How much does a restaurant reservation system cost?

ResOlio gives your restaurant its own booking page, an embed for your website and the service screen for one flat price: free for 50 bookings a month, then €39, €59 or €99, with no fee per cover. Other booking systems price in other ways. Here are the three ways restaurants pay, what each company publishes, and the costs that are easy to miss.

The three ways restaurants pay

• A flat monthly price. You pay for a plan, and the price stays the same on a full Saturday and a quiet Tuesday. ResOlio, resOS, Tablein and Zenchef publish theirs.
• A fee per cover. You pay for each guest a marketplace brings you. TheFork takes a share of the bill for each one, at a rate it does not publish: about €2 a cover, our estimate.
• Both. A monthly plan, plus a fee for each guest who books through the network. On its Irish page, OpenTable Core is €169 a month plus €1.50 a network cover.

What drives the price

• Bookings a month. Most plans count bookings or guests. On ResOlio, a booking is a table, whatever its size.
• Guests from a network. A marketplace charges for the guests it brings, so the bill grows with a busy month.
• Messages to guests. Some systems sell text messages as an add-on.
• Set-up and contract. A set-up fee, or a yearly term, changes what the first year costs.

Published prices, side by side

We read each company’s own pricing page. Where a page publishes no price, the table says so.

A month at 500 covers

Take a busy month of 500 covers, all booked through a network. On OpenTable Core, that month comes to €919. On TheFork, at our estimate of about €2 a cover, it comes to about €1,000.

On ResOlio Plus, the same month costs €59, for up to 1,500 bookings. Your covers can double and the price stays where it is. How to stop paying per cover.

Costs that are easy to miss

• Text messages. resOS lists them as an add-on at €0.10 each. On ResOlio, confirmations and reminders by email are included on every plan.
• Set-up fees. TheFork’s French page lists a €400 setup fee. On ResOlio, the only charge is your plan.
• Bookings over a limit. Tablein charges €0.67 for each reservation over Starter’s 50. On ResOlio, nothing is charged per booking: move up a plan when you need more.
• Card fees. If a system takes deposits from guests, ask what each payment costs. On ResOlio, guests never pay, so there is nothing to process.

What ResOlio costs

One flat price per restaurant, with every price on the page. Your plan counts bookings, and its price never moves with your covers or your bill.

• Free, €0: 50 bookings a month, every month.
• Starter, €39 a month: 500 bookings, and Olio taking bookings on your page.
• Plus, €59 a month: 1,500 bookings, and Olio on WhatsApp.
• Pro, €99 a month: unlimited bookings, with the waiting list, pacing and the guest book.

Pay yearly and a month costs €32, €47 or €79. No card is asked at sign-up, and a monthly plan can be cancelled any time. Starting at €0? Read what a free plan really gives you.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Is every price on the page? ResOlio shows all four.
• Is there a fee per cover or per booking? Not on ResOlio, on any plan.
• Are reminders included? On ResOlio, reminders by email come with every plan.
• Is there a set-up fee? On ResOlio, the only charge is your plan.
• Do your guests pay anything? On ResOlio, never: no deposit, no card, no no-show fee.
• Can you leave any month? ResOlio’s monthly plans have no contract.

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