Table booking that counts your actual tables instead of your seats, a menu that filters on allergens, and ordering that goes direct rather than losing thirty per cent to an app. There is a working one you can try.
Zeytin is not a real restaurant. Everything on it works in your browser, so you can book a table for eight on a Saturday and watch it refuse the times it has not got.
Then try six, then two. The list of times changes each time, because the room has one eight-seat table and it goes early. That is the difference between a booking system and a contact form with a date on it.
Then add gluten free. Thirty dishes become the handful that satisfy both, and when nothing does it says so plainly instead of showing an empty page.
Watch the total. Switch it to delivery and it tells you the minimum before you reach a checkout screen, which is where most baskets are abandoned.
Not an argument against the delivery apps. An argument for owning the customers you already have, and letting the apps do what they are good at.
The delivery platforms take somewhere between twenty-five and thirty-five per cent of the order value, and that is before card fees. On a fifty pound order that is twelve to seventeen pounds gone on an order the customer would have placed with you anyway.
Ten direct orders a week at forty pounds, at thirty per cent, is roughly six thousand pounds a year that stays in the business instead.
The reservation platforms charge a monthly licence and, on some plans, a fee for every cover booked through them. Sixty to a hundred and twenty pounds a month is normal, so the site pays for itself inside a year on that line alone.
They also keep the diner's email address. Yours is the restaurant they booked; theirs is the app they opened.
Those numbers are the published commission ranges and typical plan prices, not a promise about your business. Bring me your actual covers and order values and I will do the sum properly before you spend anything.
Thirty seats free means nothing if they are fifteen two-tops and the party is six. Booking tables is the whole reason the diary stops being double sold.
A booking holds its sitting and the one after it, because a table of six at seven is not free again at half past. Systems that ignore this are how two parties arrive for one table.
Allergens on every dish, filterable. Natasha's Law applies to what you sell, and a PDF menu nobody has updated since 2023 is the version most restaurants are running on.
One edit updates the menu page, the ordering list and the allergen filters together. Four places to change a price is four chances to be wrong.
Gift vouchers bought at eleven at night, emailed straight to whoever they are for, and on the till system so any member of staff can redeem one without ringing you.
Opening hours that know what day it is, a private hire enquiry that arrives with the party size and date filled in, and an events list that never advertises last month's live music.
One price, the same as every other trade build. The restaurant features are included, not an upgrade.
Design, build, the booking system, the menu with allergen filters, direct ordering, vouchers and going live. The site is yours from the day it launches and the domain is registered in your name.
No deposit, no instalments and nothing to sign up to.
One invoice a year rather than a monthly payment. It renews the domain, the hosting and the SSL certificate, and that is all it does.
Say no to it and the site and the domain are still yours. Nothing is taken automatically and there is no mandate on the account.
No, and that is most of the point. Those services charge a monthly fee and in some cases a fee per cover, and the diner arrives through their brand rather than yours. A booking system built into your own site counts your actual tables, sends the confirmation text, and costs nothing per booking because there is nobody in the middle. The diner is yours, and so is the email address.
Yes, because it books tables rather than seats. Counting covers is what causes double bookings: a room with thirty seats free sounds like it can take a party of eight, when in fact those thirty seats are fifteen two-tops and the large table went at half six. The system holds each table for its sitting and the one after it, because a table of six at seven is not free again at half past.
Yes. Ordering direct from your own site means the whole order value stays with you rather than losing twenty-five to thirty-five per cent in commission. On a fifty pound order that is fifteen pounds you keep. The apps still have their place for reach, but every regular you move onto direct ordering pays for the site several times over in a year.
Every dish carries its own allergen and dietary information, and the menu filters on it, so a coeliac or a vegan diner sees only what they can actually eat instead of ringing to ask. It is also the safer place for that information to live: you change it once, and it is right on the website, the printed menu and the ordering page at the same time. Natasha's Law applies to what you sell, so this is worth doing properly rather than as a PDF nobody updates.
Yes, as a separate route. Parties above the largest table go to an enquiry rather than an automatic booking, because those need a conversation about a set menu and a deposit. The enquiry reaches your phone with the party size and date already filled in, which is faster than a voicemail during service.
No. Prices and dishes live in one place and you edit them yourself. The same edit updates the menu page, the ordering list and the allergen filters together, so nothing can drift out of step. If you would rather not touch it, send me the changes and I will do them, but you are not obliged to and you are not charged a call-out for a price change.
Five minutes on your phone will tell you more than I can. If it looks useful I will build you your own, with your rate, your round and your team on it. If it does not, no harm done.