Small Restaurants Could Boost Reservations By 36% using Online Reservation Tool to Combat No Shows

The founder of Tablein – a digital restaurant reservation system – has said that an increased number of small restaurants could survive if they use online reservations instead of traditional bookings.

No-shows for reserved tables can severely impact the bottom line of smaller restaurants, and this can make surviving in an already harsh sector even more difficult. Recent figures have shown that the number of UK restaurants dropped for the first time in eight years, with two restaurants closing every week. Independent and chain restaurants have both felt the dual pressures of rising costs and economic uncertainty, and the ability of restaurants to fill their vacant tables is more urgent now than ever before.

Small restaurants are particularly vulnerable to short-term downturns in business, with little room for the thousands of pounds they can lose monthly from no-show reservations. The Tablein online reservation system aims to make costly empty tables a thing of the past, introducing a platform that both reminds diners of their reservation and also enables the restaurant to more efficiently manage its tables. Tablein offers a quick, easy to use and robust system for restaurant owners, giving them a digital reservation platform that makes it easier to fill slow hours and improve their revenues.

Tablein puts forward ‘Piccola Italia’ as a successful test case, a small Italian restaurant that was seeing huge losses every month from no-show bookings. Via implementation of the Tablein platform to their website and Facebook page. The result was a 36-percent boost in online reservations, a 50-percent increase in customers during busy times and a significant decrease in administrative burden on staff.

Paulius Šuksteris, founder of the Tablein reservation system, said, “A small restaurant feels the pain if people don’t show up for their reservation. I’ve found that small restaurants are really given much attention or focus from big developers like Open Table, Yelp and others. Often smaller restaurants must find their own way – and that’s not easy.

“My experience as a small restaurant owner helped me create the Tablein system, which will help more small establishments survive – and hopefully thrive. Each table in a small restaurant represents a great deal of profit, and the Tablein reservation system will help make sure tables are always full. The Tablein platform is about making it easy for restaurants to see exactly what their booking numbers are, which helps reduce the burden on the kitchen and make it easier for the restaurant to know their true bottom line.”

To find out more, visit http://www.tablein.com