Founder of ViteUneTable
A freelance developer for over ten years, Ludovic Frank created ViteUneTable to give restaurant owners a free reservation software with no commission. He works with restaurants every day on managing their reservations and shares his experience here.
All reservations, walk-in only, or a deliberate mix of both? Each model wins in a different restaurant. Here is how to choose yours, how many tables to hold back, and why overbooking is a trap for restaurants even though it works for airlines.
Eat-in at 20%, cold takeaway at 0%, and a dozen traps in between. A plain-English guide to VAT for UK restaurants, with worked examples in pounds.
February 14 does not get a do-over: demand lands on a single night. Here is the complete method for peak dates, from the set menu to the D-30 run sheet, including protection against the year's worst no-shows.
Tripadvisor has lost ground to Google, but writing it off would be a mistake, especially if you serve tourists. Here is what still deserves your time: the listing, the ranking, fake reviews, and what you should think twice about paying for.
Tock and Resy both belong to American Express and are now sold from the same pricing page. Here is what actually still separates them, with verified prices, and when neither is the right fit.
Since 1 October 2024, UK restaurants must pass 100% of tips and service charges to staff, keep records and publish a written policy. Here is what the Tipping Act really requires.
The tip credit, tip pooling, service charges and the new federal tips deduction: the rules a US restaurant owner actually has to follow, with the primary sources.
TikTok sends real diners to real restaurants, but virality is a lottery ticket, not a strategy. Here is what actually works for an independent: three repeatable formats, a sustainable rhythm, and a booking link that catches the demand.
Mother's Day is the biggest dining day of the year in the US, and Thanksgiving fills restaurants with large family parties and pre-orders. Here is the owner's calendar, date by date, with menus, deposits, staffing and a timeline checklist.
One sells reach: the largest diner network in the industry, billed per seated cover. The other sells depth: a guest CRM priced by quote. Here is an honest, dated SevenRooms vs OpenTable comparison for US and UK restaurants, and a simpler third option.
Six hundred restaurants join NYC Restaurant Week every edition, yet plenty of owners swear they will never do it again. Here is the honest math behind prix-fixe weeks, who actually benefits, and how to turn a one-time deal hunter into a regular.
Is a Google listing enough, or does your restaurant need a real website? An honest answer, the pages that actually matter, realistic price ranges, and the classic mistakes that cost you covers.
Every "sorry, we're fully booked" said on the phone is a guest who reserves at your competitor, often for good. Here is how a well-run waitlist turns those refusals into served covers, and into guests who come back.
Service fees, credit card surcharges, automatic gratuities: US junk fee laws now regulate all of them. Here is what a restaurant can still charge, state by state, and how to stay compliant.
Your first paying guests will judge a team that has never worked a real service together. A soft opening fixes that: formats, duration, invite lists, pricing trade-offs, and how to keep early reviews from hurting you.
A full dining room does not guarantee a profitable restaurant. Prime cost, break-even covers, seat occupancy: here are the numbers to track every week to steer your margin, with sourced US and UK benchmarks.
It's 8:15 pm, the dining room is full, and the phone rings. Answering means abandoning a table; letting it ring might mean losing a party of six. Here is how to escape that dilemma, with a voicemail script ready to copy.
Yes, US restaurants can charge no-show fees, but only if the policy is disclosed and agreed to before the reservation. Here is what the law, the card networks and your guests expect.
Deposits and no-show fees are legal in the UK, but only if they are fair, proportionate and clearly communicated. Here is what the law actually says, in plain English.
A markup copied from the previous owner, prices matched to the place next door, an increase postponed for two years: most menus are priced by habit. Here is the full method, from recipe costing to menu engineering, with a worked example.
You do not need a 30-metric dashboard to run a restaurant. Nine KPIs, all computable from your POS and your reservation book, tell you where the money is going, and a simple weekly scorecard keeps them honest.
Health inspections are unannounced, scored, and in some cities the result hangs in your window. Here is how the US system works, the violations cited most often, and a routine that keeps you inspection-ready every day.
Every scraped plate and every unsold special costs you twice: once at purchase, once in the bin. Here is how to measure your losses in one week, what the law now requires in the UK and the US, and the levers that actually work, from purchasing to your reservation book.
