Most restaurant websites "take bookings" the same way: a form that sends an email. It works until the day it doesn't — a booking missed on a busy Friday, a customer who never got a confirmation, a double-booked table. This is what a custom booking admin panel fixes, what it should contain, and what it should cost. It is based on the panels we build for restaurants, including the one in our Niom Bistro case study.
The six problems
- Bookings live in an inbox. They get buried under suppliers and spam. Nobody owns them.
- No confirmation, or a confirmation that goes to spam. A customer who hears nothing books elsewhere; a confirmation from the wrong sender never arrives.
- No single view of the night. Who is coming at 7:30? How many covers? Which table? The answer is in five emails.
- Cancellations and changes by phone, written on paper, lost.
- Events and specials depend on a designer, so the website is permanently a week behind the restaurant.
- Marketplace platforms charge per cover and own your customer data. Fine for discovery; expensive as your only booking system.
What the panel should do
- Bookings inbox with status (new, confirmed, declined, seated, no-show), party size, time, requests, and a day view for service.
- One-tap confirm and decline that emails the customer from the restaurant's own mailbox — with an optional table number, arrival instructions and a cancel link.
- Reminders by email or SMS the day before; no-shows fall when reminders exist.
- Capacity rules: covers per slot, minimum notice, blackout dates, large-party threshold that requires a call.
- Events and specials editing with poster images that publish to the site instantly.
- Customer history — repeat guests, dietary notes, how they found you.
- Works on a phone, because that is where staff will use it.
- Exports to CSV for the accountant and the marketing list.
What it should not be
Not a full POS, not a stock system, not a loyalty programme in version one. Every feature added to the first release delays the one that matters — bookings you can see and confirm. Add the rest after the team has used the panel for a month and tells you what they miss.
Cost and timeline
A booking panel added to an existing website is a fixed-scope build with us, typically two to three weeks, hosted on the restaurant's own hosting with no monthly fee — compare that with per-cover marketplace pricing over a year. Use the cost calculator for a number, or ask for a free demo with your own menu and colours before committing. The broader picture — when a custom panel beats WordPress or a spreadsheet — is in our admin panel cost guide.