Per-Cover Booking Fees Explained (UK Restaurants)
Per-Cover Booking Fees Explained: What UK Restaurants Are Really Paying
Per-cover booking fees sound small — until your restaurant is busy.
This page explains how per-cover fees work, why they quietly punish success, and why many UK restaurants now choose booking systems without per-booking charges.
If you want to sanity-check what this is costing you, you can book a 15-minute cost sanity check at the end.
What are per-cover booking fees?
Per-cover fees mean you’re charged each time a customer books through your booking system.
Instead of paying a fixed cost, your bill:
● Rises automatically with demand
● Peaks in busy months
● Is highest when margins are under pressure
Why they feel manageable — until they don’t
In quieter months, per-cover fees often go unnoticed.
But when booking volume increases:
● Christmas parties
● Group bookings
● Weekend demand
Your booking system becomes one of your largest variable costs.
Example: a typical UK restaurant
● 120 covers/week via online bookings
● £1–£2 per cover
● Monthly cost: £480–£960
● December cost: often much higher
That’s just to accept bookings.
Why Google changed the economics
Today, many bookings come from:
● Google Search
● Google Maps
● Brand searches
Modern booking systems allow customers to book directly from Google without per-cover fees, which removes the original justification for per-booking charges.
What restaurants switch to instead
Restaurants moving away from per-cover pricing usually choose:
● Flat monthly pricing
● Direct Google booking integration
● Deposits or table controls for no-shows
Many review card payments at the same time, so everything changes once.
The question to ask
Not:
“Is £1–£2 per cover reasonable?”
But:
“What does this cost us when we’re busy?”