Today, many restaurants use table booking apps so that their customers can make reservations at specific times and never wait for a table. Seat reservation apps for restaurants are all the more important now, when the COVID-19 pandemic is sweeping the globe, for diners to be able to enjoy a good meal while staying as safe as possible. In some cases, it may be difficult to find an open table without an app for reserving seats at restaurants. Whether you want to make a dining reservation for dinner or a special occasion, like an anniversary, a table booking app is the simplest way to reserve a table at your favorite restaurants.
There are many dining reservation apps out there if you own a restaurant or are interested in booking a table and enjoying some food. Restaurants may use third-party table booking and dinner reservation apps, but some restaurants may have their own reservation applications or websites. You should check what reservation options the restaurants you are interested in have to offer. In any case, using a table reservation app to book your next dining experience is easy, convenient and hassle free, at least, according to the customers. In some cases, diners can even preorder their meals and have them ready and piping hot at their table as soon as they enter the restaurant.
Top Table Reservation Applications for Restaurants
While many restaurants may have their own table booking solutions, whether in the form of apps or on their websites, there are also quite a few apps providing online reservation systems for a large number of restaurants. The best-known third-party online table reservation systems right now are: Eat App, Resy, Wisely, Tock, OpenTable, Yelp, Table Agent, Eveve and Tablein. Depending on which system a given restaurant has chosen, it can handle online reservations, table management, waitlist management, pre-payments, guest CRM (Customer Relationship Management), online ordering and contactless dining, POS (Point of Sale) integration – if a restaurant is part of a chain or has more than one point in a given city, a partnership network, discounts and yield management, and capacity management. Most of the above functions are for the benefit of the restaurants themselves, but customers can take advantage of functions like pre-payments (implying pre-ordering – which is an increasingly popular proposition) and contactless dining.
Online table booking systems like the ones listed above are most likely seamlessly integrated with the websites of the restaurants they support, so you should be able to find the table booking section on the website of the restaurant of your choice.
Restaurants Need Table Booking Apps Now More Than Ever
If you are a restaurant owner and still have no table reservation app, it’s high time you got one. As mentioned in the introduction, COVID-19 has changed the restaurant industry, to the point where few customers will suffer waiting in line for a table to become available. In addition, seating arrangements are more important than they have ever been in the past, since social distancing must be maintained, which has the unfortunate effect of reducing restaurants’ revenues.
However, with a table reservation app, a restaurant can minimize open table times and optimally seat its customers so as to maximize revenue. Add to this the fact that seat reservation apps allow a restaurant to effectively communicate when tables are available, so customers can plan their dinner reservations around availability limitations more easily.
Apps for booking tables at restaurants also offer other benefits for the restaurateur. For example, some of them allow customers to provide information specific to themselves, allowing the restaurant to cater specifically to their needs and to personalize marketing communications for such customers. Other apps provide comprehensive data collection and customer relationship management, which a skilled restaurant owner can convert to increased revenue with a few personal touches. There is one major caveat though. The more feature-rich a given third-party dining reservation application is, the higher the monthly fee for using it. While a well-established chain may definitely need (and profit from) advanced features, a smaller restaurant may be better served by a leaner, less expensive app. Read on to learn more about the advantages booking and reservation apps can provide for restaurants.
Advantages of Tables Reservation Apps for Restaurants
Any system for table booking or dinner reservations, available as an app or via the restaurant’s website, offers several key advantages. Let’s walk through them.
First of all, reservations can be taken 24/7, regardless of whether a restaurant’s staff is currently working. It could be 3 A.M. when a customer decides to book a dinner reservation in the system, and the system will work seamlessly. This frees up staff from taking incessant calls, which naturally makes it harder for them to wait on tables.
Another great advantage is the ability to track workload. If you see that there aren’t that many reservations for tables in your eatery on a certain day, you might want to give some of your staff a day off. Also, your employees will appreciate being up to date about what is required of them and when.
Apps for booking tables at restaurants are also great platforms for promotion and marketing. If you are trying something new and want to promote it, whether it be a new dish or interior design, your table booking app one of the best places to do so. According to the statistics, you can even boost sales among millennials in this way.
Finally, your guests will be more satisfied if they experience a quick and simple table booking process at your restaurant. Who doesn’t like no waits and quick seating, after all?
Advantages of Restaurant Seat Reservation Apps for Customers
Customers appreciate table booking apps almost as much as the restaurant owners themselves. Again, the ability to book a table at any time of night and day is a very desirable feature for the customer as well. In addition, when a customer knows when tables are available, they can plan their time more easily and avoid waiting in line.
Another great feature is pre-ordering and prepayment. Waiting a long time for a meal or a check turns a lot of people off when it comes to eating out, but with pre-ordering, the order is known before the customer even enters the restaurant, so wait times are greatly reduced. This also helps the restaurant to serve more guests, as waiting times for orders will be reduced, leading to more turnover. The same goes for prepayment. It is a great feeling to walk out of a restaurant after having eaten a delicious meal, knowing that everything has already been taken care of.
Customers can also take advantage of a table booking app to read reviews about a restaurant, look at photos in the gallery, etc. In short, an advantage for the customer is also an advantage for the restaurateur, because a happy customer is a satisfied customer, and most likely, one that will not hesitate to make another dining reservation via the restaurant’s table booking app.
