Target keyword: online restaurant booking system australia.

RESTAURANT BOOKING SYSTEMS · AUSTRALIA · REVIEWED AUGUST 2026

Online restaurant booking systems in Australia: the 2026 guide

An online restaurant booking system takes reservations from your website, Google and social profiles, manages your floor and diary, and holds your guest records. In Australia the market splits on one line: flat-fee systems you subscribe to, and commission systems that charge per diner seated. This guide covers the six systems Australian venues actually shortlist, with pricing models verified August 2026.

We publish this guide and we sell one of the products in it. Each entry states who the system fits, and the Fork Time entry states what it does not do.

THE SHORT LIST

Now Book It is the local incumbent: a flat monthly subscription, no per-booking or commission fees, and full ownership of your guest data. Third-party directories count more than 6,000 venues across Australia and New Zealand; Now Book It itself cites over 11,000. Local POS integrations (Square, Lightspeed, OrderMate, Bepoz, Tyro), gift cards, ticketed events and deposits through Stripe and EzyPay. Pricing is not published; quotes follow a demo. Best fit: established venues and multi-site groups that want the proven AU platform.

OpenTable brings the global diner network to Australia on the same model as everywhere else: per-cover fees on network bookings on top of a subscription. Australian pricing is quote-only (the published US plans run US$149 to US$499 and the AU site gates pricing behind a sales call, with no entry-level tier offered locally). Best fit: venues in tourist-heavy markets where OpenTable's discovery genuinely fills seats that would otherwise sit empty. If your bookings mostly arrive through your own website and Google profile, the per-cover model taxes demand you already had.

ResDiary is a flat-fee, white-label system with published Australian pricing: Connect at $115, Express at $170 and Pro at $220 a month plus GST (by booking volume, with a $129 setup fee and priced add-ons such as SMS and POS integration at $20 a month each, and a 1% surcharge on deposits). The Dish Cult diner network, venue-owned guest data and built-in email marketing are included. Best fit: pubs, hotels and groups that want booking under their own brand.

SevenRooms is the enterprise guest-experience platform, DoorDash-owned, on custom pricing with no commission: deep CRM, marketing automation and native voice AI. Best fit: groups with a marketing function that will use the CRM depth. Oversized for most independents.

Quandoo is shutting down. Recruit Holdings announced in March 2026 that the platform will cease operations: new bookings end 30 September 2026 and the platform closes fully on 31 December 2026, in every market including Australia. If your venue takes Quandoo bookings, export your guest data and have a replacement live before the September cutoff, because after 1 October the channel simply stops. The shutdown is also the plainest lesson in this guide: a marketplace channel is a rented audience, and when the owner leaves the market, the bookings and the guest relationships leave with it.

Fork Time is the AI front of house: it answers your phone, SMS, email and WhatsApp, completes bookings end to end, applies deposits only to higher-risk bookings, and prepares ranked offers your team sends to refill cancelled tables. Flat published pricing per location ($99 to $299), no per-cover fees, guest data exports in full. What it is not: a diner discovery network. Guests reach you through your phone, website, Google profile and AI assistants, and Fork Time brings no marketplace of its own. Best fit: venues losing bookings on the phone and to no-shows, alongside or instead of a booking-widget system.

HOW TO CHOOSE

Count where your bookings come from. If a marketplace genuinely fills your room, a network platform earns its fees. If your bookings arrive through your own channels, a flat-fee system keeps the margin, and the deciding questions become data ownership, deposit handling and what happens to the bookings that ring the phone. TheFork's exit from Australia is the cautionary tale for building on a marketplace: when a network leaves, its bookings leave with it.

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Questions & answers

What is the best online restaurant booking system in Australia?

For most established venues, Now Book It is the safest flat-fee incumbent. For tourist-market discovery, OpenTable. For venues losing revenue on phones and no-shows, Fork Time covers what booking widgets do not.

How much does a restaurant booking system cost in Australia?

Flat-fee systems run from roughly $99 to several hundred dollars a month per venue. Commission systems charge per seated diner instead, which costs more as you get busier. Now Book It and SevenRooms price by quote.

Do Australian booking systems charge commission?

Now Book It, ResDiary, SevenRooms and Fork Time do not. OpenTable charges per network cover. Quandoo charged per seated diner and is shutting down at the end of 2026.

Does this guide apply in New Zealand?

Mostly, yes. Now Book It, ResDiary, SevenRooms, First Table and Fork Time all operate in New Zealand on the same models described here; OpenTable's NZ presence is thinner than its Australian one. Quandoo's shutdown applies to every market.

Is First Table a restaurant booking system?

No. First Table is a discount discovery marketplace: diners pay First Table a small fee for the first table of a sitting at 50% off food, and the venue takes the booking at a discount. It fills one quiet table per service with deal-seekers; it does not manage your diary, your floor or your guest records. Venues use it alongside a booking system for off-peak fill, not instead of one.

Who owns the guest data?

On Now Book It, ResDiary and Fork Time, the venue does, stated in each vendor's published terms. Check the export terms before signing anything, whatever you choose.