Welcome

It’s been a very exciting month at Livebookings, with lots of big developments that show that the future of web bookings for restaurants is looking bright!

Read on in this edition of the newsletter to hear about our investment from Wellington Partners, what we plan to spend the money on, and how that’s going to benefit your restaurant. If you’d like to hear our CEO Niklas Eklund explain more about the ideas that drive Livebookings and where the company is going, listen to the CNBC interview with James Caan (of Dragon’s Den fame).

Lastly, it’s been a great month for new partnerships. For example, we now have a beta test live with 118 118, giving diners a whole new way to reserve through telephone directory systems, straight into your Livebookings reservations book. Look out below for our top tips on making sure that you get the most from this and other new partner opportunities.

Olivia Fitzgerald
General Manager UK & Ireland

Hot Topic

Create a Free Listing for your Restaurant on the NEW Google Local Business Center

We have previously covered Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) but it is important not to forget the simple steps for your restaurant being found on the internet to help you drive bookings.

This month’s hot topic is a quick reminder of how and why you should get your restaurant listed on Google Maps and the new Google Local Business Center.

Most people search for information online, so it is important that when your customers are searching they can find you. With Google you can easily get your restaurant pin pointed on Google Maps and also create a free business listing to ensure your customers find you.

Here is an example of how Chez Gerard in Covent Garden has listed themselves.

Listing your restaurant with Google Local Business Center will allow you to take control of the information that appears about your restaurant including: address, opening hours, menus etc. It will also prevent duplicate listings from being created and even allow you to create coupons and display photos and videos. You can even use the power of Google's data to learn where your customers come from, and what they search for to find you.

Find out more about Google Local Business Center here.

Marketing Tip

Maximise Every Table in Your Restaurant with Livebookings Console

Livebookings Console will provide you with the opportunity to maximise every table in your restaurant automatically, on a session by session, moment by moment, booking by booking basis.

Your staff may spend hours on a daily basis ‘shuffling tables’ but this can now be achieved automatically by using Livebookings Console, with no daily effort. Console has been specially designed to allocate your bookings in the best possible sequence and combinations and reallocate them as more bookings are made.

As always you can still override the system and allocate your tables manually. Livebookings Console will lock all the tables that you allocate, assuming that you know best what to do with that particular guest or booking. With this combination of manual and automatic allocation, you will improve the effective use of tables while still allowing manual control that you might require at certain times.

LIVE training sessions for Livebookings Console.

Register today for a FREE online training session:

Tuesday 20th October Tuesday 3rd November

Livebookings News

Livebookings announces $16 million investment

Pan-European venture capital firm Wellington Partners and existing investors have backed Livebookings with a new round of funding of $16 million.

The investment will enable us to continue to develop our state of the art restaurant solutions, including sophisticated guest databases to help you manage offers and mailings and improve loyalty, and to further develop your electronic reservation books and table maximisation solutions. These new solutions will give you unparalleled access to business critical information. Livebookings will also be using the money to improve our position as Europe’s largest online marketing network for restaurants and continuing to develop the Livebookings Network, by offering extensive reach through our affiliate partner websites.

Find out more.

Promotional Ideas

118 118... They've got your number!

With partners like 118 118 coming onboard with Livebookings, and the growing trend for making bookings on the go through smart phones, restaurants are having to reassess when they are available for bookings. Do you cut off your availability before your session starts? Is there a way around this? Why not move your laptop to the reception desk, and keep availability live throughout the session? More and more diners are looking for last minute availability when they are out and about, using applications that will book a restaurant table from their phones, like Bookatable.com. 118 118 are able to take bookings for your restaurant when customers make an enquiry.

If you are cutting off your online availability hours before the start of the session, you may well be missing out on valuable bookings!

Are you running any offers?

Don’t forget to let us know about any offers you are running and we will ensure they are promoted within the Livebookings Network. Some of the most successful categories are:

lastminute.com

lastminute.com will be adding a dedicated Christmas party section to their website this year, enabling customers to make bookings for parties of eight and over at restaurants throughout the UK.

If you would like to get involved, please contact Patrick Tunmore for further details, terms and conditions.

We are Recruiting

Do you fancy a change, or know someone who does?

With customers, partners and employees in 19 countries, Livebookings is Europe’s largest online marketing and reservations service for restaurants. We are currently expanding our London based team and looking to recruit the following vacancies:

• Test Engineer
• Business Analyst

If you know of anyone who would be interested in working for Livebookings for any of the above positions, please contact Adrienn Sarga on 020 7934 9283 or adrienn.sarga@livebookings.net who will send out further details to you.