‘Guests like to be known’: restaurants luring diners back via personal reservations

Platforms send targeted messages to customers, reducing cancellations and encouraging them to return

Booking a table at your favourite restaurant no longer involves simply contacting the establishment and giving your details. Now it often involves the restaurant contacting you too - sometimes several times over.

Online booking platforms used by hundreds of restaurants in the UK now send out reservation confirmations, reminders, requests for feedback, future deals and news. Some send certain customers a personalised booking link" after their visit, to encourage them to come back. I hope you had a great time on your last visit ... and that you'll come back to see us again soon," reads one example, sent on behalf of Som Saa, a Thai restaurant in east London, via booking platform SevenRooms.