Restaurant reservation system on your own site: tables, deposits and reminders in one flow
A restaurant reservation system is the booking page on your own site where a guest picks a date, time and party size. The request lands in your WhatsApp or e-mail for one-tap confirmation. ALTAI Digital builds it around your floor plan and service hours. Reminders go out a day and two hours ahead, with a cancellation link. A cancelled table reopens and the waiting list is told. Deposits are optional and no per-cover fee is paid. The first live flow opens in four to eight weeks.
During evening service nobody answers the phone, and whoever does cannot see the floor plan. Bookings arrive through Instagram messages and phone calls. A message sent at midnight waits until the morning, and by then the guest has booked elsewhere. A no-show is an empty table for the night, and nobody tells the waiting list that it has opened up. A restaurant reservation system closes these three gaps in one flow: the guest picks the time, the reminder goes out on its own, and a cancelled table reopens for the next guest.
Many restaurants in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom take bookings through a reservation platform. The platform charges per cover or a monthly fee, and it holds the guest record. The name, the phone number and the booking history sit in the platform's database, not in the restaurant's. A reservation system on your own site pays no per-cover fee; the guest record stays in your own infrastructure and is processed under GDPR on your terms. The reserve button on your Google Business Profile can point straight to it, so a guest books from the map without leaving Google.
The guest picks a date, time and party size on your site. Service length, table capacity and closed days are set as rules, so a slot that cannot be served never appears. The calendar syncs with Google Calendar or Outlook. Reminders go out a day before and two hours before by WhatsApp, SMS or e-mail, each with a cancellation link. A cancelled table returns to the calendar and the waiting list is notified. Deposits are optional and the refund rule is written by the restaurant, not by the system. A monthly report shows occupancy, the no-show rate and the busiest hours.
Guests in Rotterdam or London do not all speak the same language, so the flow is built in two or three languages: Dutch, English and a third where your guests need it. We work from Rotterdam and Istanbul. The build starts with a discovery week on your floor plan, service hours, capacity and deposit rule. The first live flow opens in four to eight weeks. Below you will find the scope, the four steps and the questions we are asked most often. Pricing follows the discovery call, once the scope is clear.
What goes wrong today
- 01
Nobody answers during service
The phone rings at eight in the evening and the kitchen is at full stretch; whoever picks up cannot see which tables are free. After two attempts the guest messages another restaurant. Every booking depends on one person being able to answer at the busiest hour.
- 02
Bookings scattered across Instagram and the phone
Bookings arrive as Instagram messages and phone calls. A message sent at midnight waits until the morning, and the reply is often too late. Date, time and party size sit in a message inbox; which table was promised to whom is not visible in one place.
- 03
No-shows leave tables empty
A no-show is an empty table for the night. The table is held at eight, the guest does not appear, and the walk-in at the door has already been turned away. Sending a reminder depends on someone remembering, and asking for a deposit needs a tool the restaurant does not have.
- 04
A cancelled table goes unnoticed
A guest who wants to cancel has to call; if nobody answers, the table waits empty. Even when the call gets through, the freed slot is not offered to the waiting list; nobody keeps that list. The table closes for the night unseen.
- 05
The platform holds your guest record
A reservation platform charges per cover or a monthly fee, and the guest record lives in its database. The restaurant sees tonight's bookings but does not own the names, numbers and history behind them. Moving to another tool later means starting the guest list from zero.
- 06
The reserve button on Google points elsewhere
Guests find a restaurant on Google Maps and the Business Profile. If the reserve button is empty, the guest falls back to the phone. If it points to a platform, every booking through it carries a fee. A reserve button that points to your own site does neither.
Scope of the build
Guests pick date, time and party size on your site
The guest picks a date, time and party size; a slot that cannot be served never appears. Service length, table capacity and closed days are set as rules: a two-hour sitting, a table for four, closed on Mondays. The request lands in your WhatsApp or e-mail and is confirmed with one tap.
Sync with Google Calendar or Outlook
The reservation calendar syncs with the restaurant's Google Calendar or Outlook. A private event or a day of refurbishment written into that calendar is closed to bookings at once. The floor plan is maintained in one place, not two; when a rule changes, the calendar changes with it.
Reminders a day and two hours ahead
Reminders go out a day before and two hours before, by WhatsApp, SMS or e-mail; the restaurant chooses the channel. Each message carries a cancellation link, so a guest cancels without calling. Which reminder uses which channel is written down during the build.
A cancelled table returns to the calendar
A cancelled table returns to the calendar and the waiting list is notified. The waiting list is the record a guest leaves when the slot they want is full. When a cancellation frees it, the next guest in line hears about it. Reopening a table no longer depends on someone noticing.
Optional deposit, your refund rule
If the restaurant wants it, a booking opens with a deposit; the deposit is there to reduce no-shows. The restaurant decides the amount and which bookings require it. The refund rule is the restaurant's own and is written into the setup; the system never refunds on its own.
