Thoughts on online ordering, delivery commissions, reservations, and what independent restaurants pay for the software their guests touch.
Most restaurants need both, but the mix depends on your check size, how long guests will actually wait, and what an empty table costs you. Here is the math, with sourced numbers, and a way to decide by room and by night.
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The chains publish their numbers: bigger checks at the kiosk, more tips and faster turns with pay-at-table, fewer labor hours. Here is what those numbers mean for an independent restaurant, where the tech fits, and where it does not.
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Online ordering is now part of bavoli, free, with pickup live everywhere bavoli runs. bavoli's fee is a flat 50c per order, paid by your guest at checkout, while a marketplace charging 15% to 30% takes $9 to $18 from the same $60 pickup bag.
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Marketplace apps take roughly 15 to 30 percent of every delivery order. bavoli now dispatches couriers from the Uber Direct network for a flat $1 per order, with the customer's delivery fee passed through at cost.
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Guests scan a code at the table, order from their phones, and pay, with no app to download and no account to create. It is included free with bavoli, with a 0.5% per-order fee instead of the 2-8% that dedicated QR platforms charge.
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Instagram is where diners discover restaurants. But discovery without a clear path to reserve a table is just window shopping.
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Six reservation systems have a genuinely free option in 2026. I run one of them. Here's what each actually includes, where each starts charging, and which fits your restaurant.
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A practical guide to evaluating reservation platforms: what questions to ask, what trade-offs matter, and what to ignore.
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I built one of these platforms, so take this with appropriate skepticism. Here's what I'd want to know if I were choosing today.
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OpenTable's pricing is more complicated than it looks. Here's the full breakdown at real restaurant volumes: base fees, per-cover charges, and the costs nobody talks about.
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Who owns the guest relationship when someone books through your reservation platform? It depends on the platform. Here's what to look for.
Read moreAn honest look at what matters when choosing reservation software, including a few areas where we're not the strongest option.
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The busier your restaurant gets, the more you pay in per-cover fees. Here's the math on flat pricing vs. per-cover pricing.
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The math behind empty tables, and strategies that actually reduce no-show rates.
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The per-cover pricing model for reservation software seemed unfair. Here's why I built bavoli and the math behind flat pricing.
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