Pubs slow to use online booking systems

Foodservice consultancy Horizons found that 67% of consumers expect to be able to book a table on a venue’s website and 80% of diners who research online want to make a booking. Another consideration is that 14% of online bookings are made outside opening hours and 44% are taken during busy service times, indicating that pubs could be missing out.

Companies such as Livebookings and Toptable emerged several years ago aiming to address the issue by making booking easier.

But of around 70,000 eligible venues in the UK just 3,000 are signed up to Livebookings, of which only 600 (15%) are pubs. Livebookings expects this to grow to 30% by the end of 2012. Toptable is used by 3,000 eating-out venues, though a breakdown of genre is not possible.

Operators using online booking platforms have been impressed with the results. Livebookings delivered more than 90,000 covers to pubs (3% of all covers generated) in the last quarter of 2011, estimated to be worth more than £1m based on an average spend of £12.50. This averages out to 150 covers per pub per quarter.

Mark Reynolds, co-owner of Renaissance Pubs, has used Livebookings at all six of its pubs for three years. “It means our customers can reserve tables directly from our website, without being re-routed elsewhere,” he said. “Our clientele are generally busy people who would prefer to organise things online if they can, rather than on the phone, and we imagine that internet bookings will continue to gather pace.”

Jo Ellery, assistant manager of Young’s Ship in Wandsworth said Livebookings accounts for 30% to 40% of its restaurant bookings, or 40 diners a week.

However, Horizons director Peter Backman is sceptical about the worth of online booking schemes to the on-trade. “If they drive footfall that is good, but I think maybe it is just shuffling trade around,” he said. “They tend to be London-centric and there is no evidence that they are used very widely.”

Leeds businessman Stan-ley Wootliff has launched a website that offers graduated discounts. SmartDiner allows operators to discount to attract more diners at quiet times without losing money by discounting at peak times.