Every restaurant operator wants to grow their business and increase revenues and profits. Getting more repeat guests, along with commission-free reservations, and reducing no-shows and last-minute cancellations is the best way to start.

When guests make online reservations, they have expectations about the level of service they’d like to get. 

Whether you’re a stand-alone restaurant, chain, or hotel F&B concept, you want to create memorable experiences for guests, so they can enjoy their meals and keep coming back for more. 

Experiences today vary. But guests want to enjoy their time, their meal, and the company they come in with. They expect positive experiences and don’t mind sharing their preferences if it means getting better care.

One way to manage all these ideas and operations is to use reservation management software. This type of restaurant management system helps F&B concepts manage operations, increase sales and profits, and create those unique dining experiences guests crave.

But how can you choose the best reservation management system for your restaurant? What are the different seating management systems on the market and what does each of them offer?

Keep reading to uncover the top restaurant reservation software, their perks, their disadvantages, and more.

What is reservation software?

Restaurant reservation software is a type of system restaurants use to manage several operations. With a reservation or booking system, restaurants can manage guest bookings, table and seating arrangements, and also waitlists.

Reservation management systems come with a restaurant customer relationship management (CRM) system and can be integrated with point-of-sale (POS) systems.

Restaurant reservation management systems are sometimes referred to as table management software or seating software.

Depending on the reservation system you’re using for your restaurant, you may get additional features like email or SMS, and reporting features, among others.

There are many reservation systems for restaurants around the world. Each one comes with its perks.

Best reservation systems for restaurants compared

For many successful restaurants, reservations make up the bulk of their revenues and profits. 

Here is our list of the best reservation software for restaurants. For each reservation or booking app, we’ll look at

• What they offer

• Pricing plans and free trial availability

• Top Features

• Whether they charge fees for booking tables

• Disadvantages (if any)

SerVme 

Description

SerVme is a reservation, table management, and waitlist software for restaurants of all sizes. We work with single restaurants, F&B groups, hotels, bars, and others.

We offer a host of features and perks so restaurants can manage and streamline operations from a single dashboard. 

Our goal is to help F&B concepts improve operations to create smooth, memorable dining experiences for guests to keep them coming back. 

Top Features

• Reservation, table management, and waitlist software: SerVme offers reservation and table management for restaurants using its online reservation widget. Restaurants can share the widget via their website, social media platforms, or third-party providers. They can also manage upcoming events, review waitlists, and log guest information and preferences to its CRM. 

• Guest CRM and profiling: Restaurants can create detailed guest profiles and add information like dietary restrictions, food preferences, allergies, and more. They can share this information between branches or locations or limit it to specific locations. Restaurant managers can segment guests, create auto-tags to uncover top spenders, most frequent visitors, chocolate-lovers, and more with SerVme’s CRM software.

• Restaurant marketing software: Restaurants using SerVme don’t have to worry about integrating with marketing platforms. SerVme offers email and SMS marketing for restaurants, along with ready-made templates in its dashboard. Restaurants can create various SMS and email marketing campaigns for retention, re-engagement, sales, and more. 

• Tracking restaurant analytics: Restaurants using SerVme’s reservation management system can track various analytics. They can also track their best referral sources from third-party sites like Tripadvisor, Zomato, and others.

Further reading: Here’s How to Make the Most of SerVme’s Restaurant Table Management Software

Free trial availability

Yes! SerVme offers restaurants, chains, eateries, and other F&B concepts a free trial of up to one month after a quick demo call. 

Pricing plans

Depending on the size of your restaurant and integrations needed, SerVme’s pricing plans begin at $99 per month and can go up to $350/month. 

SerVme offers special discounted pricing for annual subscriptions and longer-term arrangements.

Fees for booking tables

Never! We never charge cover fees for booking tables, whether through social media, Google, or elsewhere. 

EatApp

Description

EatApp is a cloud-based restaurant booking software that helps restaurants improve efficiency through guest profiling, CRM, and automated surveys.

Top Features

• Reservation management: As a reservation system for restaurants, Eat App lets restaurants manage online and in-person reservations, table bookings, and seating arrangements. They also offer listings for restaurants so guests can book tables.

• Guest CRM: A benefit of using the Eat App is its restaurant CRM, which restaurants use to create guest profiles.

• Automated surveys: One of the main reasons restaurants turn to reservation management systems is to automate guest surveys. Once a guest leaves a restaurant, or shortly after, they get an SMS asking them to review their latest dining experience.

Free trial availability

Eat App has a three-tier pricing system and offers a free plan for up to 30 covers. There is also a free trial for the paid plans.

