Questions and answers
What restaurant owners ask us before they decide
The questions we hear from restaurants, pubs and bars in the UK and Ireland, with the short answer first. If yours is not here, write to us and we will add it.
Price, trial and contract
How do I sign up?
Join the list on the early-access page and we'll write as soon as you can open your account.
How much does it cost?
In the UK, £99 a month per location for the first 100 restaurants that sign up and pay, with that price guaranteed for 12 months, then £149 a month per location. Plus VAT where applicable. In Ireland, €179 a month per location, in euro — a price set for Ireland, not a conversion of the sterling one.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, 3 days, with the end date shown from the first day. Nothing is charged unless you give your payment consent.
Do you charge per cover or per booking?
No. Bookings, covers, tables and guests are unlimited. A full Saturday costs the same as a quiet Tuesday.
Do you take a commission on bookings?
No: 0% on bookings that come through your own booking page, your website or the phone. If you take card payments, your card processor charges its own fee, as it would anywhere.
How long is the contract?
There is no fixed term. You pay month by month and can stop at the end of any month.
Is there a setup fee?
No setup or onboarding fee when you set it up yourself. You draw your room, set your services and share your booking link without paying anyone to do it.
We have more than one site. How is that priced?
Per location. From 5 to 9 locations there is 10% off the standard price; from 10 we quote. Each location is set up on its own, with its own floor plan and booking page. Several locations can also run as a group: one menu sent to every site, one owner login that switches between them, and a report for the group.
Your guests and your data
Who owns the guest list?
Your restaurant does. Your guests booked with you, so in data-protection terms you are the controller of their details and Slotora processes them on your behalf.
Can I give a guest a copy of what you hold about them?
Yes. From the guest's card you export that guest's record, which is what you need to answer a subject access request. Guests can also opt out of messages with one click.
And if a guest asks to be deleted?
You erase them from the same card. It is one guest at a time, done by you, because the decision is the restaurant's.
Can I take the whole guest list out?
Yes. The owner or a manager exports the guest book as a CSV file whenever they like, filtered by tag, visits or last visit if you want. A separate mailing export holds only the guests who said yes to marketing. Slotora itself sends no marketing.
Can we write down a guest's allergy?
Yes, on the guest card: allergies, dietary and access needs, tags such as VIP or regular, a favourite area, birthday and anniversary. Your staff fill it in, and an allergy then shows as an alert on the guest's booking and in the pre-service briefing. The online table booking form has no allergy field, only an optional note on that booking where a guest may mention one; your staff move it to the card, which is where allergies live.
Can I bring my bookings across from my old system?
Yes, from its export as a CSV or Excel file. On the import screen, in the browser or in the restaurant mode of Slotora's app, you first pick the system you are leaving — OpenTable, ResDiary, SevenRooms, TheFork Manager, Access Collins, Tablein, resOS, Dojo Bookings, Quandoo or another — and it shows that system's export steps. The import guesses which column is which from the header row, you confirm or correct it and see a preview before anything is saved. Future bookings arrive confirmed and waiting for a table; past ones become visit history. The same file twice adds nothing, and an import can be undone. Marketing consent comes across only from OpenTable's own Marketing Opt-In column, and only if you tick that those guests agreed to receive marketing from your restaurant; no other system's consent column, and no group or partner opt-in, is ever imported.
Where is the data kept?
In a database hosted in London. The security and data page names every provider involved and what each one sees.
What does the guest history show?
A card per guest with their visits, no-shows and late cancellations. It comes up at the host stand, and when a returning guest rings, the phone booking finds them by name or number.
No-shows, cancellations and deposits
Can I take a deposit or a card guarantee?
Yes, with your Stripe account connected: a card guarantee, a deposit, or a no-show or late-cancellation fee, set by party size, day, service, date or event. The money is settled after the visit, and the owner or a manager can refund it from the booking.
And what does it do about the no-shows themselves?
It records them. A cancellation by the guest and one by you are two different things, no-shows and late arrivals are marked, and the count stays on the guest's card for the next time they book.
