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How much does an online reservation system cost?
Over recent years, brick-and-mortar restaurants have firmly embraced technology. The intensive use of digital solutions began with online ordering and then extended to the classic indoor dining. From table reservations to dining room layout, now virtually every aspect of the front of the house can be managed more efficiently thanks to technology.
As a leading supplier of cloud-based restaurant management software for hospitality businesses, Access Hospitality looks at what exactly a restaurant operator needs to know before investing in a reservation and enquiry management system.
We talk to restaurant operators every day about what a booking and reservation management system could do for them.
In this article we will look at what restaurant booking system does, the benefits it will bring, what it’s likely to cost you and what systems at different price points are likely to deliver for your business.
The cost of a restaurant reservation system can vary massively depending on the package, functionality and pricing structure of your chosen system. Some reservation systems cost as little as £49 per month – but may have limited functionality, others may be free to use the software with fees per cover.
While there are many different pricing structures, tiers and packages available, you can usually divide offers into two main categories:
- a fixed monthly fee
- a fixed monthly fee + variable fee per cover or reservation.
Let’s look at them in detail alongside some pricing examples. Keep in mind, though, that offers for this type of product never stay the same for too long: Providers constantly try to optimise revenue and create offers that resonate with their prospects, so they regularly update fees and pricing structures.
Fixed fee plans for restaurant reservation systems
Typically, providers of restaurant management systems offer at least two plans to choose from, with a subscription that can be paid monthly or annually (usually with a discount).
ResDiary, for example, has four plans that range from £99 to £269 per month, but the features are the same for all of them. What makes the price go up or down is the number of reservations that can be managed with the system: from 150 with the cheapest plan, to unlimited reservations in the most expensive one. The provider also charges a one-off fee for setup and initial online training, and you can also opt for additional features.
Fixed + variable fees for restaurant reservation systems
With this second model, you should expect to pay a fixed monthly or annual fee like in the examples above, plus a variable fee based on the number of covers or reservations.
When you make a cost simulation, it’s important to keep in mind the difference between them: a reservation for five guests means one reservation but five covers. Plans might also include a fee for each booking from Reserve with Google, or a percentage on orders or transactions.
This type of pricing structure is typical of those providers of restaurant management systems that are also restaurant reservation services.
Here are a few examples:
OpenTable in the UK has a ‘core’ and a ‘pro’ plan based on features included. The higher tier costs £299 per month and includes several additional features as well as those included in the ‘core’ plan. Both plans also include a £2 fee per network cover, free reservations that come through your website and a £2.50+/cover or 3.5% (+VAT) service fee for prepaid/experiences.
The Fork Manager has no monthly fee for its standard plan and its ‘Pro+’ plan is £139 per month after an initial free trial period. Both plans charge a commission for bookings through TheFork and Tripadvisor (based on a percentage of your restaurant average meal prices) and the same fees apply to the free plan for bookings through the Google Reserve module.
In addition to the main pricing elements, there are other costs that you may need to consider.
Training and set up fees: even when the provider won't charge for them, the time it takes to complete training and set up will have to be considered as hidden costs
Integration fees: Touchbistro, for example, charges $69 per month for POS integration
Add-ons: there may be additional features that are not included in any of the monthly plans and are charged as optional add-ons. With Eat App, for example, adding guest database or marketing automation will cost $49 extra per month.
What is a restaurant reservation system?
A restaurant reservation system enables your customers to book a table at a restaurant online and allows operators to monitor and manage their bookings from multiple digital channels in one place.
A restaurant reservation system may also include features that support booking management, restaurant seating strategy, waitlist management, table planning, marketing and guest communications.
One of the main factors that drive the price of a booking system up or down is the number of features. Check out some of the main ones:
Booking management
At the reservation stage, the most important feature of the booking management software is to collect bookings and enquiries from different channels: your website, phone, Google, social media, and other partners. From there, users can manage them efficiently from a single dashboard, replying to enquiries, accepting reservations, or negotiating alternative dates or venues.
But it doesn’t end there. The most advanced reservation systems can also:
- Allow guests to purchase tickets for events, either for themselves or as gifts
- Collect payments for pre-orders or deposits
- Send booking reminders and confirmations via email or SMS
- Manage waitlists and suggest a different venue of the same restaurant group, if one of their choices is fully booked
Table management
The second stage of a guest journey starts when they arrive at the restaurant. Here, a good restaurant reservation system can:
- Help optimise space in the dining room to accommodate as many guests as possible, both from reservations and walk-ins
- Keep the status of each table updated for a more efficient service
- Make relevant info for each table readily available (guest tags, or special requests that guests made at the moment of booking, e.g., ‘window table,’ ‘intolerant to gluten’, etc.)
