Commission-free restaurant bookings: compare what you will pay for and use

A booking portal charges the restaurant a commission for every seated diner who arrives through its app. TheFork, for example, describes it on its website as a percentage of the average spend per customer, without publishing the figure. On top of that comes the discount on promotions, which the restaurant covers.

A commission-free system works the other way round: you pay a flat fee a month, whether 100 bookings come in or 400. The customer books from your Google listing, your website or your Instagram, and their details stay with you.

A booking system lets you receive and organise reservations without a commission per booking or guest on the channels covered by your contract. There may be subscription fees, setup costs or charges for additional features. Check exactly what “commission-free” covers in the proposal.

A booking manager and a marketplace serve different purposes. The former organises availability and reservations from connected channels; the latter may also bring demand from its own audience. Some providers combine these functions, so compare each channel separately.

A free plan can be enough for some operations, but check its specific limits. Review reservations, users, reminders, payments and Google integration in the provider’s current documentation. Price alone does not tell you which features are included.

Do the sum with your own numbers. You need three figures: bookings a day that come in through the portal, diners per booking and the commission per diner in your contract. The example uses a hypothetical commission of 2 € so that you can swap in your own.

Hypothetical example: eight bookings a day, 2.5 guests per booking, a €2 commission per guest and 26 days produce a monthly commission of €1,040. This excludes other charges or promotions. Compare it with the contribution from those visits and the cost of an alternative that covers your needs.

Separate what you know about a booking’s origin from what you assume. Someone searching for your name does not prove they would have booked through another channel. Record how guests found you where possible and assess whether the provider brings new customers or converts demand that already existed.

A marketplace pays off when you have empty tables you wouldn’t fill any other way: a Tuesday in January, a dining room for 80 with 30 seats taken, a new place in a tourist area with no reviews. There, an app with lots of users is a real lever.

It doesn’t pay off when you fill up at lunchtime anyway, when the customers who arrive through the portal already knew you or when the discount eats the margin. A bar with a 13.50 € set menu can’t take 30 % off and pay commission per head.

The decision isn’t either-or. Many restaurants keep the portal for its app and use a system of their own for Google, their website and Instagram, blocking time slots in one and the other so tables aren’t double-booked.

The essentials, in order of importance. A system without a button on Google is a pretty notebook.

When someone searches for your restaurant on Google or sees it on Maps, a "Reserve a table" button can appear. The built-in booking arrives through a provider in the Reserve with Google programme, whose list is public; you can also add your own booking link.

Google warns that the provider may charge you for bookings that come from Google. If your provider is a portal, check in your contract whether those bookings pay commission. With a flat-fee provider, the booking goes straight into your diary.

To switch it on, you choose the provider in the Bookings section of your Business Profile. According to Google, it appears on your listing within a week. The step-by-step is in the guide to bookings with Google.

Prices taken from each company’s website on 19 September 2026, before VAT. They change often; check each website before you sign. Where the price isn’t public, we say so; if a feature isn’t listed on their website, we put “No”.

On 6 October 2026, we removed QuickSit from this table because its website announces its closure. The remaining prices retain the review date given above. Check the terms of the specific plan before comparing quotes.

A no-show is the booked table that never turns up. In a bar with 40 covers, a table of six that fails on a Saturday is 15 % of the room. The system doesn’t eliminate it, but it has three tools to reduce it.

The first is the automatic reminder the day before with a link to cancel in one tap: if the no-show is a case of forgetting, the reminder prevents it, and if cancelling is easy, people cancel. The second is the waiting list, which turns a cancellation at 12:00 into an occupied table at 14:00.

The third is the card guarantee for groups and special dates. For a table of two on a Tuesday it is a nuisance; make it optional and per time slot. The manual confirmation call takes up front-of-house time and people don’t always pick up.

Many restaurants take bookings by WhatsApp and write them down in a notebook. It works until two get lost on a Saturday or the person who replies is on holiday.

The sensible approach is for WhatsApp to lead to the booking link, or for whoever answers to enter the booking in the system from the same chat. Either way the customer gets a confirmation and a reminder, through whichever channel your system has: WhatsApp, SMS or email.

First, export the future bookings and the customers from your current system. Second, set up the new one with your real floor plan and import the bookings; make three test bookings and check that the confirmation arrives.

Third, change the booking link on Google, your website and Instagram on the same day. If the new provider is a Google partner, Google states that it appears on your listing within a week. Keep the old system for two weeks for what is already booked.

If you are on a marketplace, you can stay on it for its app and use your own system for direct bookings. Once you can see where each booking comes from, you decide.

During migration, keep a list of future bookings with the date, sitting, party size and outstanding requests. Check which data you can transfer and under what conditions. Make the switch between services and assign someone to review phone, website and Google bookings so two calendars do not show different availability.

Ten questions for the demo. The answers should be in writing in the contract or on their pricing page.

A flat fee means you pay the same every month, however many bookings come in. But it doesn’t always mean "no variable costs". Look at three lines in the contract.

Messages: some systems charge for SMS per unit, and with 300 bookings a month that is a variable cost. Modules: the waiting list, the card guarantee or the CRM can be extras that turn the 39 € plan into 120 €.

And what else is included. A standalone booking system is 40 or 100 € a month. If for a little more it includes your menu, the daily set menu published every morning and a well-kept Google listing, you are comparing a single piece with a complete system.