Reservation book on paper or a spreadsheet with no online booking capability, so the phone rings every time a customer wants a table?
No-shows costing covers every weekend because there's no deposit or pre-authorisation on bookings?
Custom Restaurant Reservation Management Software
Custom reservation management software for restaurants, restaurant groups, and hospitality venues -- online booking that takes the phone calls away, card pre-authorisation that cuts no-shows, and guest profiles that give your team the context they need before the party arrives.
We build for venues where OpenTable or Resy don't fit -- unusual floor layouts, pre-order requirements for set menus, multi-venue groups that need one booking system with venue-level reporting, or deposit logic that third-party platforms won't accommodate.
Embeddable online booking widget with real-time availability and instant confirmation
Card pre-authorisation and deposit collection to reduce no-shows and late cancellations
Pre-order collection for set menus and dietary requirements captured at the time of booking
Guest profiles storing visit frequency, dietary preferences, and occasion notes for personalised service
RaftLabs builds custom restaurant reservation management software for restaurants, restaurant groups, and hospitality venues. A custom system covers online booking with real-time availability, table configuration and shift capacity management, pre-order collection, card pre-authorisation to reduce no-shows, guest profiles with visit history, and shift-level reporting. Most restaurant reservation projects ship in 10--14 weeks at a fixed cost.
100+Products shipped
·24+Industries served
·FixedCost delivery
·12-14Week delivery cycles
The phone-based reservation book is a management problem in disguise
When a restaurant's only booking channel is the phone, the covers you fill are constrained by when someone is available to answer it. A customer who wants to book at 10pm on Sunday, when the restaurant is in the middle of Saturday's late service, puts the phone down and books somewhere else. The reservation that never happens is the one you can never measure.
The no-show problem follows a predictable pattern. A party of six books for Saturday evening. They don't cancel because cancelling a restaurant reservation has no consequence. Four covers sit empty during your busiest service. Over a month of Saturdays, the revenue impact is significant and entirely predictable -- yet most restaurants have no mechanism to change the incentive structure on the customer's side.
Custom reservation software addresses both. Online booking available at any hour captures demand when it exists, not when a staff member is free to answer. Card pre-authorisation or deposit collection changes the calculus for the customer: a booking with a deposit attached gets cancelled or kept, not simply abandoned.
What we build
Online booking widget
Embeddable booking widget for your website, Google Business Profile, and social media links. Real-time availability based on your configured floor plan, shift capacity, and existing reservations -- customers see only times with genuine availability, not a request form. Party size selection with automatic capacity validation so a group of twelve is not offered a table for eight. Instant email and SMS confirmation to the guest with booking reference, date, time, and any pre-order or preparation notes. Booking modification and cancellation links in the confirmation so guests self-serve rather than calling. The booking channel that fills your reservation book while your team is focused on service.
Table configuration and capacity management
Floor plan setup with individual tables, table capacities, and section mapping. Shift configuration: breakfast, lunch, and dinner shifts with independent capacity limits so a 60-cover lunch service and an 80-cover dinner service are managed separately. Table combination rules for larger parties -- two four-covers that can merge to seat eight are available to that party size only, not offered for smaller bookings that don't require them. Special event capacity: private dining setup, venue hire, and seasonal events with separate booking rules that don't interfere with standard service configuration. Turn time by shift and by table size so the availability engine knows how long each booking occupies the table before the next reservation can be offered.
Pre-order collection
Set menu and pre-order collection at the time of booking: the guest completes their food choices during the booking flow so the kitchen has preparation information before service. Dietary requirement and allergen collection with structured options -- vegan, gluten free, nut allergy -- rather than a free text field so the kitchen receives information in a consistent format. Occasion notes field so the team knows about birthdays, anniversaries, and proposals before the party arrives. Pre-order summaries by shift sent to the kitchen team at a configured time before service -- the information needed to prepare, without a manual compilation step. The pre-booking data capture that turns a reservation into a production-ready order.