Same room, same team, same menu: one restaurant serves 40 covers a night, another serves 70, with guests just as happy. The difference is the floor plan and how the tables turn. Here is how to win covers without turning your dining room into a train station.
Social reach is rented; your email list is owned. Here is how to build a guest list legally from your reservations, which campaigns actually fill tables, how often to send, and how to measure results now that open rates lie.
Up to 30% commission on a delivered order, 0% on a direct pickup order: before you choose a channel, run the numbers. Real platform rates, packaging, errors and margin, with no wishful thinking.
You do not need a points app or a punch card to make guests come back. Real loyalty comes down to three things: knowing your guests, showing them you remember, and reaching out at the right moment. Here is how to do it in practice.
No, UK GDPR does not ban you from keeping a customer database in your restaurant. It sets rules on what you collect, how long you keep it and what you do with it. Here they are, ICO guidance included, without the jargon or the panic.
Most independent restaurants sit below the CCPA's thresholds, but that does not mean guest data is a free-for-all. Here is what actually applies in the US: state privacy laws, CAN-SPAM, the TCPA, breach notification duties, and the good habits worth keeping regardless.
Cancellation windows, no-show fees, large parties: here is how to write a cancellation policy that protects your restaurant without scaring guests away, with three ready-to-copy examples and the US and UK rules that make it enforceable.
A booking confirmed in writing is a booking that gets honored far more often. Here is why instant confirmations work, when to send reminder emails, and 5 templates you can copy today.
FALCPA labels do not apply to your menu, but that does not mean you are off the hook. Here is what US restaurants actually owe guests with food allergies: FDA Food Code duties, state and city rules, ADA exposure, and a playbook that starts at the reservation.
Which allergen rules actually apply to a UK restaurant? The 14 allergens, the FSA's requirements for food served at the table, where Natasha's Law does (and does not) apply, and how to get compliant without rewriting your menu every week.
A one-star review should never be answered in anger, and never ignored. Here is the method, 7 response templates for the most common situations, how your reservation log exposes fake reviews, and how to flag the ones that break the rules.
The Reserve a table button on your Google listing turns 'restaurant near me' searches into booked tables. Here is how to get it, step by step, and what to avoid so you do not lose it.
A reserved table that stays empty is pure lost revenue. Here are 7 concrete, complementary fixes to reduce no-shows in your restaurant, from automatic confirmations to card holds.
QR code menus save on printing and keep prices up to date, yet surveys show most diners would rather have paper. An honest look at when a QR menu helps your restaurant, when it hurts, and the checklist for doing it properly.
A private room that sells is a second business inside your restaurant: predictable revenue, known headcounts, corporate clients who come back every quarter. Here is how to price it, sell it and protect it.
Fee caps, the 14-day consultation, smoke-free seating, accessibility rules: the permanent pavement licence regime explained simply, plus the question nobody covers, how to handle bookings for a capacity that depends on the British weather.
OpenTable bills $149 to $499 a month plus per-cover network fees; Resy charges a flat $289 to $459. Here is an honest head-to-head on pricing, diner networks, no-show tools and guest data, with a third option both sides ignore.
Entity formation, EIN, business licenses, county health inspections, the liquor license question, workers' comp, ADA: every step to open a restaurant in the US, in the right order, with official sources and a realistic timeline.
Company registration, FSA food business registration 28 days before opening, premises and personal licences, HACCP, employer duties: every step to open a restaurant in the UK, in the right order, with the official links.
Mother's Day was OpenTable UK's biggest dining day of 2025, and most of the bookings arrive in the final week. Here is how to plan sittings, price the set menu, take deposits on big tables and protect the busiest Sunday lunch of the year.
A table of 20 can make your best service of the week, or ruin it if nobody shows. Set menus, deposits, card holds, minimum spend, private dining: here is how to secure and profit from large group bookings.
No, you do not need to post every day. Here is how a restaurant attracts local diners with Instagram in a few hours a week: an optimized profile, 2 to 3 well-chosen posts, useful Stories and properly disclosed creator partnerships.