Can a guest cancel or change the time without phoning?
Yes. Every online booking ends with a link the guest uses to cancel, change the party size or move to another free time, on the same day or another, with no account to create. Your rules still apply: inside your late window the page asks them to call you.
Running it on the night
What do I need to run it?
A web browser on a tablet, phone or computer. Several devices can be open at once and every one sees the same floor: seat a table on the tablet at the door and it shows on the manager's phone. The restaurant mode of Slotora's app for iPad, Android tablets and phones runs the same host stand, and so does the browser of the iPad or phone you already have.
How many staff and devices can I add?
As many as you need. Staff and devices are unlimited and not priced, and each person gets their own login from a link you share from the Team screen: a host-stand seat or a manager seat. Remove it the day they leave.
Can guests put themselves on the waiting list?
Yes. Print the waiting-list QR for the door: a guest scans it, leaves a name, party size and mobile number, and sees their place and the estimated wait. Your devices ring with each new name. When a table comes free, the card of the party it suits offers it to the host, and their number is on the card so you can call them; Slotora never texts the guest.
Can I run a tasting evening or private dining?
Yes: a ticketed session such as a supper club or a set-menu table, free or paid for when booking through your own Stripe account once you have connected it, each with its dates, capacity and its own questions to the guest; or private dining by enquiry, where the guest sends a date, the party size and a message. A payment that arrives after the last seat has gone is refunded at once. An event does not take tables off the floor plan by itself; hold or close them for the date.
How do I change the hours for Christmas or a bank holiday?
Add a special day in the settings: the date, a name, and either closed all day or up to three sets of opening hours. That date alone uses them; the rest of the week stays as it was, and online booking and the host stand follow.
We have a terrace and a bar as well as the dining room.
Each room or area gets its own plan, drawn to scale, and guests can say which they prefer when they book.
What languages does it speak?
The host stand, the settings, the guest book, the reports, the help centre and the guest's booking page are written in English, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, German and French. Each person on your team picks the language of their own screens.
Who helps us once we are using it?
Help sits inside the product: a help centre of step-by-step articles in all six languages, opened from the host stand, and an assistant you can ask in your own words. When it is something a person should see, Send to the Slotora team passes it on and a person replies by e-mail from hello@slotora.io. There is no phone support and no live chat.
Does it connect to my till or EPOS?
No. Slotora does not connect to the till or EPOS you already have.
Can Slotora take orders and run the kitchen screen?
Your menu lives in Slotora: dishes, sizes and options with the 14 allergens, and anything sold out marked in one tap. Waiters send orders from the table with the seat and the course, and the next course waits until they fire it. Each order reaches the kitchen or bar screen within 5 seconds of the waiter's tap.
What about the bill and paying at the table?
The bill is split by dish, by seat or into equal shares, with the service charge, VAT by class and tips on it. Guests pay by card at the table, with Tap to Pay on a phone or from the table's QR code, straight into your own Stripe account once it is connected.
Can guests order from the table's QR code, or online for collection?
Guests scan the table's code, read the menu with its allergens in their own language and order; a waiter confirms it first, unless you let it go straight to the kitchen. Your own online ordering for collection works for a pickup time the same day: you accept the order, mark it ready and the guest follows it on a page. Delivery is not part of it.
Does it keep stock and recipes?
Yes: counts, deliveries and waste, what each dish uses, what is running low, food cost per portion, suppliers and purchase orders from draft to received.
Will it bring me bookings from Google or a booking marketplace?
No. It is your own booking page, not a marketplace, which is why there is no commission. You put the link where your guests already look: your website, your Google profile, your social bios.
Still deciding?
These pages go further than a two-line answer can:
- The pricing page, with what the price includes and the terms that come with it.
- What UK restaurants may charge for a no-show, worth reading before you decide on deposits.
- Moving across from paper, a spreadsheet or another system, step by step.
- Security and data: where everything is stored and who processes it.
Something else? Write to hello@slotora.io and a person will answer.