Guides
Guides for restaurants, written while the question is still urgent
The most urgent guides are for restaurants leaving Quandoo, which stops for good on 31 December 2026; the rest are about running the room. Each one makes one argument, gives its sources, and says when its facts were last checked.
Leaving Quandoo
A week-by-week plan until New Year
Your data, the guests already booked and December each run on their own clock. This guide puts the jobs in an order that keeps the switch out of your busiest weeks.
Seven questions for any booking system
Resy left the UK, ResDiary was sold, WalkUp was renamed, and now Quandoo has gone. The questions worth asking a new supplier are about cost per booking and about leaving.
Guest data and consent after the export
The spreadsheet from Quandoo is three kinds of data with three rules. Which part you can use to serve a booking, which to keep about a regular, and which decides your newsletter.
No-show fees and the fair-loss rule
What UK consumer law allows a restaurant to charge for an empty table, what Irish guidance does and does not say, and why a booking carried over from Quandoo comes with no fee at all.
Running the room
How long a table should last
A turn time is a promise to the next booking. Measure a fortnight of services, set it by party size, and look at the minutes between the bill and the payment before you look at the plate.
Fewer no-shows before any fee
British diners say an easy way to cancel would do more than a deposit. A cancel link, a reminder, knowing your repeat offenders, and a fee only where the loss is real.
Christmas parties, from October
The same four nights sell first, the organiser is not the one who eats, and final numbers matter more than any policy. A calendar for the season and five things to agree before you confirm.
Paper diary to online, in a week
What to carry over, what to shred, and a cut-over week that runs paper and screen side by side until three services in a row match.
The booking button on Google
Two kinds of link look the same on your profile, and only one is yours. How to check both, remove a provider you have left, and put your own link on top.
Your own link in the Instagram bio
The link in your bio is yours to place; the Book button Instagram offers belongs to its partners. How to tag the link so the reports show which bookings it brought.
At the door and on the phone
Walk-ins on a full Friday
The pub at half seven with every table taken: what to quote the people at the door, how to keep the list honest, and when a table that frees up should go to them.
Phone bookings without the diary
The call that comes mid-service: the four questions to ask, how to find the regular before they finish their name, and the Thursday table that books itself every week.
Allergies, from the booking to the pass
Your online form has no allergy field, only a note the guest may fill in, so the question belongs on the phone and at the door too. Where to write the answer so the kitchen hears it before the order — and what the food rules ask of you, from the source.
Money, the law, the kitchen and the team
The Tips Act, line by line
Since October 2024 every tip and service charge goes to the staff, shared by a written rule and paid by the end of the next month. The four duties, the three-year record, and what the bill should say.
Irish VAT at 9% on the bill
Food moved to the 9% rate on 1 July 2026; alcohol, soft drinks and bottled water stayed at 23%. What that does to a set menu, to hot takeaway food and to the service charge.
Kitchen screen or paper rail
What a kitchen display changes between the waiter's tap and the pass — stations, colours, courses held until they are fired — and the small kitchens where paper still does the job better.
Collection orders on your own page
The commission sums for a guest who collects, the slots, lead time and caps a pickup page needs, and what you give up by keeping delivery on the apps.
GP and food cost, by the gram
Net price, plate cost and yield, a fish and chips plate costed line by line, the variance between two counts, and the eight columns of a costing sheet to copy.
A rota that holds for a busy week
Staff from covers, give the late close its own end time, copy the week that worked, and send payroll the hours people really worked — inside the Working Time Regulations.
The allergen matrix, and Natasha's Law
The 14 allergens, what the FSA asks of a plated meal, why Natasha's Law is about prepacked food, and how an allergy note travels from the booking to the pass.
What a free booking system costs
Fees per cover, paid text messages, caps that bite in December, and who holds the guest list when you leave. Five questions for any supplier, and our own price beside them.
Opening, the room and the paperwork
Opening a restaurant: the checklist
Food registration 28 days ahead, the premises licence, fire safety, becoming an employer, VAT and the ICO fee, in the order they fall due, and the systems after them.
Laying out the floor plan
Measure the room, keep the walkways, choose the tables from the parties you really get, and test it with a full Saturday before you call it finished.
Tables on the pavement
The pavement licence in England: what it covers, the clear route, the capped fee, fourteen days of consultation and fourteen to decide.
Guest data and UK GDPR
Four kinds of guest data and four rules: how long to keep them, allergy notes as health data, marketing consent, and answering a request within a month.
Martyn's Law and the 200-person test
Who is in scope (people present at once, staff included), the four procedures a standard-tier restaurant will need, and what to prepare before the law starts.
Irish payroll in 2026
The new minimum wage and what counts towards it (not tips, not Sunday premiums), and which staff are auto-enrolled into a pension, at what rate.
The bill, the tax and the systems
Restaurant VAT: eat-in, hot and cold
HMRC's three questions — on the premises, hot, or always standard-rated — with meal deals, the service charge and one café lunch sold three ways.
Splitting the bill fairly
By dish, by seat or evenly, the awkward cases, and the service charge on every check: where it goes and how the menu must show it.
Tips in Irish restaurants
The 2022 Act section by section: the notice, a fair share of card tips, the service charge as a tip, what may be deducted, and the statement within 10 days.
Choosing an EPOS
The questions a demo skips: the hardware you already own, the card fee, where the money lands, the internet dropping, the exports, and how you leave.
QR ordering: worth it?
Where a code on the table helps — the second round, the terrace, the big table — where it costs you, and a month's trial to decide.
The stock take, done twice the same
When and how to count, valuing at the last invoice price, the variance formula worked through, and where the missing kilos usually are.
How these guides are written
A restaurant owner reading about the law or about a competitor should be able to check every sentence.
- Every date and every legal statement links the page it came from, and each guide says when its facts were last checked.
- Where we could not find something out — Quandoo's export format, for one — the guide says so instead of guessing.
- Slotina is mentioned where it is relevant, and only for what it actually does.
- They are guides, not legal advice. Where the money or the law is serious, ask someone who can advise you on your case.