You don't need a 10% price rise to earn more. A couple of dollars extra per cover, every day, changes your month. Menu engineering, suggestion timing, dessert scripts, set menus: here are the levers that actually work on the floor.
Your Google rating is the first thing potential guests check. Here is how reviews influence your local ranking, how to collect more without breaking the rules (or the law), and how to reply well.
Your Google listing gets seen more often than your website. Here is how to claim it, complete it and optimize it point by point, backed by Google's official documentation, so it shows up on Maps and turns searches into reservations.
More than half of UK consumers now check hygiene ratings before choosing where to eat. Here is how the FHRS works, how to prepare for the inspection, and how to fix a low score.
Beginning inventory plus purchases minus ending inventory, divided by food sales: one small formula decides a large part of your margin. Here is how to calculate it, in dollars and in pounds, and what to do when the number is wrong.
On Saturday you turn people away; on Tuesday you count occupied tables on one hand. Here is a concrete plan to fill your restaurant on slow nights without slashing prices: targeted offers, recurring events, local partnerships and reservations captured around the clock.
The paper book has done the job for decades, and it does it well. Here is what a digital reservation book actually adds, what it costs, and how to move from paper to screen without upsetting your service routine.
Card hold, deposit, prepaid booking: they are not the same thing. Here is how credit card holds really work for restaurant reservations, what US and UK practice looks like, how much to ask for and how to announce it without scaring guests away.
December is the busiest month of the year, and the riskiest. Here is how to run Christmas party bookings with deposits that hold up, pre-orders that save your kitchen, and a timeline that starts in September.
OpenTable, Resy, Tock, SevenRooms, Yelp Guest Manager, Toast Tables, Eat App and ViteUneTable: an honest comparison for US restaurants, with pricing checked on each vendor's own site.
OpenTable, ResDiary, TheFork Manager, SevenRooms, resOS, simpleERB, ViteUneTable: an honest comparison of restaurant booking systems for UK venues, with the pricing models explained and every claim checked on the vendor's own site.
Forget the lists of 25 random tips. Here is a prioritized action plan to attract more customers to your restaurant: start with your Google profile, turn visitors into bookings, bring guests back, then squeeze more out of every service.
Yelp Guest Manager has a great waitlist and no cover fees, but the best price requires annual billing and the Basic plan caps your covers. Here are 6 alternatives with verified pricing.
Tock now belongs to American Express and starts at $289 per month plus a 3% fee on prepayments. Here is an honest look at what it does brilliantly, what it costs, and the alternatives worth considering.
Toast Tables only makes sense inside the Toast ecosystem. Here is an honest look at what it does well, what it really costs, and the alternatives for restaurants that want reservations without the POS lock-in.
Quote-based pricing, a fee on every diner the marketplace seats, and a discount culture driven by Yums: why UK restaurateurs look for an alternative to TheFork, and what an honest comparison actually shows.
SevenRooms is a powerful CRM and reservation platform built for restaurant groups, hotels and nightlife venues, with pricing only available by quote. For an independent restaurant in the US or the UK, there is a simpler, transparent, commission-free way to take bookings.
Resy now starts at $289 per month and belongs to American Express, alongside Tock. Here is an honest look at what it costs, what it does well, and the alternatives worth considering.
resOS is one of the cheapest ways for a UK independent to start taking online bookings, but its free plan stops at 25 bookings a month and every growth step raises the bill. Here is an honest, source-checked look at the alternatives.
ResDiary is a commission-free veteran of UK hospitality, but its core plans are quote-only and the useful extras are paid add-ons. Here is an honest, source-checked look at the alternatives, including a free one.
Quandoo has officially announced it is ceasing operations: the platform takes bookings only until 30 September 2026. Here are the dates to note, the real alternatives for UK restaurants and how to migrate without losing bookings or guest data.
Per-cover fees on every network reservation, $149 to $499 a month, a one-year auto-renewing contract: here is an honest, numbers-first comparison between OpenTable and a flat-price alternative for US and UK restaurants.
Eat App's free plan caps you at 100 covers a month, and the first paid step is $99. Here is an honest, dated comparison with a reservation system whose free plan has no cover limit at all.