Pricing plans

Their first or ‘Starter’ tier amounts to $55 a month and includes up to 100 SMS messages. Meanwhile, their advanced or ‘Pro’ tier amounts to $223 per month.

Disadvantages of using EatApp

• Limited floor planning options: One downside of using Eat App, according to customer reviews, is limited floor planning customization options.

• Pricey plans: Some customers have noted that Eat App charges per-cover fees which can accumulate and result in significant charges. Moreover, the cost of integrations is not clear on the website, so how much you pay per month or year isn’t 100% clear. 

SevenRooms

Description

SevenRooms describes itself as an ‘all-in-one platform’ for F&B and hospitality operators. The US-based company offers its customers reservation management, CRM, guest experience management, and marketing features.

Top Features

• Reservation management: SevenRooms helps restaurants take online bookings from multiple sources, manage reservations and cancellations easily.

• No cover fees: Like SerVme, SevenRooms doesn’t charge restaurants any cover fees for reservations made via its online widget.

• Marketing features: SevenRooms offers restaurant marketing automation features like email and SMS to restaurants, along with analytics. Restaurants can create and personalize campaigns for their guests and track the impact of those campaigns.

Free trial availability

According to Capterra, SevenRooms offers a free trial but no free version.

Pricing plans

If you scour the SevenRooms website, you won’t find anything about pricing. However, they mention offering 3 pricing packages and being able to customize pricing based on customers’ needs.

But what’s the initial investment? No one knows! Research shows SevenRooms’ starting tier begins at $700 month.

Moreover, if look really hard on their website, you’ll find SevenRooms charges additional fees besides the monthly subscription. “Outside of the monthly subscription, SevenRooms charges a one-time setup fee and credit card processing fees for transactions made via SevenRooms.”

Disadvantages of using SevenRooms

• Unclear and hefty pricing: As mentioned, it’s not clear how much SevenRooms charges customers. However, research shows their starting package amounts to $700 a month. This makes it the highest starting price on this list of best reservation software for restaurants.

• No customer support: A major downside of using SevenRooms is the lack of live customer support. To reach SevenRooms’ customer support, you need to first send an email.

• Not Android support: SevenRooms isn’t available on Android tablets or phones, which makes it harder and costlier for restaurants to use.

Resy

Description

Resy acts as both a restaurant reservation-booking app and a consumer-focused diner network. The company, offers reservation and table management,

It’s worth mentioning that Resy originally began as a service to fine-dining restaurants but has since expanded to other restaurant types.

Top Features

• Social media integrations: Restaurants using Resy can integrate with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google for online reservations.

• Diner network: Like OpenTable and Quandoo, Resy offers restaurants a diner network where they can list their locations to get bookings.

Free trial availability

No free trial is available. However, according to Capterra, there’s a free version available. However, this is not reflected on their pricing page. It may be a case-by-case offering or an option that restaurants get after booking a demo.

Pricing plans

Resy offers 3 pricing plans. Its starter or Basic plan amounts to $249 per month, while its Pro plan stands at $399 per month. Its Enterprise Full-Stack plan is the most expensive and advanced. It amounts to $899 per month and is suitable for restaurants with 10+ locations.

Fees for booking tables

Resy doesn’t charge cover fees for table bookings.

Disadvantages of using Resy

• Limited reporting: One of the downsides of Resy’s pricing plans is the limited reporting options. Only the ‘Enterprise Full-Stack’ plan has unlimited reports. Its Basic plan doesn’t include reporting and analytics, while its Pro plan comes with only 2 reports per year.

• No marketing automation tools: Unlike SerVme and other restaurant reservation systems on this list, Resy doesn’t offer marketing automation features in its platform.

• No customized branding: In most of the reservation apps on this list, the reservation widget is the only element that carries the name of the reservation app. Everything else in the software can be customized to the restaurant or chain’s branding. Except in Resy, where features cannot be customized to meet the restaurant’s branding or brand guidelines.

Quandoo

Description

Quandoo is restaurant reservation software that helps F&B concepts get and manage online reservations. The company has different pages and pricing plans for the different countries it serves.

Top Features

• Two-sided reservations: Guests can book through Quandoo’s reservation widget. Like Resy and ResDiary, restaurants can join Quandoo’s partner network for exposure and guests can book tables directly from Quandoo.  

• Table management: Quandoo helps restaurants streamline operations, avoid overbooking, and increase table turnover with table management.

Free trial availability

No free trial or free plan available.

Pricing plans

Quandoo offers two pricing plans, Pro and Premium. Pro stands at $39 per month and Premium amounts to $99 per month. Quandoo also has a one-time setup fee of $99 for either plan.

