Substantial time savings, reduced staff workload, and, above all, more reservations and turnover: that is the promise of online reservation systems such as resmio. However, a digital reservation system is only as good as the people who work with it on a daily basis. How can you avoid common mistakes that unnecessarily slow down your business? Find answers and example scenarios in this article.
(Written by Max Falkenstern. This article was originally published in German and has been updated and translated for our English-speaking audience.)
Table of Contents
- Mistake #1 – The “blind” system (Gaps caused by walk-ins & phone)
- Mistake #2 – Limits kill your revenue (restricted reservation and opening times)
- Mistake #3 – Hectic pace in the dining area (no digital table plan)
- Mistake #4 – The “confirmation trap” through manual approval of reservations
- Mistake #5 – The “spontaneity brake” due to long lead times
- Mistake #6 – Your guests can’t find your widget on the website!
- Mistake #7 – Chaos in the Google Business Profile
- Conclusion – Automation requires your participation!
Let’s get straight to the point: you purchased a digital reservation system to have less work—not more! Less paperwork, no distractions from phone calls, and full tables in the dining area are the declared goals.
The good news is that it is often just a matter of settings! Typically, it’s just small adjustments or old habits that make the difference between a smooth service and avoidable stress.
In this post, we therefore take a look at 7 common mistakes restaurateurs make when dealing with their newly acquired reservation system. We will illustrate how you can fix them with just a few clicks and get the maximum out of your local business!
Mistake #1—The “blind” system (gaps caused by walk-ins & phone)
Online reservations land automatically in your system—that much is logical. But your digital reservation book is only as smart as the data you feed it. If you don’t enter spontaneous guests (walk-ins) and telephone reservations, your system is practically working “blind.” It plans with free tables that, in reality, might have been occupied long ago.
Why is it a problem?
- Risk of overbooking: Especially on weekends and at peak times, overbookings can happen quickly. You certainly don’t want to embarrass your team and yourself by turning away guests with a valid online reservation just because the tables were just given away.
- Loss of control: Without a clear overview of the actual occupancy, service staff in the dining area must physically check if tables are free. This causes unnecessary walking distances and avoidable waiting times.
- Stress during service: Your employees have to improvise in the hectic daily business and appease dissatisfied guests.
You can’t possibly want that, especially given the tight staffing situation in the restaurant industry.
What you should do:
- Walk-ins and phone reservations belong in the system.
- Ensure through internal company training and processes that employees understand the reasons and are proficient in using the digital reservation system.
- For all questions about the system and online training appointments, you can contact our free customer service at any time. We are happy to help!
- You can create your own user accounts for your service staff via the user rights management in resmio or work with one account and so-called aliases, which employees must first select for documentation when creating a manual reservation.
Mistake #2 – Limits kill your revenue (restricted reservation and opening times)
Some restaurateurs tend to entrust only a fraction of their capacity and times to the reservation system. Mostly out of concern about losing the overview or keeping tables ready for spontaneous guests or telephone bookings. Restaurant operators often overlook that they can sabotage their restaurant occupancy with such restrictions. Because if the guest finds no available times online, they will, in case of doubt, go to the competitor across the street.
Why is it a problem?
- Loss of revenue: Your restaurant is “fully booked” online, but many tables are free on-site? This costs revenue because many guests do not come to your restaurant at all due to limited capacities. An unreported number of cancellations issued occurs.
- Hectic operations: If guests fail to make an online reservation, they might call anyway—thus causing additional organizational effort for the team, which you actually wanted to avoid with the system.
What you should do:
- Release full capacity: Store your complete reservation times and capacities for all days of the week. Only then can the system maximize your table occupancy. You can do this easily in your resmio account under
Settings > Reservations > Times. - Clever timing instead of hard blocks: Use short reservation intervals (e.g., 15 minutes) to spread out the flow of guests and not overwhelm the kitchen and service. Combine this setting with a duration of stay according to group size (e.g., 90 minutes for 2 people)—this allows you to make tables available again faster.
