Reserved decision

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Melanie Koestler, CEO, Table-booking.com.

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Mike Conyers, business development director, Restaurantdiary.com.

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What do you expect to see included in reservation systems in the future?

Mike Conyers: The biggest crime for a busy restaurant operation is actually to be turning custom away or under-utilising its cover capacity, but with a bit of thought, these extra covers can be accommodated, and eased into the smooth flow.

Masood Al Janahi: Hosting of these solutions is changing in restaurant environments, and central hosting of non-critical applications in central servers is the main consensus that the industry needs to heed. It permits servicing, upgrading and changing databases over multiple outlets from one location. This reduces upgrade and maintenance costs, along with down time, and makes the point of sale system easier to manage.

Money-spinning systems

Technological advancements have been responsible for the obliteration of pencil and paper bookings, and in turn have become profit-making vehicles for the region's restaurant industry.

The fast food home delivery market has been particularly receptive of the new systems. According to Masood Al Janahi, Pizza Hut for example, has integrated its website directly to its points of sale. He says the move has resulted in a financially fruitful, customer focused model, with reduced labour costs and increased speed.

Escalating numbers of restaurants in the Middle East are now turning to systems that offer information formerly offered by staff, like table assignments based on availability and when tables are ready, yet with increased speed.

With advancements in these systems, they now allow front-of-house staff to post reservations, maintain and display the current status of all tables in the restaurant, create and manage a list of customers waiting to be seated, suggest table assignments based on customer preferences, and table availability.

Melanie Koestler, CEO of Table-booking.com says the region's high level of tourists has created a boom in reservation systems, as restaurants are often fully booked and need that extra support. She says waiters must also recognise guests, even if they come only once a month.

Having launched in Dubai earlier this year, the company now plans to introduce an SMS notification service for restaurant bookings in the future, as well as building terminals at airports so travellers can view the website and book restaurants in advance.

"Placing a restaurant reservation online is not the norm yet in the UAE, but in other countries there is hardly anyone who will still use the phone just to end up in a waiting loop and have to spell out their name five times to book a table," comments Koestler.

Commenting that reservation systems can also report the revenue generated over a set period of time, Masood Al Janahi, managing director of Key Information Technology adds that restaurant management teams, whether in casual or fine dining surroundings, can benefit from the systems when approaching essential business decisions, for example by altering menu items, the location of tables, and work procedures.

Maximising the highest amount of revenue at any point during the service, and then producing reports on the revenue generated is one bonus of reservation systems. Not only that but repeat business is also encouraged with the systems, says Koestler, as restaurant staff can instantly identify guests' needs and offer a personalised service.

Ensuring that the restaurant is performing at maximum capacity, systems have been hailed as sales and profit producers, yet software providers must offer user-friendly functions to contend with rivals in the market, as new players start to emerge.

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