What software do restaurants use for reservations?
Restaurants use a reservation module tied to the floor plan, not a plain calendar. The practical difference: a calendar tells you that 25 people are coming at 20:00, while the floor plan tells you that you have no free table for 6 at that time.
Short answer
- Restaurants use a reservation module with a floor plan, which allocates a specific table, not just seats.
- The software gathers bookings from the website, the phone and messaging into a single list.
- It sends the confirmation and the reminders automatically over SMS, WhatsApp or email, with a cancel button.
- It keeps a waiting list and releases the table if the booking has not arrived within 15 minutes.
- It flags no-shows in the guest's history, so you can require a guarantee only where it is needed.
What the software must do
- Show the floor plan in real time: free table, occupied table, table freeing up in 20 minutes.
- Automatically allocate a table of the right size, so you do not block a six-top for two guests.
- Handle two seatings a night, with an estimated duration per table type.
- Send the confirmation immediately and reminders 24 and 3 hours ahead.
- Ask for a card guarantee or deposit for large parties and peak nights.
- Live in the same application as the menu, the orders and the payment — otherwise the host works in two places.
What the law says
- The name, phone number and email in a booking are personal data and are kept only for as long as you need them (EU Reg. 2016/679).
- A reminder for an existing booking is not marketing; promotional messages need separate consent.
- The cancellation policy, the deposit and the card guarantee must be stated before the booking is confirmed (OG 21/1992).
Practical example
Example: on a Friday night, a 60-seat restaurant has 25 bookings and an 18% no-show rate — 4–5 empty tables. At an average check of 95 RON for two, that is roughly 430 RON lost in a single evening.
With reminders at 24 and 3 hours, one-click cancellation and an active waiting list, the rate typically drops to 5–7%. What you recover is dozens of times the monthly cost of the software.
Common mistakes
- Using a generic calendar that knows nothing about tables and their size.
- Keeping phone bookings in a notebook and online ones somewhere else — the two never line up.
- Asking for a card guarantee without stating it on the booking page, which is also a legal risk (OG 21/1992).
- Not recording no-shows, so you cannot apply a different policy to guests who repeatedly fail to arrive.
How 4restaurants.net helps
- The floor plan, table allocation and waiting list sit on the same screen as the evening's orders.
- Confirmations and reminders go out automatically through 4notify, over SMS or WhatsApp.
- No-shows stay in the guest's history, alongside honoured bookings and their preferences.