Reserve button on Google, two or three languages
The reserve button on your Google Business Profile points to your own booking page. A guest books from the map without leaving Google, and no per-cover fee is paid. The flow runs in Dutch and English, with a third language where your guests need it.
Monthly report: occupancy, no-shows, busiest hours
A monthly report shows the occupancy rate, the no-show rate and the busiest hours. Which evenings stayed empty is visible as a number. The effect of deposits and reminders is tracked in the same report, so decisions are made on figures rather than on memory.
How the build runs
- 01
Discovery (1 week)
Floor plan, service hours, capacity and the deposit rule are written down. Where bookings come from today and how many no-shows you have are measured.
- 02
Build
Rules are written into the calendar and the Google Calendar or Outlook sync is set up. Reminder channels and the deposit flow are connected, and the booking page is placed on your site.
- 03
Trial week (1 week)
The booking flow is tested with your staff during real service hours. Confirmations, cancellations and waiting-list notices are tried live, and missing rules are corrected.
- 04
Launch and measurement
The reserve button on your Business Profile is pointed at the booking page and the flow goes live. After the first month, occupancy, no-show rate and busiest hours are reported.
Restaurant reservation build
- Date, time and party size on your own site; rules for service length, table capacity and closed days
- Sync with Google Calendar or Outlook
- Reminders a day and two hours ahead by WhatsApp, SMS or e-mail, each with a cancellation link
- Cancelled tables returned to the calendar and the waiting list notified
- Optional deposit with the restaurant's own refund rule
- Flow in two or three languages
- Reserve button on your Google Business Profile
- Monthly report: occupancy, no-show rate, busiest hours
Pricing is given after the discovery call, once the scope is clear.
Products used in this build
Online booking and scheduling
Online booking for clinics, salons and hotels; reminders and cancellation handling close the empty slot.
WhatsApp Business integration
Notifications, order tracking and customer conversations gather in the business account; the history stays with the company.
Web and mobile development
Code written from scratch: web with Next.js, mobile with React Native and Swift; the repository is yours from day one.
Terms used on this page
- Reservation system
- The booking page on a restaurant's own site where a guest picks a date, time and party size and requests a table; the restaurant confirms with one tap.
- No-show
- A confirmed booking where the guest neither arrives nor cancels, so the table stays empty for that sitting.
- Deposit
- An optional prepayment taken when a booking is made, intended to reduce no-shows, with a refund rule written by the restaurant.
- Waiting list
- The record a guest leaves when the slot they want is full; the next guest in line is notified when a cancellation frees it.
- Per-cover fee
- The charge a reservation platform takes for each guest seated through it; a booking page on the restaurant's own site carries no such fee.
restaurant reservation systemFrequently asked questions
The first live flow opens in four to eight weeks. The discovery week captures the floor plan, service hours, capacity and deposit rule; the build is followed by a trial week with your staff. The schedule depends on the floor plan, the number of channels and whether deposits are set up. Your own timeline is written into the discovery report.
The request lands in your WhatsApp or e-mail and is confirmed with one tap. Once confirmed, the table slot closes in the calendar and the guest receives a confirmation. If nobody can look at the phone during service, the request is not lost; it can be confirmed after service ends.
No, deposits are optional. If the restaurant wants it, a booking opens with a prepayment; the restaurant decides the amount and which bookings require it. The refund rule is the restaurant's own and is written into the setup; the system never refunds on its own. The deposit is there to reduce no-shows.
Reminders go out by WhatsApp, SMS or e-mail; the restaurant picks the channel. The default rhythm is one day before and two hours before. Each message carries a cancellation link, so the guest cancels without calling and the freed table returns to the calendar straight away.
A cancelled table returns to the calendar and the waiting list is notified. The waiting list is the record a guest leaves when the slot they want is already full. Reopening a table does not depend on staff noticing; if there is a cancellation window or a fee, it is written into the setup.
Bookings move to a page on your own site. No per-cover or monthly fee is paid to a platform, and the guest record lives in your own infrastructure. The reserve button on your Google Business Profile is pointed at that page. Bookings already in the platform are entered into the new calendar during the trial week; the platform is switched off only after the new flow has run live.
Guest data is stored in your own infrastructure, in your name. Only the fields needed for the booking are kept: name, phone number, date, time and party size. You are the controller under GDPR, and the retention period and the deletion rule are written into the setup. No platform holds a copy of your guest list.
Whether no-shows have gone down is visible in the monthly report. The report shows the occupancy rate, the no-show rate and the busiest hours. Before the calendar opens, the number of no-shows is measured; after it opens, the same figure is measured every month. The effect of reminders and deposits is tracked separately, so the report shows which one is working.
The process first, the proposal after
In a short discovery call we map the process together and tell you plainly whether it is worth automating. If it is not, we say that too.
30 minutes · no preparation needed
