Restaurant Reservation Software: Table Booking on WhatsApp and by Phone

At its core, a table booking system keeps one accurate answer to the question "do we have room?" and lets guests use it themselves. Good restaurant reservation software does six jobs:

• Takes bookings around the clock — from WhatsApp, the phone and your website — so a guest planning dinner at midnight does not have to wait for the morning.
• Checks real capacity. It counts guests, not bookings: a table for six uses six of the seats in that sitting.
• Asks the right questions — number of guests, date and time, name, and anything else you need such as seating preference or an occasion.
• Confirms and reminds the guest, and lets them cancel or move the booking by replying.
• Takes deposits for large groups and busy nights, so a no-show does not cost you a full table.
• Gives the team one list of every reservation for the day, wherever it came from.

In India, most people already plan dinner on WhatsApp — with friends, with family, and increasingly with the restaurant. Messaging is easier than calling a noisy restaurant, and it leaves a written record of the booking.

The problem is answering. Every "table for 4 tonight?" needs someone to check the book, reply, take a name and confirm. At peak hours nobody has time, so replies come late or not at all.

With reservation software on the official WhatsApp Business API, an AI agent answers those messages instantly. It understands ordinary requests — "tomorrow 8 pm, 5 people" — checks the seats, offers the nearest free time if the slot is full, and books it in the same chat.

Plenty of guests still call, especially for same-day tables and large groups. An AI phone agent for restaurants answers every call, even several at once during the dinner rush. It asks for the number of guests and the time, books into the same seat count as WhatsApp, and sends the guest a WhatsApp confirmation with the details.

It also answers the questions that tie up staff on the phone: opening hours, last orders, location and parking, and menu questions from the information you give it. When a caller asks to speak to someone, the call or message goes to your team.

Reputoo's booking engine was built for appointments and adapted for restaurants with one important change: capacity is counted in seats.

1. Set your sittings. Opening hours and the length of a sitting — for example 90 minutes for dinner.
2. Set the seats per sitting. The number of covers you can take at one time.
3. Guest asks for a table. The agent asks how many guests before it looks at dates.
4. Seats are checked. The party size is added to the guests already booked in that sitting. If it fits, it is booked; if not, the agent offers the nearest time that does.
5. Confirmation goes out on WhatsApp with the date, time, number of guests and your address.
6. Reminders follow 24 hours and 1 hour before, with a reply option to confirm, move or cancel.

Block dates for holidays or private events, and the agent will not book them.

A no-show on a Friday night is a table you turned others away for. Four habits cut them sharply:

• Remind, and ask for a reply. "Reply 1 to confirm or 2 to change" turns a silent no-show into a cancellation you can resell.
• Make changing easy. Guests who can move a booking in one reply move it instead of skipping it.
• Take a deposit for big groups. A per-head advance on tables of eight or more, or on festival nights, paid through a link from your own payment gateway. Payments go straight to your account.
• Use a waitlist. When a full sitting gets a cancellation, guests on the waitlist are offered the seats.

Every reminder and confirmation is a utility message on the WhatsApp Business API — a fraction of a rupee each in India — so a full set per booking costs very little. See WhatsApp Business charges per message.

Birthday dinners, office parties and private dining need more than a time slot. You can have the agent collect extra details with each booking — the occasion, seating preference, dietary needs — so the team sees them before the guests arrive.

For bigger events that need a menu and a quote, the agent collects the requirements — date, number of guests, budget — and passes them to your events team in the shared inbox, where someone picks up the conversation.

Restaurant discovery and marketplace apps can bring new guests, and many restaurants use them. But for guests who already know you, booking through your own channel has clear advantages:

Many restaurants use both: a marketplace to be found, and their own WhatsApp booking for regulars and everyone who finds them directly.

A reservation is a short conversation. These are the messages that make it run smoothly — change the details to suit your restaurant.

Confirmation

Your table is booked, {{name}}: {{guests}} guests on {{date}} at {{time}}. Find us here: {{map link}}. Reply if your plans change.

Reminder the day before

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at {{time}}, {{name}}! Reply 1 to confirm your table for {{guests}}, or 2 to change it.

Reminder an hour before

Your table for {{guests}} is ready at {{time}}. Parking is available at {{parking}}. See you soon!

After the meal

Thank you for dining with us, {{name}}! We would love to hear how it was — a quick review helps us a lot: {{review link}}

Confirmations and reminders are utility messages. Anything with an offer — "20% off your next visit" — is a marketing message, costs more and needs the guest's consent. More wording in WhatsApp reminder messages.

Reservations are only part of what guests ask. From the information you give it, the agent also answers:

• Timings — opening hours, last orders, kitchen closing, holiday hours.
• Location — address, a map link, parking and landmarks.
• Menu — what is on it, prices, vegetarian and Jain options, and allergy information you have provided.
• Policies — children, pets, outside cakes, dress code, corkage.
• Groups — the largest table you can seat and how deposits work.

Keep this information up to date — a changed menu or holiday closure takes a minute to edit, and the agent uses it straight away. If a guest asks something it does not know, it says so rather than guessing, and your team sees the question in the inbox.

• Seat-based capacity, not one booking per slot.
• Party size asked first, so availability is checked properly.
• WhatsApp and phone booking into the same calendar, so nothing is double-booked.
• Reminders with a reply option to confirm, move or cancel.
• Deposits through your own gateway, with UPI, cards and net banking.
• A shared inbox so any staff member can see and answer guests.
• No commission per cover on your own bookings.
• Language support for the guests you actually get.

To be clear about what Reputoo is: it takes, confirms and manages bookings on WhatsApp and by phone. It does not include a floor plan or table map for assigning specific tables, a POS or billing counter, or kitchen order systems, and it does not sync with third-party reservation platforms. Most restaurants keep their table plan as they do today and use the day's booking list to seat guests.

• Plans from ₹999 a month for WhatsApp booking, reminders and the shared inbox — see pricing.
• No commission per booking or per cover.
• WhatsApp message charges are Meta's own, passed through: reminders and confirmations are utility messages, a fraction of a rupee each in India. Check yours with the WhatsApp API cost calculator.
• Phone answering (optional) is a voice add-on of ₹1,999 a month plus per-minute usage from a prepaid wallet.

1. Connect your WhatsApp number to the official API through Meta's sign-up.
2. Set hours, sitting length and seats per sitting, and block dates you are closed.
3. Add what the agent should know — menu, location, parking, policies — so it can answer questions.
4. Turn on reminders and, if you want them, deposits for large groups.
5. Share your booking link on Google, Instagram and your website, and put "Book on WhatsApp" on your table cards.
6. Add phone answering when calls are the bottleneck.

For other industries using the same engine, see appointment scheduling software, salon booking software and clinic appointment software.