up, our Q4 booking timeline covers festive deposits and pre-orders.
One site or several
If you run one dining room, check that bookings, deposits, reminders and guest profiles all come in the standard plan rather than as add-ons. If you run several sites, check that multi-location management is listed as a feature instead of assuming it: you’ll want one guest record across every site, and reporting by location.
How Growtality handles online reservations
Growtality’s reservation system takes bookings around the clock from your website, Google and social, with deposits, automatic reminders, a live floor plan for walk-ins and a waitlist. Every booking goes into the same guest profile as that guest’s online orders and loyalty, so the regular who books on Friday and orders a takeaway on Tuesday is one record.
There are no per-cover fees. You pay your plan, £29 a month on Standard or £119 on Pro per location, and 1% on booking deposits and online orders. The 1% doesn’t apply to walk-ins, phone bookings taken manually, or cancelled or refunded transactions. Groups with several sites use the Enterprise plan, which adds multi-location management, custom integrations and dedicated onboarding. See plans and pricing, or start a 14-day free trial with no card required.
Questions owners ask
What is online table booking?
Guests book a table themselves from your website, Google Business Profile or social pages, at any hour, instead of calling. The booking system checks live availability, confirms the booking, sends reminders, can take a deposit and adds each booking to your floor plan and guest list.
Do UK diners prefer to book restaurants online?
Most do. In ResDiary's 2023 survey of 827 UK consumers, 56% said they prefer to book through a restaurant's website and 28% through a booking app or platform, while 13% still use the phone. Data from 400 restaurants on Tableo's system put online at 48% of bookings in Q3 2023 and phone at 37%.
How much does online booking cost a restaurant?
There are three common models: a fee for every cover booked, a flat monthly subscription, or a lower subscription plus a small percentage on deposits. Per-cover fees cost more as you get busier. Growtality is £29 a month on Standard or £119 on Pro per location, plus 1% on booking deposits, with no per-cover fees.
Do online bookings reduce no-shows?
They make the main fixes automatic. An online system can send a reminder with a one-tap cancel link, take a card or deposit at the moment of booking and offer a cancelled table to the waitlist. In ResDiary's data, about 1 in 20 confirmed bookings in early 2023 was a no-show, costing restaurants an average of £1,325 over that period.
Should a restaurant still take phone bookings?
Yes. Some guests will always call, and large or complicated bookings are often easier by phone. The aim is to stop phone bookings being the only option, and to put every booking, however it arrives, into the same diary so tables are never double-assigned.
