Restaurant reservation software that knows your tables

Restaurant reservation software takes table bookings online and tells your staff who is coming. It should also know which table is promised for 20:00 before a walk-in sits there at 19:50. GetMenu's bookings come in from a Book a table button on your ordering page, reach your managers' WhatsApp group the moment they are made, and show on the free table's tile on every waiter's phone.

What restaurant reservation software has to do for a small dining room

Restaurant reservation software lets guests book a table online and tells your staff who is coming and when. A small restaurant needs four things from it: take the booking without a phone call, tell the people who need to know, remind the guest, and keep a walk-in off the promised table. Most restaurant table reservation software is a separate product with its own login and a widget for a website the restaurant may not have, and some charge a fee for every guest booked.

No-shows are why this matters. The Resos No-Show Index, built on 3,768,761 reservations across 2,417 restaurants, puts the average recorded no-show rate at 2.33%. In the UK, a 2021 survey by Zonal and CGA found one in seven people had failed to turn up for at least one booking since restaurants reopened, and put the cost of no-shows to UK hospitality at an estimated £17.6 billion a year. Restaurant workers surveyed for OpenTable's US impact report put the cost of a no-show at a table for two at $80 on average. Even one saved table a week is worth having.

How the GetMenu restaurant reservation system takes a booking

GetMenu's restaurant reservation system is part of your ordering page, not a second product. Bookings sit beside your orders. Switch on at least one table under Settings → Tables & QR ordering, and a Book a table button appears under the header of your ordering page within a minute. It opens a booking form at your own address.

The guest picks how many people, a day and a half-hour time, and gives a name. A WhatsApp number and a line for notes are optional. There is no account and no password, and every time shown is the restaurant's own clock. Guests can book up to 120 days ahead and up to 12 people online. Bigger parties are asked to call.

The moment a booking is made, three people hear. Your managers' WhatsApp group gets the booking number (B-12), when, how many, the name, the phone and any note. You get the same by email. The guest gets a WhatsApp confirmation with their booking number. The booking page asks the guest to send you a hello on WhatsApp and gives them a button that does it; the confirmation goes the moment that hello arrives, and it waits up to fifteen minutes for it. If they never write, the booking is still in your list.

Reminders and no-shows: what the numbers say

A reminder is one of the simplest ways to cut no-shows. In the same Resos index, reservations with a delivered SMS reminder showed a 16% lower recorded no-show rate than reservations at the same restaurants without one. Eat App's guide to no-shows lists SMS reminders, an easy way to cancel and a waitlist alongside deposits.

GetMenu's reminder is a setting in Settings → Tables: off, 15 minutes before, or 30 minutes before. The guest gets a short WhatsApp message at that time with the table time, how many people and the booking number, and a line saying to reply if they are running late. It reaches a guest who has said hello to your number, the same rule as the confirmation. Cancel the booking, mark it a no-show or seat the guest early, and the reminder is cancelled with it.

Bookings on the floor plan and the waiters' phones

For a small room, choose the tool your staff already have open. On GetMenu the floor plan is the home screen of every waiter's phone: white is free, dark is an open table, amber means they have asked for the bill. When you give a booking a table, that free table shows its next booking on the tile in copper, as the time, the name and the party size, from three hours before until an hour after. The waiters' phones need the POS add-on.

Orders → Reservations & waitlist shows the day's bookings in time order, with the number of guests counted. Each row has Seat, with a table to choose, No-show and Cancel, and anything you get wrong has an Undo.

Once seated, guests scan the QR code on the table and order from their phones. The order joins that table on the POS floor plan, where the bill is taken. A waiter can add more orders to the same bill from their phone. Every order, from the table, the counter, the web or WhatsApp, reaches the kitchen on one kitchen ticket at each station.

Phone bookings and the restaurant waitlist

Many guests still phone, so a table reservation system for restaurants needs a way for staff to enter those bookings too. The same page has a Book form at the bottom: name, people, when, phone, a table if you want to give one, and notes. Phone bookings go into the same list as online bookings, for parties of up to 60, and each row says which way the booking arrived.