No-show reduction
Card pre-authorisation at the time of booking for reservations above a configured party size or value -- a charge is placed on the card as a hold and released on arrival, or retained as a cancellation fee if the guest does not show without notice. Deposit collection for set menus, special events, or high-demand dates where a pre-payment is appropriate rather than a hold. Automated reminder sequence: email 48 hours before, SMS 24 hours before, SMS four hours before -- each with a cancellation link so guests who won't attend release the covers in time for you to fill them. Late arrival SMS at the booking time if the party hasn't arrived, with a short window before the table is released. The no-show reduction layer that changes the incentive structure without requiring a conversation.
Guest profiles and history
Guest record created on first booking: name, contact details, dietary preferences, and allergies. Visit history showing every reservation, confirmed attendance, no-show, and spend history pulled from POS integration where available. Occasion tracking so returning guests with a birthday or anniversary on record are flagged automatically before their next relevant visit. Team notes field for any service observations or preferences noted by floor staff -- wine preferences, seating preferences, service notes. Profile search accessible to the reservations team and the host on arrival so every returning guest is acknowledged by name. The guest data that makes the second visit feel as considered as the first.
Reporting and optimisation
Covers by shift: actual covers against capacity, utilisation rate, and covers turned away due to no availability. Average party size by shift and day of week for staffing and floor layout decisions. No-show rate by shift and booking source so you can see whether online bookings from social media convert differently to bookings from Google. Table turn time by table size against your configured target, showing where service is running long against expectation. Revenue per cover where POS integration is available. Weekly and monthly summary reports for management review without manual compilation. The reporting layer that tells you what your venue capacity is actually worth and where you are leaving it unrealised.
Frequently asked questions
OpenTable and Resy work well for most restaurants: established booking volumes, standard floor plans, and willingness to pay a per-cover fee. Custom reservation software makes sense when your floor plan is complex enough that a generic system's table management can't model it accurately, when you need pre-order collection integrated into the booking flow, when you want to avoid per-cover fees at significant monthly cost, when you run a multi-venue group that needs consolidated reporting across sites, or when your deposit and cancellation policy doesn't fit what the platform supports. The decision is often made on fees: a busy restaurant paying per-cover fees to OpenTable may find that the fees over two years exceed the cost of a custom system.
At the time of booking, the guest provides a card number. We place a pre-authorisation -- a hold -- on the card for the configured amount. The hold appears as pending on the guest's bank statement but no charge is made. When the guest arrives, the hold is released and no charge occurs. If the guest does not arrive and has not cancelled within the configured cancellation window -- typically 24 or 48 hours -- the hold is captured as a charge for the no-show fee. The legal basis for the charge is disclosed to the guest at the time of booking and confirmed in the booking confirmation email. We integrate with Stripe for pre-authorisation handling and the workflow is fully automated -- no manual step required from your team.
Yes. POS integration allows guest visit history and spend data to be pulled into the guest profile from the POS transaction record. It also allows the reservations team to see which tables are still in service from the POS so walk-in availability is accurate. Integration approach depends on your POS -- cloud POS systems with open APIs integrate directly. If you are building both a reservation system and a POS with us, we design them to share data natively so there is no integration complexity. Standalone reservation system without POS integration is equally functional -- spend data is simply not populated in the guest profile.
A reservation system covering online booking, table and shift configuration, pre-order collection, card pre-authorisation, guest profiles, and shift reporting typically takes 10 to 14 weeks from requirements sign-off to go-live. Adding native iOS and Android apps for the guest-facing booking experience adds four to six weeks. POS integration adds two to four weeks depending on the POS platform. Multi-venue configuration for a restaurant group typically adds two weeks for the reporting and management layer. Timeline and fixed cost are confirmed after a scoping session where we understand your floor plan, shift structure, and deposit requirements.
Talk to us about your reservation management project.
Tell us your cover count, shift structure, current booking method, and whether you need deposit or pre-authorisation. We'll scope the right system and give you a fixed cost.
