Staff Reservation Book or Guest Online Booking? How to Decide
Whether you need guest online booking or only a staff reservation book depends on where your bookings come from. If they arrive mostly by phone and LINE, a staff book may be enough. If you need online booking, prepayment or referrals, an all-in-one service fits better.
Rezabo is a staff reservation book. Because this is our own product, this page also lists what it lacks and which restaurants it does not fit.
The difference is who enters the booking
With a booking system, the guest enters it. With a staff reservation book, your staff enter it.
| Guest booking system | Staff reservation book | |
|---|---|---|
| Who enters the booking | The guest | Your staff |
| What the guest does | Picks a date and time on a booking page | Calls or sends a LINE message, as now |
| Outside opening hours | Can take bookings | Staff enter it when the restaurant receives it |
| Work left for the restaurant | Setting up booking slots | Entering every booking it receives |
An all-in-one service adds guest booking, payments and referrals to the book. What is included varies by company and plan.
To decide, look at one week of bookings
Mark each booking in one week of your current book as phone, LINE or other. There is no fixed percentage to reach. Look at your biggest channels and the ones you want to grow, then use this table.
| Your restaurant | What fits |
|---|---|
| Almost all bookings come by phone and LINE, and staff take them down | A staff reservation book |
| You want guests to pick a date and time themselves, including outside opening hours | A service with online booking |
| You want guests to book by themselves inside LINE | A service that takes bookings through LINE |
| You take both phone and online bookings and want them in one place | An all-in-one service with both |
| You want to take prepayment or deposits | An all-in-one service with payments |
| You want the service to send you new guests | An all-in-one service with referrals |
| Your POS has a booking feature and it is enough | Stay as you are. You do not need another book |
| Your paper book causes you no trouble | There is no rush to change |
Rezabo fits only the first row.
A staff book is still useful if most bookings come by phone
What changes is what happens after the call. A reservation book is not a tool for reducing calls. Guests call as they do now, and your staff answer.
With Rezabo, this changes:
- There is one place to write. Phone and LINE bookings go into the same book.
- Overlaps show up at entry. On the same table, a booking that starts too close to another cannot be entered. If times overlap, a confirmation screen appears.
- You can look up regulars. Entering a phone number suggests the names of registered guests. Guest records and notes are shared across your restaurants. The number of bookings and the latest booking date show on a tablet or PC customer screen, and count only the restaurant you have open.
- You can see today’s booking counts at your other restaurants. The restaurant list shows today’s party count and guest count for each one. Tap a restaurant to open its book and see the times.
The numbers show only what your staff entered. Without someone to enter bookings, the book is of no use.
LINE restaurants split by how they use LINE
If your staff read messages and reply, a reservation book fits. If you want guests to book by themselves inside LINE, a service that takes bookings through LINE fits.
Rezabo is not connected to LINE. Staff read what comes in on LINE and enter it in the book. Staff also reply to guests from your LINE as they do now. For how phone and Google Maps fit in, read LINE, phone or Google Maps.
Rezabo fits restaurants that take bookings by phone and LINE
It fits when all of these are true:
- You take bookings by phone and LINE
- Your staff can enter the bookings they receive
- You want to tidy up how the restaurant manages bookings without changing how guests book
It was built by an owner who runs three restaurants in Bangkok: yakiniku, an izakaya and shabu-shabu. Two of them used a well-known reservation system. It worked well, but for restaurants like ours, it had more features than we needed. So we kept only the features we use every day. Today, all three restaurants run their bookings on it.
Rezabo costs 1,900 THB per month or 19,000 THB per year (paid at once) per restaurant, excluding VAT. There is no setup fee or referral fee. You can try it free for one month, with no card and no automatic charge. See the pricing page.
What Rezabo does not have
Rezabo is a reservation book for restaurant staff. It cannot do the following (as of November 1, 2026):
- Online booking where guests enter their own bookings
- Automated confirmations or reminders, including LINE notifications
- Prepayment, deposits or other payments
- Data sync with POS registers (you can keep your current POS)
- Data export of bookings or customers
- Referrals that send you new guests
If Rezabo does not fit, we recommend an all-in-one service
Rezabo does not fit the restaurants below. Choose an all-in-one service, or a service with the feature you need.
- You need guest online booking
- You want to take prepayment or deposits
- You want referrals to bring in new guests
- You want confirmations or reminders sent automatically
- You want bookings connected to your POS
- You require being able to export your data yourself
- You have nobody to enter the bookings you receive
When choosing, check on each company’s official pages which plan includes the features you need, any limit on bookings, and extra charges such as LINE message fees. Examples of other companies are in our comparison article. If most bookings come by phone, see whether a book still helps. Fees to check are in reservation book fees, and POS questions in keeping your POS.
Frequently asked questions
Q1. Can guests book online with Rezabo?
No. Your staff enter the bookings.
Q2. Can I use an online booking service together with Rezabo?
They do not connect. Your staff would also have to enter online bookings into Rezabo. If you take both, an all-in-one service that holds them in one place fits better.
Q3. Do guests get a confirmation?
Not automatically. When one is needed, your staff send it by phone or LINE.
Q4. Is it worth moving from a paper book?
If paper causes you no trouble, there is no rush. If you take bookings by phone and LINE and worry about double bookings, read our article on double bookings.
Try it for a month next to the book you use now.