Guide · choosing a system
Choosing a commission-free restaurant booking system after Quandoo: seven questions
The useful question after Quandoo is not which system will last forever. It is what each booking costs you while it runs, and what you walk away with if it stops.
Published
The market moves under you
Quandoo announced its closure on 26 March 2026, stopped taking bookings on 30 September 2026 and switches off on 31 December 2026. It is the biggest change this year, but it is not the first in Britain. Resy announced in January 2024 that it would wind down its UK operations by the end of that August. The Access Group bought ResDiary in 2023. WalkUp joined the payments company Dojo, and its booking product now carries Dojo's name.
None of that is a criticism of any of them. Companies close, merge and rename. It does mean that the system you choose this winter may not be the one you have in five years, and that the questions worth asking now are the ones about leaving.
Seven questions to ask any booking system
| The question | A good answer | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Per booking | Is there any charge per booking or per cover, on any channel — including bookings that come through your own network or app? | No, on every channel; or a clear yes with the rate in the price list, not in a footnote. |
| 2. Leaving | When I leave, can I export my reservations and my guest list myself, and in what format? | Yes, self-service, as a spreadsheet; and a written promise to delete or return the data afterwards. |
| 3. Closing | If you close, how much notice do restaurants get, and what happens to bookings already made? | A number of months, in the contract, and the bookings handed over to you. |
| 4. Whose page | Does my booking page show the guest other restaurants? | No: it is your page, with your name, and nobody else's tables on it. |
| 5. Money taken at booking | If I take money when a guest books, into whose account does it go first? | Into yours, with the processor's fee shown separately. |
| 6. The door | Does it handle walk-ins, a waiting list at the door and phone bookings, or only online ones? | All of them, on the same floor plan. |
| 7. The contract | How long am I committed for, and what does the cheapest price assume? | Monthly, or a term you chose knowingly. |
Why “commission-free” needs reading twice
“Commission-free” usually means one thing: bookings made on your own website or booking page cost nothing per guest. It does not always mean that every booking is free. A system that also runs a diners' app or a network may charge for the guests it sends you, which is a fair trade if those guests would not have found you otherwise. What matters is that you can see the rate before you sign, and choose whether to take part.
The other half of the question is the shape of the price. A fixed monthly price per location means a busy December costs the same as a quiet February. A price per cover means your best month is also your most expensive one. Neither is wrong; one is easier to plan for.
Slotora's answers to the same seven
- Per booking: no commission on any booking or cover. Slotora is your own booking page and does not run a diners' network, so it sends you no guests from Google, Instagram or a marketplace either.
- Price: £99 a month per location for the first 100 paying restaurants in the UK, guaranteed for 12 months, then £149. Paid monthly, after a 3-day trial. Plus VAT where applicable. In Ireland, €179 a month per location.
- Whose page: yours. The guest picks party size, day, room and time, and gets a link to cancel, change the party size or move to another free time without an account.
- The door: walk-ins seated in one tap on the best free table, a waiting list with an honest wait estimate that guests can also join from a QR code by the door, and phone bookings with the real free times.
- Leaving: your whole guest book exports as a CSV whenever you like, and one guest's data can be exported for a data-protection request; a full export of every booking is something to ask us about before you sign, and we would rather you asked.
- Money at booking: a deposit or a card guarantee where your rules ask for one, paid into your own Stripe account once you have connected it, with no cut taken by Slotora.