British diners are driving casual restaurant reservations boom

18th August 2010, 3:35pm

Livebookings had announced a 100% yearly rise in online reservations for its casual dining restaurant group customers, as many of the industry’s biggest names go beyond just attracting walk-in diners and focus on building a customer database.

Livebookings is also now working with over 1,000 restaurants from some of the UK's major casual dining groups, such as Strada, Bella Italia, Café Rouge, Zizzi, Prezzo, ASK, Piccolino and The Restaurant Bar and Grill.

As a result, the global online marketing and reservations service provider for the restaurant industry expects its reservations for restaurant groups in 2010 to top two million.

This change in strategy for those who had primarily attracted walk-ins, means they can secure advanced reservations either through their own website or partner sites such as lastminute.com, Yell.com and 118 118.

Olivia FitzGerald, UK & Ireland general manager for Livebookings, said: "We've felt for a long time that many restaurant groups were missing out by not taking online reservations, so it's great to have some of the industry's leading names working with us. We have seen our customers use this functionality to fill empty seats and to improve profitability, so we look forward to working with many more groups and independents to achieve the same."

Gabriela Seir, Digital Marketing manager Tragus Group, which operates venues including Strada, Bella Italia and Café Rouge, said: "Whilst the last few years have seen a real boom in casual dining, we're always looking at ways of improving our customer experience in-restaurant and online. The integration of Livebookings has enabled our customers to make table reservations with ease on a 24-7 basis. Furthermore, Livebookings has helped us to add to our existing customer database, which is invaluable for any restaurant group."

Related Articles:

• 28 Oct 2010 - Tragus Group upbeat after resilient performance from its restaurant brands
• 18 Oct 2010 - Tragus Group teams up with Cineworld to launch film and restaurant promo

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