Restaurant Reservation System and Table Booking Software
A restaurant reservation system that takes bookings on your own website, lets you set the rules yourself, and runs the night from the till or your phone. Seat a guest and their table opens in the system, ready to take the order.
Part of the same restaurant system as your online ordering and your point of sale, so a reservation and a bill belong to the same customer.
No contract · No setup fee · 1 month free trial
In three numbers
your website, your online ordering site, or a staff member taking a call
and the restaurant has the table open, ready to take the order
they book online in a browser and manage the reservation from a link
How a booking actually goes
From a guest finding a time on your website to the table turning over — and what the restaurant actually has to do at each point in the booking.
Scroll the timeline to follow it →
A guest books online
They pick a time on your restaurant website. The reservation system only offers slots your rules allow.
The restaurant is told
A booking alert sounds on the devices you chose, on the restaurant POS and on ORA.
It confirms itself
Four covers is under your threshold, so the booking system confirms it without anyone looking.
Confirmation goes out
Email and SMS, with a link the guest can use to change or cancel the reservation.
They move it an hour
The guest does it from the link. No phone call, no staff time.
A reminder lands
Sent the number of hours before that you set.
The host sees the night
The reservation list, a timeline, a calendar or the restaurant floor plan, on whichever device is handy.
Seated in one tap
The table opens on the till, ready for the first round.
The table pays
The reservation and the bill are the same customer in the system, on one record.
Turned over
The buffer you set keeps the next booking from landing on a table still being cleared.
Where your restaurant bookings come from
A reservation should arrive the same way whoever took it. All three channels write to one diary in the system, so the restaurant is never holding a table twice.
Your own online booking page, on your own restaurant domain.
Your online ordering system, so a regular ordering pickup can book a table too.
Staff entering a reservation themselves when the restaurant phone rings.
Each channel can be switched on or off in the system on its own.
Drop the online booking form into the restaurant website you already have
You do not have to move your website to run the restaurant reservation system. Paste one snippet into any page and the form appears, sized and coloured to look like it belongs there.
One snippet, pasted into the HTML of any page on your restaurant site.
The system resizes it to fit, so nothing is cut off and nothing scrolls inside a box.
Set the button colour to match your brand, and a default party size.
The widget stays transparent, so it sits on your own background.
Your restaurant decides what the system makes bookable
Most restaurant booking systems hand you a calendar and hope for the best. This reservation system asks how your room actually runs, and then offers guests only the times that work.
How far ahead
A minimum and a maximum number of days. Zero allows same-day bookings; the window rolls forward daily.
How late
A minimum notice before the start time, and a cut-off so many minutes before the restaurant closes.
How long a table is held
Slot duration — ninety minutes, two hours, whatever your service actually takes.
Spacing
The interval between bookable times, so you are not offering 7:04.
Turn-over
A buffer between consecutive bookings, so a table is cleared before the next party arrives.
Party size
A minimum and maximum, so the twenty-person enquiry comes to you instead of landing in the diary.
Which table a reservation lands on
The reservation system only offers tables you have marked reservable on your restaurant floor plan. Beyond that you can let the system assign them, or keep that judgement for the host.
Auto-assign on, and the system gives a booking the smallest table that fits — the setting that protects your large tables on a busy night.
Or prefer the large tables, if you would rather seat comfortably than pack the room.
Or turn the system off and let the host place every reservation by hand.
Tables and floors live in one place in the system, shared with the restaurant point of sale.
The system confirms everything, nothing, or just the big ones
Auto-confirming a table for two is easy. Auto-confirming a table for twelve on a Saturday is how a restaurant ends up apologising to somebody. The threshold setting splits the difference.
Manual — every reservation waits in pending until somebody at the restaurant looks at it.
Automatic — the system confirms every booking itself, and the guest knows straight away.
Threshold — small parties confirm themselves, larger reservations are held for review.
Whoever you nominate gets a push the moment something needs a decision.
Guests change their own restaurant bookings
The confirmation and the reminder both carry a link. From it a guest can confirm, move or cancel their reservation on their phone — the single biggest thing a restaurant can do about no-shows, and it stops the restaurant phone ringing during service.
Confirm, modify or cancel, without calling you.
Built for a phone, because that is where the email is opened.
The link expires after however many hours you set in the system.
A cancelled reservation frees the table while the restaurant can still fill it.
When the restaurant is full
A full diary should not turn people away. The waitlist in the reservation system takes walk-ins and the guests who wanted a time the restaurant did not have, then tells them when a table comes free.
An estimated wait the system works out from your own average party time.
Or from a rolling window of recent tables, if tonight is not a normal night in the restaurant.
Or whatever the host judges it to be, entry by entry.
The system sends an SMS the moment the table is ready.
Run the restaurant from wherever you are standing
Bookings are managed from the restaurant POS system, from ORA on a phone, or from the admin panel in a browser — the same diary in all three.
See the night as a list, a timeline, a calendar or on the floor plan — the same system either way.
Seat a guest and the table opens, ready to take the order.