The waitlist is for guests who walk in with no booking. Add a name, how many they are and a phone number, and they sit as Waiting with the minutes counting up. When a table frees, press Call, and they get a WhatsApp saying their table is ready and asking them to come to the host within ten minutes. When they arrive, press Seat and pick the table.

Agha Shah Zaman, a co-founder of GetMenu and a business technology analyst, puts the design simply. "A booking is a promise about a table, so it should show on that table."

What this table reservation software does not do

The booking page does not check whether you are full. It records what the guest asked for, without counting how many guests you can seat, reading your opening hours or holding a specific table. You decide what to accept, and you give the booking a table when you seat it. It takes no deposit and no card, because GetMenu takes no online payment at all. Search engines do not list the booking page, so promote your ordering page, where the Book a table button sits. The page limits how many bookings one internet connection can make in an hour, and it blocks automatic bots. If you need restaurant reservation management software with capacity rules, deposits and a marketplace listing, that is a different product.

Plans for the restaurant reservation software, and how to switch it on

A free restaurant reservation system is usually a free tier with a cap on bookings, or a plan that charges per guest booked. GetMenu's bookings come with the plan, with no fee per guest. Table QR ordering, bookings and the waitlist are on the Growth and Pro plans. The tables, the floor plan, open bills, split bills, the waiters' phones and the kitchen screen come with the POS add-on, which is a yearly add-on to your plan.

The same ordering page takes delivery orders, with the building and unit number picked from a list, and you can upload its menu from a spreadsheet instead of typing it in. On the Pro plan, a guest who gives a number earns a loyalty stamp, regulars grow into tiers with their own discounts, and the loyalty card keeps updating itself in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The plans and the add-on are on the pricing page. The plans come with a 15-day trial and no card, and the POS add-on has no trial of its own.

To switch it on, list your tables under Settings → Tables & QR ordering, set the reminder under Settings → Tables, and open Orders → Reservations & waitlist on the day.

Frequently asked questions

What is restaurant reservation software?

Restaurant reservation software lets guests book a table online and shows your staff who is coming, when and how many. Good ones confirm the booking, remind the guest and show the booking on the table it is for. On GetMenu, bookings land in Orders → Reservations & waitlist.

How does a restaurant reservation system work?

A guest picks a day, a time and a party size on a form, gives a name, and the booking lands in a list your staff can see. On GetMenu the form sits behind a Book a table button on your ordering page, the managers' group hears the moment it is made, and the booking shows on the free table's tile.

What is the best restaurant reservation system for a small restaurant?

The one already open on the phones your staff carry, which takes a booking without a call and tells the host before a walk-in takes the promised table. GetMenu's bookings come with the Growth and Pro plans, with no fee per guest, so compare that with a free tier's caps or a separate subscription.

Do small restaurants need reservation software?

If you take bookings at all, yes, because the alternative is a notebook that only one person can read. A small room needs little from a restaurant reservation booking system: a form on its own page, a message to the managers, a reminder to the guest and the booking shown on the table.

How do I reduce no-shows at my restaurant?

Remind people. GetMenu sends a WhatsApp reminder 15 or 30 minutes before the table, if you switch it on, with a line asking the guest to reply if they are late. Confirm the booking the moment it is made, keep a waitlist to refill a table fast, and mark no-shows so you know your own rate.

How many restaurant reservations are no shows each year?

The average recorded no-show rate is 2.33% in the Resos index of 3,768,761 reservations, and 3.17% in the United States. A 2021 UK survey by Zonal and CGA measured something different: one in seven people said they had missed at least one booking since restaurants reopened. Your own rate is the one that matters, and the No-show button on every row shows it.

Does the guest need an app or an account to book a table?

No. GetMenu's online restaurant reservation system is a web page at your own address, opened from the Book a table button. There is no password and nothing to install. The confirmation and the reminder arrive on WhatsApp once the guest has said hello to your number, which the booking page asks them to do with a button.