Take restaurant bookings on your own website — and stop paying commission
Booking platforms and delivery apps take a cut of every cover. Here's how to take reservations and orders on your own site — and keep the margin.
Every booking that comes through a third-party platform costs you — a per-cover fee, a commission, or up to 30% on a delivery order. For a customer who was already looking for you.
You don't have to give that away. Taking bookings and orders on your own website keeps the customer, the data and the margin yours. Here's how it works.
Why your own site beats the platforms
- You own the customer — not the platform.
- No per-cover fee, no commission on direct bookings.
- Their contact details and order history are yours to keep.
- No platform quietly changing the rules or the fees.
What bookings on your own site actually means
Two ways. A booking system built into your site — pick a time, party size, done. Or your existing system (OpenTable, Mr Yum, your POS) wired in so it lives on your page instead of theirs. Either way, the customer books from you.
Direct ordering, commission-free
Same logic for takeaway and delivery. A simple order-from-your-site flow keeps the cut the apps take. It won't replace every channel overnight — but every direct order is full margin. See how we wire this into a restaurant website.
Selling packaged food, merch or gift cards alongside the table bookings? Same commission-free principle, just for products instead of covers — see our approach to ecommerce website design.
But won't customers just use the apps anyway?
Some will — and that's fine for discovery. The goal is to win back your regulars: the people who already know you, who you're currently paying a platform to reach. A booking button on your site, in your Google profile and on your socials is usually enough.
A delivery app charges you on every order. Your website charges you once.
What you need to make it work
- A fast, mobile-first site — most bookings happen on a phone.
- Your menu as real text, not a slow PDF.
- A booking or order button visible at every scroll depth.
- Your booking or ordering system wired in, in your name.
It's not complicated to set up — it's just rarely done well. If you want it built right and found on Google so people can actually book, that's what our restaurant builds do. Get a proposal and we'll scope it to your venue.