A booking alert sounds on the devices you choose, and you pick the sound.
Move a reservation, mark a no-show, or add a walk-in without leaving the restaurant floor.
Everything else a reservation system needs
The reservation software settings nobody asks about in a demo, and every restaurant needs by the second weekend.
Deposits
Switch deposits on and they become mandatory — the guest pays when they book, through the same checkout as an order. Most restaurants put that amount straight back against the final bill, so it is not a fee, it is dinner paid for early.
Blackouts
Block a date entirely, change the restaurant open and close times for one day only, or cap how many bookings that date will take. Public holidays and private functions, handled once in the system.
Your booking page
Give it a background colour or a photograph of the room. The embed widget stays transparent, so the same online booking system looks right on both your restaurant site and ours.
What it tells you
A reservation report showing your busiest times, your no-show rate, and which channel the online bookings actually came from.
What you ask for
Choose which details a guest must give the restaurant — name, phone, email — and whether to show a marketing opt-in. The system keeps it separate from your online ordering opt-in.
One customer
A guest who books on Friday and ordered pickup online on Tuesday is one person in the system, with one history, not two rows in two systems.
What to look for in a restaurant booking system
Most restaurant reservation systems do the same four things on a quiet Tuesday, and most restaurants never test them on a busy one. The best booking systems are the ones that still behave on a full Friday, and these are the questions worth asking before you sign anything.
Does it hold a table for as long as your service takes?
Plenty of reservation software assumes a fixed hour. If your room turns in ninety minutes, a system that cannot be told so will either double-book you or waste the table.
Can guests change a booking themselves?
If not, every change becomes a phone call during service. Self-service is the difference between booking management and answering the phone.
Is the online booking page yours?
Some restaurant booking systems route your guests through a marketplace, take a cut per cover, and keep the customer. Check whose name is on the page.
Does it know about the till?
Most reservation systems stop at the diary. If seating a guest does not open their table on the point of sale, somebody is still re-typing the order.
Can it be run from the floor?
Booking software that only works on an office computer is a system your host cannot use at 7:30 on a Friday.
How is it priced?
Per cover, per month, or per booking. Among reservation systems, per-cover pricing means your best nights cost you the most.
A phone and a notebook, or restaurant reservation software
Plenty of good restaurants still run the diary on paper rather than reservation software, and paper systems have their charm in small restaurants. It works until the night it does not.
The phone and the book
- Bookings taken only while somebody can answer the restaurant phone
- Every change is a phone call during service
- No-shows the restaurant finds out about at 7:30
- A booking diary that only exists at the host stand
- No idea which night is quietly costing you covers
Bookings inside Foodship 360
- Taken online all night, whether anyone is free or not
- Guests move their own booking from a link
- Reminders and deposits that cut restaurant no-shows
- The same reservation diary on the till, a phone and a browser
- Booking management reporting that shows the busy nights and the quiet ones
What else switches on beside the booking system
Each one shares the same menu, the same orders and the same customers. Turn on what your restaurant needs.
Built in Australia for Australian restaurants
The best restaurant reservation systems are the ones your host can run on a full Friday without thinking about the software at all. Foodship is made in Australia and supported here, in your hours.
Made for restaurants and cafes of every size across Australia.
Reservations, online ordering and the till on one platform for restaurants, and one bill.
Support from people in Australia, in your own time zone.
No contract, no setup fee, and a 1 month free trial.
Restaurant booking questions we get asked
A restaurant reservation system takes table bookings for you and keeps the diary. Guests pick a time that your rules allow, the booking is confirmed by email and SMS, and your restaurant staff manage the night from the till, a phone or a browser instead of a paper book. Unlike most reservation systems, it is part of the same software as your ordering and your till.
Yes. Paste one snippet into any page and the booking form appears inside your own site, in your colours, resizing itself to fit. You do not have to move your website to use the booking system.
However you want. Confirm every reservation by hand, let the system confirm them all, or set a party size threshold so small tables confirm instantly and the larger ones wait for a human.
Three ways, and most booking systems manage only the first. A reminder goes out a set number of hours before. Every confirmation carries a link the guest can use to cancel or move the booking themselves. And you can require a deposit, which is taken at the time of booking.
Once deposits are switched on they are mandatory, and the guest pays at the moment they book through the same checkout as an online order. Most restaurants then put that amount against the final bill, so the guest has simply paid for part of dinner in advance.
Yes. Staff-entered bookings are one of the three channels, alongside your website and your ordering page, and they all write to the same diary in the system.
Yes. The reservation system estimates the wait from your average table time, a rolling window of recent tables, or the host's own judgement. Guests get an SMS when their table is ready.
No. Table bookings are part of the same platform as online ordering and the point of sale — not a separate system bolted on afterwards. That is why seating a guest opens their table ready to order in the restaurant, and why a booking and a bill belong to the same customer record.
See your own floor plan taking bookings
Send us your tables and your service times and we will show you the booking system running your room — your rules, your page, your reminders.
No contract · No setup fee · 1 month free trial