Your own booking system on your own website

Online reservations & restaurant management

Your own booking system takes table requests directly on your website, notifies you of every request by push on your phone and by email, and lets you confirm with one tap: through a pre-written WhatsApp or SMS message that you send yourself from your phone. There is no per-guest commission to a portal and no fee per message. This is live for Han Kitchen in Zurich-Oerlikon: three-step booking, an admin app on the home screen, a guest register, planning by occupancy and its own cookie-free visitor statistics.

Book a call See the case

Screenshot Han Kitchen — Built for Han Kitchen

Starting point

The problem

Guests who are already on the restaurant's website are often sent to a booking portal or told to call. When the kitchen is at full speed, the phone goes unanswered and email requests get lost in the inbox. Who was confirmed, who was turned down and which guests keep coming back is noted on scraps of paper or nowhere at all.

How it works

The workflow, day to day

01
Set the rules
We clarify opening hours, rest days, how short-notice bookings may be and which messages guests receive on confirmation or decline. These rules later determine which times can be selected in the form at all.
02
Build website and booking
Menu, booking and management are built together on your own domain, with no third-party scripts. You test the booking yourself before it goes live.
03
Set up the admin app
The team installs the admin app on the home screen and enables push notifications. From then on every new request shows up on their phones.
04
Guest books
The guest chooses party size, date and an available time, enters name and mobile number and sends the request. The restaurant's phones receive a push, and an email arrives as well.
05
Restaurant confirms
One tap on «Confirm» or «Decline» opens the pre-written message. «Via WhatsApp» or «Via SMS» opens the restaurant's own app with the message ready; the team sends it and the decision is recorded.
06
The guest register grows
Every booking updates the guest register via the mobile number: visits, no-shows and notes are ready for next time.
07
Review
Dashboard and visitor statistics show when people book, how fast the team responds and where guests come from, including AI assistants. Everything can go to Excel as CSV when needed.

Modules

What the solution is made of

Every module has been built in at least one client project. Which modules you need is clarified in the first conversation.

Three-step booking
First party size, date and time, then name and mobile number, then confirmation of the request. Only times that match the opening hours are offered: rest days are blocked and same-day bookings need 60 minutes' notice. A honeypot and rate limit keep spam out.
Admin app on the home screen
Management is a web app (PWA) that the team can install on their phones like an app. Requests appear sorted by urgency and split into open, upcoming and done. Access is protected by login.
Push and email for every request
Every new booking, contact or catering request triggers a push notification on all registered devices, for example «New booking · 4 guests». One tap opens the request. An email goes to the restaurant at the same time; a request counts as received once either the database or the email has captured it.
Confirmation via WhatsApp or SMS link
When confirming or declining, a pre-written, editable message with date, time, party size and address appears. «Via WhatsApp» opens a free wa.me link in the restaurant's WhatsApp, «Via SMS» opens the messaging app. Sending is done by hand; the app records which channel was used to inform the guest.
Planning by occupancy
Planning shows today, tomorrow, week and month with occupancy per half hour. The team can see before confirming whether the requested time is getting tight.
Guest register
A guest is a mobile number with a fixed customer number, notes, attributes and the history of all bookings and messages. Visits, no-shows and regulars are visible at a glance.
Dashboard, visitor statistics and CSV export
The dashboard shows requests, confirmation rate, response time, a heatmap by weekday and hour, and booking lead time. Visitor statistics work without cookies and without storing IP addresses and list ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Copilot as a separate source group. All bookings can be exported as CSV for Excel.
Event and catering requests
Guests choose an occasion, put together dishes from the menu with quantities and see the sum of menu prices as a non-binding guide. The request arrives in the admin app with a push notification; the restaurant replies with an offer.
A menu that gets found
Every dish has its own page with description and price from a single data source. Restaurant and FAQ schema, llms.txt and a WebMCP manifest describe menu, prices and the booking path for AI assistants as well.

Architecture

How the parts fit together

Simplified view: who triggers what and where the data flows.

UserDeviceFrontendAdminServer / APIDatabaseExternal service

Built for

The case behind it

This is where the solution runs. The case shows screens, modules and the project history. Admin screens are shown with sample data only.

hankitchen.ch

Website, Web App & Food PhotographyLive

Han Kitchen

Restaurant website in German and English with online booking, an admin web app with push alerts, guest confirmation via WhatsApp link and food photography

View case Visit site

Pricing

What it costs

The restaurant website costs CHF 3,000–25,000 depending on scope; delivery within 2 weeks once all materials are in. Booking with admin app, push, guest register and analytics is web app functionality, priced from CHF 10,000. We work out the right combination for your restaurant in a first call and fix the scope in the quote.

Web app / MVP
from CHF 10,000
Website
CHF 3,000–25,000
All prices excl. VAT.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Does your own system replace portals like OpenTable, TheFork or Quandoo?

Not necessarily. Portals bring guests who don't know your restaurant yet. Your own system makes sure guests who are already on your website book directly with you, with no per-guest commission to a portal. Both can run side by side.

Are confirmations sent automatically via WhatsApp?

No. The admin app prepares the message and opens a free wa.me link or the SMS app on your phone; sending is done by hand. There is no fee per message, and the guest receives the confirmation from the restaurant's own number.

What happens if nobody checks their phone?

Every request also arrives by email and stays open in the admin app, sorted by urgency. At Han Kitchen the booking is also a request: guests know the restaurant confirms personally.

Can guests book a table instantly?

At Han Kitchen the booking is deliberately a request that the restaurant confirms. Only times within opening hours and with enough notice are offered, and planning shows occupancy per half hour before the team says yes.

What data do the visitor statistics collect?

Page views, clicks on call, book, directions and WhatsApp, and where visitors come from. It works without cookies or third parties and stores no IP address; the visitor identifier is a hash that changes daily.

What does your own booking system cost?

The website costs CHF 3,000–25,000. Booking with admin app, push, guest register and analytics is web app functionality from CHF 10,000. We fix the exact scope in a quote after the first call.

Read on

Related services