Restaurant software: reservations, marketing and POS
What software a restaurant needs: a fiscal POS, a reservation system that cuts no-shows and consent-based guest marketing, with a worked no-show example.
A restaurant needs three pieces of software: a fiscal POS for orders and receipts, a reservation system that confirms tables and reduces no-shows, and marketing software that keeps a guest database and brings people back directly. For most venues these are ready-made tools; custom software makes sense once the tools stop talking to each other or no longer fit how you work.
Quick answer
- POS: in Croatia every receipt to a guest must be fiscalised, whatever the payment method.
- Reservations: online booking, automatic confirmations and reminders, and a deposit or card guarantee for the bookings that matter.
- Marketing: a guest database, e-mail and SMS only with consent, loyalty, review requests and your own booking channel.
- Hotels and B&Bs also need a PMS (property management system) and a channel manager.
- Custom pays off for groups, unusual concepts and when data has to flow between the systems.
Fiscal POS: the one you can’t skip
The POS takes orders, sends them to the kitchen and bar, and issues receipts. Since 1 January 2026 the fiscalisation of receipts to end customers covers all forms of payment, including payments to the bank account, according to the Croatian Tax Administration. Business customers paying by bank transfer get an e-invoice instead, and supplier invoices arrive the same way, so check that your accounting is ready for it (e-invoicing in Croatia 2026).
Choose the POS by what it connects to: reservations, stock, delivery platforms and accounting. A cheap POS that nothing can talk to costs you more in retyping than it saves.
Reservation system: confirmations, reminders, deposits
A reservation system shows real table availability on your website, confirms the booking by e-mail or SMS, sends a reminder the day before and records who came. Good ones also let you:
- Handle no-shows: mark them, keep a history per guest and decide whether a repeat no-show can still book online.
- Take a deposit or card guarantee for large groups, tasting menus and Saturday evenings, with your cancellation terms applied automatically.
- Release the table when a guest cancels through the link in the reminder, so it can be rebooked.
Ready-made booking tools cover standard tables well. A custom booking system makes sense when you sell packages, events or several venues under one brand; we compare both options in booking systems: build vs buy.
Worked example: no-shows at a 60-seat restaurant
How much do no-shows cost, and what does a reminder or deposit change? Take a 60-seat restaurant with 200 reservations a week and 2.5 guests per booking (our assumption; put in your own numbers). That is about 866 reservations a month (200 × 4.33).
For the rates we use the Resos No-Show Index 2026 (3.77 million reservations at 2,417 restaurants, August 2025 to July 2026): a recorded 2.47% no-show rate when no payment is required, 0.80% with a deposit or card hold, and a 16% lower rate when an SMS reminder was delivered.
| Scenario | No-show bookings / month | Lost covers / month |
|---|---|---|
| No reminder, no deposit (2.47%) | 866 × 2.47% ≈ 21 | ≈ 53 |
| SMS reminder (≈ 2.07%) | ≈ 18 | ≈ 45 |
| Deposit or card hold (0.80%) | ≈ 7 | ≈ 17 |
So reminders save roughly 9 covers a month and deposits roughly 36. At an average spend of €30 per guest (again an assumption), 36 covers is €1,080 a month of tables that would otherwise stand empty. Two caveats: Resos reports these as associations, not proven effects, and its rates are recorded no-shows, so your real rate is probably higher. If yours is 10%, every number in the table is about four times larger.
Restaurant marketing software: bringing guests back directly
Marketing software for a restaurant does four jobs:
- Guest database: every booking, visit and order linked to one guest profile - the same idea as a CRM.
- E-mail and SMS campaigns: birthdays, new menus, quiet Tuesdays. The Croatian Electronic Communications Act (ZEK, Article 50) allows e-mail and SMS for direct marketing only with the recipient’s prior consent, so the booking form needs a separate, unticked consent box and every message an unsubscribe link. See also GDPR and custom software. This is a summary, not legal advice.
- Loyalty: linked to a phone number or e-mail, not a plastic card nobody carries.
- Reviews and direct bookings: an automatic “how was it?” message after the visit with a review link, and a booking button on your own site, so returning guests don’t come through a platform that charges a commission on every booking.
When custom software pays off
Ready-made tools are the right start for most single venues. Custom pays off when you run several locations, sell something the tools don’t model (packages, events, private dining), or staff retype data between the POS, bookings and marketing. See what we build for hospitality, and if you need someone to keep developing it after launch, our monthly maintenance and development partnership.
Frequently Asked Questions
What software does a restaurant need? A fiscal POS, a reservation system with reminders, and a guest database for marketing. Add stock management if your POS doesn’t include it, and an ordering channel if you sell takeaway.
What is restaurant marketing software? Software that keeps your guest database and uses it: consent-based e-mail and SMS campaigns, loyalty, review requests after the visit and direct booking links, so returning guests book with you rather than through a platform.
How does a reservation system reduce no-shows? With automatic confirmations, a reminder that lets guests cancel in one tap, and a deposit or card guarantee for high-risk bookings. In the Resos data, payment-protected bookings had a recorded no-show rate of 0.80% versus 2.47% without.
Can we send guests SMS offers? Only to guests who gave prior consent to marketing messages. A booking confirmation is not marketing; an offer for next week is. Keep a record of when and how each guest consented.
What does a hotel need on top of this? A PMS for rooms, check-in and invoicing, and a channel manager that keeps availability in sync across booking platforms and your own site.
Related Articles
- Booking systems: build vs buy
- Croatia e-invoicing 2026: Fiskalizacija 2.0 explained
- Custom software vs SaaS
Thinking about software for your restaurant?
Book a free first call. We will look at the tools you use, where data gets retyped and where guests drop out, and tell you honestly whether ready-made tools are enough or what is worth building.
Reach us at [email protected] or via the form on our homepage.