Restaurant Booking App
A cross-platform iOS and Android app for restaurant reservations with real-time table availability, group bookings, pre-ordering, and automated push notifications.
Results
The Challenge
A restaurant group operating four venues relied entirely on phone bookings and a basic web form. Double-bookings were a weekly occurrence. No-shows were costing the business an estimated £4,000 per month. Staff spent hours each week managing reservation calls instead of serving guests. The group needed a branded mobile app — not another third-party booking widget that took a commission per cover.
Our Solution
We built a native-quality app using React Native, deployable to both iOS and Android from a single codebase. Firebase Firestore handled real-time availability with optimistic locking to prevent double-bookings. Guests could book, modify, and cancel reservations without calling. A pre-order feature let groups select dishes in advance. Push notifications reminded guests 24 hours and 2 hours before their reservation.
Real-Time Availability
The core challenge of any booking system is preventing two guests from claiming the same table simultaneously. We used Firestore transactions with optimistic locking: when a user selected a time slot, the system held a soft reservation for 8 minutes. If payment or confirmation was not completed, the slot was released automatically. This eliminated double-bookings entirely from the first day of operation.
No-Show Reduction
No-shows are the hospitality industry's silent revenue killer. We tackled this with a three-layer approach: a card pre-authorisation (not charge) at the time of booking, a 24-hour push notification with a one-tap confirm or cancel option, and a two-hour reminder with directions. If a guest cancelled within 2 hours, a small cancellation fee was charged automatically via Stripe. No-shows fell by 62% in the first month.
Pre-Order Feature
Groups of six or more were prompted to pre-select their starters and mains at the time of booking. This data flowed directly to the kitchen management system, allowing chefs to prepare in advance and dramatically reducing table turnaround time. The restaurant manager reported that pre-ordering tables were, on average, in and out 22 minutes faster than standard reservations.
Staff Dashboard
Alongside the guest app, we built a web-based staff dashboard where floor managers could view the day's reservations, mark arrivals, reassign tables, and send manual push notifications to guests running late. The dashboard was designed for use on a tablet at the host stand.
Outcome
Within 90 days of launch, the group had processed over 3,200 reservations through the app. Phone bookings dropped by 55%, freeing front-of-house staff for guest-facing work. The app earned a 4.8-star rating across both stores, with guests frequently praising the pre-order and no-fuss cancellation features.
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