SOUTH Africa's leading reservation software company has just launched a free online booking platform for restaurants in South Africa.  

Branded 'Requests by Dineplan', restaurants can now load an interactive booking widget onto their website, Facebook page and Google business listing for guests to make quick and easy booking requests online.

It also integrates into the Dineplan mobile app for consumers booking on the go. The widget allows guests to choose the date, time and party size they would like to book for. 

Once a request booking is made on the widget or app, the system automatically notifies the restaurant via SMS and email to respond to the guest timeously. 

Dineplan co-founder Greg Whitfield said this platform is highly beneficial for restaurants, particularly those still using outdated booking enquiry forms on their websites. 

‘Around 80% of guests who do not receive a response to their booking request within 30 minutes, simply book elsewhere. 

‘The decision was made to roll out Requests by Dineplan free of charge to encourage restaurants to offer online reservations. 

‘Consumer trends show a significant increase in demand from consumers to be able to transact online.  

‘It has become standard practise to book flights, rental cars, accommodation and movies online, and restaurant bookings are no different.  

‘Unfortunately, many restaurants are still behind in offering online bookings, and Requests by Dineplan goes a long way to provide an immediate and efficient solution to this demand. 

‘Our longer-term goal is that we can convert many of the restaurants using the free Requests by Dineplan platform onto one of the paid-for packages that Dineplan offers, however, there is no obligation for a restaurant to upgrade,’ Whitfield said. 

 

About Dineplan 

Dineplan founders Martin Rose and Greg Whitfield started the reservation software company in Cape Town in 2011, developing back-end software for restaurants to use as their electronic reservation book. 

This would later enable instant bookings to diners via the Dineplan booking widget on restaurant clients’ websites.

In February this year, the company launched the consumer-based Dineplan App, enabling app users to make instant or request bookings at 1000s of restaurants across South Africa from their mobile phones.

The app allows users to search restaurants by availability, name and area, as well as to create lists of their favourite restaurants, browse opening hours, customer ratings, and research different cuisines on offer.

Diners can even share reservation information with fellow diners, which includes Google Map locations.Today, more than 20 000 bookings are made across the Dineplan network every day.