- Correct opening hours ensure that guests can reliably reach you for telephone reservation inquiries (e.g., for larger groups). You can find these in your restaurant profile.
Settings > Reservations > Mistake #3 – Hectic pace in the dining area (no digital table plan)
Efficient management of your restaurant occupancy is hardly imaginable without a table plan. “But I know my place by heart,” the restaurateur mumbles. True, but your reservation system simply works blind without a table plan. Because it only sees the total number of seats but doesn’t know how they are distributed in your dining area. Only by linking your capacities with fixed tables does your system gain an overview of your restaurant and can control reservations automatically in a profitable way.
Why is it a problem?
- Stress when welcoming guests: If your guests are simply distributed according to the total capacity (and not to matching tables!), the service must manually distribute them at the reception. This leads to errors, a hectic pace, and longer waiting times due to the walking distances of your staff.
- You waste capacity (and thus revenue): Without stored table combinations, your system doesn’t know that Table 2 and Table 3 could be pushed together to accommodate a group of 8 people. In the worst case, your service team turns guests away even though seats are basically available.
What you should do:
- Activate table plan and define rooms: Activate the table plan in your reservation system under Settings > Table Plan. Store rooms and tables with full capacities for reservations. This way, resmio can automatically assign reservations to the best tables for you.
- Use automatic table combinations: Allow the system to use automatic table combinations based on individual settings. This allows you to spatially connect tables so that larger groups can sit together if possible.
- Temporary blocks: Exclude entire areas (such as the outdoor terrace in winter) from availability via Exceptions without having to throw your entire restaurant settings overboard.
Mistake #4—The “confirmation trap” through manual approval of reservations
A guest gets in touch, you flip through your reservation book, and you give an acceptance or rejection based on availability. How many minutes a day, hours a week, days a year do you think that adds up to?
You can significantly reduce the administrative effort with your digital reservation system. But only if you break away from “old” habits and patterns.
Why is it a problem?
- Unnecessary time expenditure: Two to three minutes per email and phone call sounds manageable at first.
In total, a few hours add up over the week—valuable time for standardized communication that you could save yourself! - No planning security: If guests have to wait several hours for their reservation confirmation, they may not reserve at all and seek alternatives.
- Error-proneness: In the rush, you can overlook an email or enter the reservation incorrectly.
This leads to annoying double bookings and thus to additional stress.
What you should do:
- Activate automatic reservation confirmations: You can trust a perfectly configured system. It places your guests in the best possible way on the available tables. This saves time and relieves the staff. Therefore, activate automatic confirmations!
- Safety net for no-shows: If you prefer to be cautious with larger groups, you can deactivate automation starting from a certain group size and place these reservations manually.
- Individual guest approach: Personalize your guest emails in resmio to bring a personal touch even to automated acceptances. You can, for example, address guests by their first name in the subject line and in the greeting.
Mistake #5—The “spontaneity brake” due to long lead times
The minimum lead time in resmio determines how short-term guests can reserve a table in advance. Setting two, four, or even six hours here to be “on the safe side” usually results in a significant decline in your reservation numbers! Why? Because experience shows that many guests search for free tables spontaneously. If you are mistakenly shown as unavailable, they will go straight to the competitor!
Why is it a problem?
- Loss of reservations: Guests with a short-term reservation request to stay outside. Their desired time may be shown as “not available” in the widget, even though your actual restaurant capacity would allow it.
- Additional effort: Often these guests call to ask if there really is no table left in your restaurant. This binds your service staff to the phone and is avoidable with the right settings!
What you should do:
- Shorten lead time: Test a low lead time of only 15 to 30 minutes to maximize your restaurant occupancy. You can adjust it underSettings > Reservations > Times.
- Synchronize your system with the service: Use the iPad app from resmio and ensure that the device is always in view for all employees. This way you can also keep an eye on short-term reservations.
- Have courage: Trust that a booking in 15 minutes is better than a table that remains empty all evening.
