Image courtesy of Apple Store

With over 12,000 partners, many restaurant owners will be familiar with the booking service known as Bookatable.

Bookatable is an online restaurant booking platform, offering point-of-sale, website and app services, covering major cities across the UK and Europe, operating in 9 different languages and across 16 countries. In the UK it is used by the likes of Chiquito, Jamie’s Italian, Las Iguanas, Pizza express, and Hilton Hotels and Resorts. Plus a great number of individual restaurant owners.

For consumers the service works as a means of making restaurant reservations as well as accessing local restaurant listings, star deals, menu previews and customer reviews. They can make bookings 24/7 via the website Bookatable.co.uk, through a smart phone Bookatable app, and over the phone using an automated service. With 40% of reservations made on a smart phone, the app is particularly ideal for on-the-go bookings.

Meanwhile, through Bookatable, business owners benefit from being a part of Europe’s largest real-time restaurant marketplace, generating over 2 million covers every month (half of which are new customers), via cloud-based technology. The cloud-based ‘electronic reservations book’ effectively manages the restaurant’s booking process for all restaurant sites including table availability and floor space. Bookatable also provides the restaurant’s website with an online booking service.
Frankie and Bennies uses Bookatable for its 250 sites across the UK and TGI Friday is using the service for 62 sites around the UK. Fabricio Aguilar, Marketing Manager of long standing Bookatable partner Ping Pong Dim Sum Restaurants commented, “We have been using Bookatable for a number of years and it has been key to the success of our brand. From managing seating plans to estimating table turns, the Bookatable platform offers a range of services and tools which we have been using strategically to increase productivity and bring in diners through off peak times. We’re very happy with the functionality and experience the service delivers to our customers and definitely separates it from other booking platforms, we’re looking forward to working together as our brand goes from strength to strength.”

As a company Bookatable has technology high on its agenda, recently rolling out a system of iBeacon devices across its partner restaurants. During the London Restaurant Festival, Bookatable used iBeacons at 119 restaurants in the city. The service for the restaurant festival, enabled consumers with the Bookatable app installed on their iPhone, to receive special-priced festival menus whenever they walked past or into any participating restaurant. Nick Brown, head of consumer product at Bookatable, said: “These notifications will offer diners convenient access to the restaurant’s booking page to encourage more people to dine at restaurants participating in the festival. iBeacon have already proved to be hugely successful with companies such as John Lewis, Waitrose, EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic all using the tecnology to successfully reach their customers”. Following the event Bookatable is installing iBeacons more widely across the UK that will push out special offers to passing app users, and enable “customers to enjoy more on-the-go access to great dining experiences”.