Watch the recap
Hundreds of restaurant operators logged on for On the Menu, Now Book It’s first online technology showcase, to hear co-founder and CEO, Craig Joel and Chief Technology Officer, Seán Bryceland walk through what’s new, what’s changing, and what’s coming next.
10+ years of hospitality context has empowered the Now Book It team to build better (and faster) than any other platform, and that is the basis of reworking over 500 features to serve the needs of our venues today.
If your team was flat out on service and couldn’t make it to the showcase, you haven’t missed the boat. Here’s what came out of the session, and what it means for your venue.
The new widget built to confirm bookings
CTO Seán had the honour of revealing the headline — a complete rebuild of the guest-facing booking widget, coming to every venue by 31 August. The new widget is built around one goal: get guests from “I want a table” to “confirmed” as fast as possible.
- 63% fewer clicks to complete a booking.
- Guest details prefill automatically for returning diners, so regulars aren’t re-entering the same information every time.
- Fully customisable, with your own images, banners and section descriptions.
- Mobile-first design that looks as good on a phone as it does embedded in your existing website.
- Events and functions now show days ahead, giving guests more time and flexibility to plan around their bookings.
A unified platform for busy operators
Until now, managing a venue meant switching between separate admin, diary and group interfaces. Over the past months, the team has worked to bring all of it together into a single app, live for all customers from 7 September.
Built for security and speed
- One login, even if you work across multiple venues or organisations.
- Multi-factor authentication for your team, with single sign-on available for larger groups.
- A rebuilt floor plan that’s noticeably faster to load and use.
- Dark mode and multiple languages, so the app suits the way your team actually works acrosss service.
Day-at-a-glance home screen
When logging in to the new platform, you’ll land on a new home view showing today’s services, covers and live booking notifications at a glance, with more AI-driven insights planned as the feature develops.
Your dashboard, reimagined
The Now Book It admin and diary has been redesigned for clarity across screen sizes, with a built-in help centre and support live chat on hand if your team needs a hand configuring something mid-service.
AI reporting that tells you what to do next
One of the most talked-about feature on the call was the AI powered reporting tool. Insights lets you type a plain-English question about your venue and get a straight answer, or choose from around 20 pre-built reports. Craig took our venues through a complete demo, covering —
Reports with actionable recommendations
Craig showed operators an example of a pacing report covering the next 14 days. The instantly generated view showed that of 16 upcoming services, half were tracking below expectation. It also highlighted which specific services needed attention, and whether that meant a Friday night running close to full without enough staff rostered.
Guest history at your fingertips
The ability to click into any customer to see their visit history, spend, and preferences is gold in hospitality. A guest who’d visited three times and consistently ordered Shiraz became an genuine upsell opportunity for a limited bottle of wine. But more importantly, it is being able to truly personalise the experience, such as sending the sommelier to the table or offering a wine tasting.
End-of-day reports built on real numbers
Run a report on any given day and the new end-of-day reporting tool breaks down exactly how service went. Alongside the top-line numbers, the report surfaces best-selling and most profitable items, cancellations, top spenders worth tagging as VIPs, and revenue generated from upsells or event ticket sales on the day.
Instead of the wasting time digging into multiple spreadsheets, the easy overview empowers operators to react fast and make meaningful changes to service.
Guest data that stays with you
When CEO Craig Joel first got a group of restaurant owners in a room ten years ago, data ownership was the number one complaint about solutions in the market. And as we sat with hundreds of operators in the online room, it is still core to how the platform is built today. That’s why —
- Every booking widget is completely white-labelled. Guests never see the Now Book It brand.
- Now Book It never emails your customers directly — that relationship stays between you and your guest.
- Because guests trust the venue, not a third-party platform, Now Book It venues see roughly six to seven times more customer data captured than the average reservation system.
- With that data, it’s easy to build marketing campaigns by tag (targeting your steak lovers, wine lovers or VIPs directly). Even if you don’t have a dedicated marketing person, automations can do the heavy lifting of keeping in touch with guests.
You asked, we built it
From Now Book It’s iOS app that’s already seen thousands of downloads, two-way guest messaging, richer APIs and fuller customer journey functionality, our focus has always been to build the best-in-market features that make hospitality better. And as restaurant owners, operators and staff, you know you always have a voice at our table.
Have more questions about what’s coming? Reach out to your account manager to talk through the features above, and what exactly it means for your venue. Keep an eye out for the new booking widget going live on 31 August, followed by more exciting updates!