Be a Bookings Boss: Take control of your costs and reservations

There’s nothing worse than sitting down after a hard shift, checking the mail, and being faced with that bill: the commissions from all those December bookings. But what if that bill didn’t strike fear into your heart? If you always knew what you’d be paying, regardless of the month? If you had complete control over your bills, and your reservation process?

That peace of mind is how ResDiary is transforming restaurateurs into Bookings Bosses across the globe. But don’t just take our word for it. See how some real life restaurateurs bossed their bookings.

1. Commission-free: the secret other reservation systems don’t want you to know about​

Maray restaurants’ director James Bates saved money with no commissions from ResDiary sites, apps, and his own pages. A previous ResDiary user, he had been lured away by a well-known booking system with the promise of “incremental bookings”:

“Our previous provider used to take out ads so when someone searched Google for our restaurant, they’d be directed to the provider’s website. Then we’d be charged £2 per cover.”

James saw through the ruse in 2016 and returned to ResDiary. He knew immediately he’d made the right decision.

“By switching, we’ve made huge financial gains in the region of £1000 per site, per month (we have two). The trend among other providers of charging for your own bookings through your own site is not something that ResDiary do.”

It sounds unbelievable if you’ve been working with a costly system, but ResDiary’s flat fees means you can plan ahead and actually budget with confidence.

2. Great partnerships: insane ways to improve your business​

Sam Beer from London’s Mommi got more bookings with ResDiary partnerships: “Partnerships are vital to drive off-peak business. Unless you have an extensive marketing budget including an SEO focus, you can’t feature everywhere to appeal to new visitors.

"We take bookings via Hot Dinners, Square Meal, and First Table through ResDiary, and they have their own dedicated audience, with the marketing muscle to bring visibility. First Table encourage early bookings and we saw an influx of these which is fabulous.”

Our partnerships are created with other businesses who will help you generate more bookings, ethically. They’re either totally free or have a genuine diner following, hungry to discover new restaurants. It’s all completely controlled by you via ResDiary’s Channel Management, letting you set booking limits for every partner.

3. The best table management: techniques that will change your world​

The Hand and Flowers, Tom Kerridge’s pub in Marlow, switched to ResDiary in 2017 after a long search for a system to manage their bookings how they wanted: “Our main focus was a simplistic and fast customer journey. When researching different booking softwares, we found ResDiary always strived to improve for the guest’s benefit.”

After a smooth setup process, their team grew to love the system and the way it helped with guest management.

“ResDiary has put a smile on our reservation teams’ faces as they feel the booking journey is clean and smooth, internally. Guests have a great booking process which completes a reservation in a couple of minutes. Then they can confirm and cancel reservations easily via confirmation emails and texts.”

It’s true. ResDiary’s table management is built by people who have worked front of house. That means complete control over your reservations, from how many people can book in per time slot, to rules stopping staff overbooking tables.

4. Bespoke customer contact: the results will leave you speechless​

Sonder owner Trisha McCrae took control of her customer contact with own-branded ResDiary widgets and emails.

“We spent a lot of time creating a website, logo, and colour-scheme for Sonder. That meant branding was really important to us. Other systems’ emails and booking process were branded to them, so when I saw ResDiary and realised I could customise it, I was sold.”

Trisha and Team ResDiary worked to set things up precisely as she needed, making sure that at every point of customer contact, Sonder’s identity was at the fore.

You might not believe it, but with ResDiary, every point of customer contact is fully controlled by you. From bespoke widgets, to customisable microsites, to confirmation emails, you make sure your brand always shines though.

Like a Bookings Boss.