Saturday night and a queue of residents at the door
The restaurant manager has a full book for Saturday: outside diners booked through the table booking system over the past fortnight. At six, a stream of residents on a dinner, bed and breakfast package comes down expecting a table. Nobody told the restaurant how many were in, because the package bookings live in the PMS and the restaurant never looks there. The team squeezes tables together, asks residents to wait in the bar, and a few of them end up eating at half nine.
The following Tuesday, the restaurant turned away outside diners because it had held tables for residents. Most of the residents had gone to a wedding in the next village and ate there.
Why the restaurant and the hotel see different numbers
The two sides of the business usually run separate systems, for good reasons. Table booking tools are built for restaurants, and a PMS is built for rooms. The join between them is a phone call or a printout.
- Dinner inclusive packages are in the PMS as rate codes, not as table reservations.
- Residents often do not book a time; they just come down.
- Some residents on room only book dinner on arrival, some by phone, some not at all.
- Outside diners book online through a table booking tool with its own availability.
- Nobody owns the job of matching the two each afternoon.
The cost on both sides
Residents who paid for dinner and cannot get a table are the guests most likely to complain, because it was part of what they bought. Outside diners turned away on quiet resident nights are revenue lost for no reason. The kitchen preps for the wrong number and the floor is staffed for the wrong shape of evening.
Package pricing suffers too. If dinner inclusive rates often leave residents unhappy, the packages that should fill your quiet nights start earning poor reviews.
And the restaurant manager spends the late afternoon on the phone to reception, asking how many residents are in, how many are on packages and whether the coach party is eating. The answer changes as late arrivals check in, so the question gets asked again at six.
How we build one covers view for the restaurant
- Each afternoon, the view reads residents from your PMS with their meal plan, number of guests and any dinner time they have requested.
- It reads outside bookings from your table booking system through its API or export.
- Residents on dinner inclusive plans are shown as expected covers, with your own history of what share eat in on each night of the week.
- Where residents have not chosen a time, a welcome message or check-in prompt asks them to pick one, and their answer goes to the table plan.
- The restaurant manager sees one timeline of expected covers for the evening, residents and outside diners together.
- Online table availability for outside diners can be reduced automatically on nights with many dinner inclusive residents, within limits the restaurant manager sets.
| Night | Dinner inclusive residents | Outside bookings | What the view suggests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday | Many | Full book | Close online bookings at 7pm and 7.30pm |
| Tuesday | A few | Light | Open more online tables |
| Wedding weekend | Residents out for the reception | Light | Confirm with residents before holding tables |
The restaurant keeps its table booking system and the hotel keeps its PMS. The view sits across both.
How service runs with residents in the plan
At three, the restaurant manager opens the covers view. Twenty-six residents are expected on dinner inclusive rates, eighteen have chosen times, and the rest are shown against the times residents usually come down. The online booking tool has already stopped offering the busiest half hour. The chef preps for a number that includes everyone.
At check-in, reception asks residents for a dinner time and enters it once. Residents who plan to eat out can say so, which frees tables for outside diners on the night.
Is your restaurant booking blind?
- The restaurant does not see dinner inclusive residents until they come down.
- Residents have waited for tables on busy nights.
- Outside diners have been turned away on quiet resident nights.
- Reception and the restaurant use separate systems with no link.
- Package guests have complained about dinner arrangements in reviews.