- Keep track of how long a table has been occupied for, to improve turnover
Marketing and guest communications
The third – and often underutilised – stage starts after guests have left the restaurant, when it’s important to stay in touch with them and present them with enticing offers. Here, a reservation and enquiry management system can:
- Build a guest CRM with contact information and data about past visits
- Integrate with the EPoS, connecting spend data and food preferences to guest records
- Use marketing automation to create personalised campaigns
Reporting
All the data that is collected in the process can also be used to analyse restaurant or group performance. For example, you can identify the channels that are driving most covers or reservations, and those that are underperforming.
Do you need all of these functionalities in a restaurant reservation system? That will depend on your business goals. For example, if you feel you should manage bookings and optimise dining space better, then a reservation and table management system will suffice. If, on the other hand, your goal is to attract more repeat visits and spend less on advertising, then adding marketing and guest communication to your features stack is probably a good idea.
Want to learn more about Access Collins functionalities?
How can you determine the ROI of your restaurant reservation system?
In the long run, the goal of a restaurant reservation system is to increase a restaurant’s bottom line in different ways.
- Increase table reservations - When you improve the booking experience by responding promptly to queries, confirming availability immediately, offering alternatives, sending reminders, or giving easy cancelling options, the result is to increase reservations and reduce cancellations and no-shows.
- Increase repeat visits - Thanks to marketing automation and detailed information on guest habits and preferences, restaurants can stop mass-emailing the same offers to everyone in their list and start to personalise marketing campaigns, delighting customers and increasing repeat visits.
- Optimise dining space - If your dining room is half empty, then the goal is to fill it. But when you get closer to full capacity, the ability of a table management system to optimise table turnover time and dining space can really help you make the best of these limited resources.
- Free up time - Automating a lot of time-consuming (and error prone) tasks will allow your FOH staff to spend less time updating spreadsheets and more time taking care of guests, improving their dining experience.
- Obtain better reviews - Any restaurant shift can be filled with bottlenecks that detract from the quality of service. It could be that request that a guest made at the moment of booking (a table by the window, or a highchair for a baby) is completely forgotten, or that a reserved table is not available when customers arrive. Unfortunately, quite often it takes only one of these minor errors to go from a 5-star to a lacklustre 3-star review. A restaurant management system helps you to minimise these mishaps and provide a seamless experience.
An efficient way to assess the return of your investment on a restaurant reservation system is to calculate your baseline (number of bookings, table turnaround rate, etc.) and compare it to the results after implementation.
How pricing of Access Collins works
Access Collins, the booking and table management system for bars and restaurants, has a fixed monthly fee of £135 for core functions, but with an à la carte flexible approach to a range of optional add-ons to increase functionality.
At its core, Collins is a cloud-based reservation and enquiry management software with functionality to support:
- Enquiry management. A centralised dashboard for real-time bookings and enquiries coming through social channels, your website, Reserve with Google, or over the phone with automated email acknowledgement of enquiries and bookings
- Table management. A flexible interface where you can recreate the layout of your dining room, drag and drop tables to optimise space and accommodate large groups, and turn tables faster
- Data management. Comprehensive reporting that enables you to analyse performance at a site or group level and understand which channels are driving the most footfall and bookings as well as collecting customer information such as booking history
Starting from this core product, restaurants and bars have the option to add more integrations, also for a monthly fee. Examples of these add-ons are:
- Collins Pay for taking prepayments and deposits
- Collins LiveWait to manage waitlists more efficiently
- Collins Mail, a tool that enables you to manage all inbound and outbound reservation emails and send automated booking reminders and follow-ups
Ready to choose the right pricing structure for you?
In this article, first we have looked at how a reservation system can help a restaurant’s bottom line, and how to determine its ROI. We have then given you an overview of how the pricing structure of the main providers work, exploring the factors that drive costs up or down, to help you make an informed decision.
You can now take this information to build the booking and reservation management package that your restaurant needs to increase bookings, optimise space in your venue and save hundreds of hours of time for your teams.
All product information is correct as of December 2023.
Access Collins provides quick ROI with increased conversion rate, more bookings in and less no shows