Mistake #6 – Your guests can’t find your widget on the website!
Your reservation system is set up perfectly, but there’s room for improvement with online bookings? In our experience, this can be because your online reservation widget is literally hidden on the website. The layout and structure of your internet appearance must lead guests directly to the reservation. If the guest has to search first, you’ve usually already lost them.
Why is it a problem?
- Revenue killer: Statistically, up to 60% of all online reservations come from the website. If your widget is difficult for guests to reach, it ends up costing you real money.
- Mobile chaos: Most guests reserve via smartphone. If the website and widget don’t scale with mobile devices, tables remain empty.
- Communication confusion: Usually, the reservation process is designed opaquely for the guest—should I call, write an email, or reserve online? If you don’t communicate the booking path transparently on your website, the guest might abort.
- Loss of trust: Poor websites without certain security features (HTTPS encryption) lose visibility; potential guests who don’t know your restaurant yet will largely not find your online presence and therefore won’t be able to reserve.
What you should do:
- 3-Point Rule: Place a link/button to the online reservation in your navigation, in the middle of the page, and in the footer at the end. This allows guests to start their online reservation from practically any point on your website.
- Spring cleaning: Remove redundant contact forms and reservation widgets from other providers that are no longer used. Communicate clearly: “Please reserve tables exclusively online.”
- Mobile first: Open your website with a smartphone and check if your online reservation calendar is easy to use.
Mistake #7 – Chaos in the Google Business Profile
Most restaurants have a free Google Business Profile. If you are not one of them yet, look up here why Google Business is indispensable for restaurateurs. Unfortunately, profile quality fluctuates immensely—with consequences for online visibility and, finally, also for the reservation rate. An unmaintained Google profile is like a closed roller shutter on the main entrance door of your restaurant—it harms your business!
Why is it a problem?
- False expectations create difficulties: The Google Business Profile is often the first point of contact for new guests with your restaurant. Outdated opening hours and menus and wrong contact data lead to frustrated guests and possibly to negative reviews.
- No “Reserve a Table” button in the profile: The most complete profile is of little use if guests cannot book a table online directly with you. The blue Google button is essential for this.
- Expensive partner proliferation: Often several booking providers are linked to your restaurant profile on Google at the same time. The chaos is then perfect, because reservations now land criss-cross distributed in systems that are incompatible with each other!
- Invisibility: Google prefers profiles that are complete and current. The algorithm punishes missing information with a worse ranking in local search.
What you should do:
- Google link to online reservation: Store a reservation link to your widget in your Google profile under “Bookings”. We have prepared a practical step-by-step guide for this.
- Establish data consistency: Complete your restaurant details in the Google Business profile, paying primary attention to the fact that the name, address, and phone number on Google are the same as on the website. We have developed an easy-to-understand gastronomy guide for Google Business.
- Provider check: Ensure that your restaurant is reservable on Google exclusively via one booking partner. Otherwise, double bookings and thus dissatisfied guests are imminent. Therefore, cancel service providers you no longer need or set their capacities to 0.
- Sharpen categories: Do you run a hotel restaurant? Then it necessarily requires a Google Business Profile independent of the hotel. This allows guests to find your restaurant better. We have prepared a specific guide for hotel restaurants.
Your restaurant deserves more: Try resmio for free for 30 days!
Conclusion—Automation requires your participation!
The handling of an online reservation system must first be learned. The right settings form the supporting foundation.
Your system can only maximize your occupancy if you store your actual reservation times and capacities.
A table plan is indispensable in this context. Because otherwise your system cannot optimally distribute your guests to your tables. This creates frustration on all sides: for the guest, for your employees, and for you as a restaurant operator who has invested in the digital reservation system and now has avoidably higher costs.
Do not neglect your online channels under any circumstances. If your restaurant is not optimally represented with a website and on Google, you will inevitably lose guests. Through the placement of your booking widget and stringent communication of the reservation process, you turn interested parties into actual restaurant visitors.
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