Restaurant booking systems compared in 2026

In the Netherlands you have a choice of several booking systems for hospitality. They differ on one thing above all: what you actually pay at the end of the month. On paper they look alike. A widget on your site, a table plan, a guest list. The difference sits in the pricing model, in what the entry plan includes and in what gets billed on top.

Below we compare a number of systems, with prices as they appeared on their own sites in July 2026. Then we explain where Vrodex Bookings fits.

Broadly, there are three groups.

• Platforms with their own guest network. Zenchef, TheFork (owned by Tripadvisor), BookDinners and, until recently, Quandoo. Alongside the software they run their own place where guests find and book restaurants. TheFork and Quandoo charge per guest for it, Zenchef does not. BookDinners is now the platform only: the booking itself runs through Guestplan's widget.
• Booking software without a network. Guestplan, Tableo, resmio and DISH. You pay a fixed monthly fee and your guests stay yours.
• POS suppliers with bookings attached. Lightspeed, Untill, Eijsink and Vrodex. Bookings live in the same system as the till.

Worth knowing: at most venues the bulk of bookings does not come out of those networks at all. They arrive through Reserve with Google and your own channels: your website, your Instagram and your Google profile. Those are guests you already bring in yourself. So look above all at how well a system serves those channels, and at what the network costs you when it only delivers a small share of your bookings.

Plenty shifted this year. Zenchef, Formitable and Resengo merged under the Zenchef name, so three familiar brands are now one product. BookDinners has partnered with Guestplan and now works as a platform only: its own booking system is gone and bookings run entirely through Guestplan. And Quandoo is ending its booking service worldwide on 30 September 2026. If you are still on it, you need to move before that date.

Almost every system picks one of two models.

A fixed monthly fee. You pay the same whether you seat 200 or 2,000 guests a month. In the Netherlands that runs roughly between €0 and €230 per month.

A fee per guest. You pay a set amount per cover that comes in through the platform. Quandoo charged €3.50 per cover from its own network. TheFork charges €2 to €4 per cover that arrives via TheFork and Tripadvisor. Bookings through your own site are usually free under that model.

Run the numbers with your own figures, because that is where the whole difference sits. Take 400 covers a month through a platform: at €3.50 per guest that is €1,400 a month. The same volume costs between €25 and €50 on a fixed subscription. Per-guest fees only pay off when the platform brings guests you would never have seen otherwise, and only while that stays a small share of your bookings.

To work this out for your own venue, use the savings calculator.

1. Fixed fee or per-guest fee. Run both models against last month's covers, not against a guess.
2. What the entry plan includes. Waitlist, deposits and phone support often sit in a pricier tier. At Guestplan the waitlist starts at Business (€109.99) and phone support at Ultimate (€229.99). At Zenchef the waitlist starts at Manage.
3. What a deposit costs. Ask this explicitly. Guestplan charges €2.99 per deposit on Pro and €0.99 on Business, free on Ultimate. At Zenchef card fees vary by plan.
4. Whether it holds up on a busy Friday. Do not just show it to the owner. Put someone from the floor behind the screen and have them move a booking, merge a table and add a guest.
5. How it connects to your till. If bookings and payments sit apart, you do everything twice and your revenue per table never quite adds up.
6. Notice period. Rolling monthly or an annual contract. DISH, for one, only does annual, so you are tied in for twelve months. Ask about one-off setup fees too, and whether migrating your guest list is included.

Prices checked in July 2026 on each provider's own public page, excluding VAT. Prices and plan contents change. Check them on the provider site before you decide.

A lot of systems sell on features you set up once and then forget. Predictive AI on your occupancy. Deep campaign tooling. Dynamic pricing per time slot. All nice, but on a busy Saturday you look at three things: who is coming, where do I seat them and what has already been paid.

So look at the basics. Is the table plan quick to use? Can your staff move a booking easily? Does the guest get a tidy confirmation? That is what decides whether you are still using the system six months from now.

Vrodex Bookings is €29.95 per month, normally €39.95. You keep that deal price for as long as you stay subscribed. Everything is in there, not part of it.

• 0% commission on every booking. Through your own site, through Reserve with Google, through Instagram. No exceptions and no small print.
• Waitlist as standard. No pricier tier needed, unlike Guestplan and Zenchef.
• Deposits with no markup. You pay the standard Mollie rate. We add nothing on top, and no fixed fee per deposit either.
• Reserve with Google. Guests book straight from Google Search and Maps, also commission-free.
• Table plan, shifts and no-show rules. Watch the floor live, set rules per shift and lock in closing days.
• Guest profiles and history. Preferences, allergies and previous visits sit on the booking.
• 30 days free, rolling monthly. No annual contract and no setup fees.
• Free migration. We pull your guest list and booking history out of your current system.
• Dutch and English support. Phone, chat and email, on the entry plan too.

The real difference is not in the booking features. The good systems all look much alike there. The difference is that at Vrodex a booking is the same record as the bill.

A guest books, walks in, gets a table, orders, pays and leaves a tip. In most setups that is three systems: bookings, till, payments. Three logins, three invoices and three exports you have to match up yourself. At Vrodex it is one screen and one overview, and you see per table what was ordered and what was paid.

Want more later, switch it on: POS (€34.95), Online ordering (€16.95) and Payments (€5.95). All of it together sits in the Hospitality package at €79.95 per month. Want bookings only, the rest stays off and you do not pay for it. Every rate is on the pricing page.

1. Count last month's bookings and run both pricing models against that number.
2. Write down the three features you genuinely use every day. Check they sit in the entry plan, not the most expensive one.
3. Ask about the notice period and whether migrating your guest list is included.
4. Start a trial in a quiet week, not in December.

Still weighing it up: Vrodex Bookings is free to try for 30 days, no commitment. If you are on Quandoo today there is some urgency, because that service ends on 30 September 2026. We pull your guests and bookings out of it for free.