One thing I do not understand is why restauranteurs appear to love their legacy booking systems like OpenTable (1998); ResDiary (2004); NowBookIt (2004); SevenRooms (2011); Quandoo (2011); Resy (2014); Tock (2014) when they are just outdated, “manual” systems. After all, they still cannot automate basic reservations requirements like:
– Maximise bookings taken. They can easily reject online booking requests when the restaurant is only 65% full, as their legacy allocation systems think the restaurant is 100% full. Then, after they have rejected booking requests and the damage has been done, they proudly give restaurants suggested allocations for the bookings they have managed to take. Maybe restaurants should ask their booking company for a list of bookings that they have rejected, to better understand the impact of this on their businesses?
– Automated “waitlists” for customers that would like a booking for a future date. All they are offering is a communication link that restaurant staff have to monitor and manually activate. Not really automated, is it?
– Seat a VIP on their favourite table. If VIP’s and regulars are the lifeblood of businesses shouldn’t these systems be doing this autonomously?
– Rearrange table layouts to maximise bookings and increase revenue significantly. Why are these booking systems not rearranging table layouts considering that at least 20% more revenue can be achieved?
– Allow customers to edit paid bookings (ticketed bookings, deposits, etc.) online without needing to call the restaurant for a staff member to do it?
– Offer one seamless restaurant booking and function system. Today, every restaurant space is technically a function space. So why do restaurants need to use two different systems?
These are just some of the many basic things that these legacy booking systems still cannot do.
How awful!
QR code ordering systems and POS systems will be discussed in future posts as they are just as bad.
If you would like to revolutionise your operations with a truly autonomous reservation and restaurant system, send me a DM for a free consultation.
WizButler, your intelligent Butler
Peter Petroulas
Inventor, Founder & CEO
(Judge, World Catering Technology Awards 2024, 2025, FoodBev UK)