The company charges $3.50 for covers via its network. Covers via its booking widget, Google network, and social media integrations are free. This applies to both its pricing plans.

It’s worth mentioning that Quandoo’s pricing varies based on the country you’re booking from and the currency.

Fees for booking tables

Yes, Quandoo charges fees for tables booked via its Quandoo Partner Network. Fees amount to AUD 3.50 in Australia, GBP 3.90 in the UK, CHF 3 (for Pro) in Switzerland, and so on. 

Resdiary

Description

ResDiary is an online restaurant reservation management system, helping hospitality operators manage operations and ensure smooth experiences. Their top offerings are table booking, guest profiles, and integrations with accounting software and restaurant POS systems.

Top Features

• Reservation management widget: Restaurants can use ResDiary to create an online booking widget so their guests can make reservations. Like SerVme, restaurants can use ResDiary’s widget to collect guest information to build their restaurant CRM and guest profiles.

• Dish Cult listing: Like Quandoo, ResDiary offers what it calls a “diner discovery and booking platform.” This means dining concepts can use ResDiary’s reservation system for restaurants and get a free listing on their restaurant booking platform, Dish Cult.

Free trial availability

No free trial available.

Pricing plans

Pricing begins at $89 per month but there’s a limit of 150 covers. Restaurants can add covers for extra fees for this plan. Their advanced or more expensive plan begins at $189 per month. ResDiary offers annual plans that include a free month or two.

Fees for booking tables

ResDiary does not charge cover fees “regardless of where you’re booking from,” according to their website.

Disadvantages of using Resdiary

• Complex software: Previous ResDiary users say the software is complex and not easy to use, resulting in lots of time wasted.

• Poor customer support: Although ResDiary promises customer support, users report their support being weak and limited. Especially during the setup process.

• Extra fees for cancelling the service: Customers, via TrustPilot report encountering problems when choosing to cancel their subscription with ResDiary. One customer reported a three-month fee and being unable to access restaurant reports.   

Tock

Description

Tock makes it on this list of best reservation systems for restaurants because it helps F&B operators reduce no-shows. Restaurants can get and manage reservations and charge deposits, reservation fees and cancellation fees.

Tock also lets restaurants manage waitlists to make up for last-minute cancellations. Their restaurant CRM not only offers detailed guest profiles, but comes with questionnaires restaurants can send before or after guest visits.

Top Features

• Reduces no-shows: Tocks helps restaurants reduce lost revenue by helping them reduce the number of no-shows using a ‘ticketing system.’

• No cover fees: Like SerVme, Tock doesn’t charge cover fees. 

Free trial availability

No free trial or free plan available.

Pricing plans

Tock offers four pricing plans. Its first plan ‘Base’ begins at $79 per month, Essential starts at $199 per month, while Premium starts at $339 per month. Their most expensive plan ‘Premium Unlimited’ begins at $769 per month.

Restaurant POS integrations are only available in the Premium and Premium Unlimited plans.

Fees for booking tables

Reservation system Tock charges table booking fees of 3% in its ‘Base’ and ‘Essential’ plans, and 2% in its ‘Premium’ plan. Only its ‘Premium Unlimited’ plan doesn’t include fees on prepayments. However, the plan begins at $769 per month.

Disadvantages of using Tock

• No email marketing features: Unlike some of the best reservation software for restaurants on this list, Tock doesn’t offer email marketing solutions for restaurants.

• Limited CRM capabilities: Although Tock offers a restaurant CRM and guest profiling, they lack the auto-tagging and segmentation feature available in SerVme and SevenRooms.

• Expensive: Getting access to important reservation management features requires subscribing to the Premium and Premium Unlimited plans, both of which are quite expensive.  

• Caters to high-end restaurants: While not always a bad thing, Tocks features are designed for high-end restaurants, making them unfit for smaller eateries and medium-sized restaurants.

Conclusion

To choose the best reservation system for your restaurant, you’ll need to identify your short-term and long-term needs. Pricing plays a role in every decision, but be sure to ask if some reservation systems offer discounts on annual pricing.

In this article, we highlighted the top features of each restaurant reservation software, including our own.

SerVme boasts dozens of important features that our customers use every day. As a SerVme customer, you can request additional features or talk to our customer support about specific problems so they can help you solve them through SerVme.

Check out our roundup of top features released in 2023. Some of these features were requested by restaurant owners and managers like you. Some of these features include Manager’s Notes, which improves communication across your teams and the link-check-to-Simphony-POS feature.

Want to see how SerVme can help you increase restaurant reservations, reduce no-shows, manage operations, and more?

Book a quick demo call and get your free trial today!