A reservation system without a per-guest fee: what a reservation really costs

Two billing models on the market: a fixed subscription or a fee for every seated guest. The maths at 300, 600 and 1,000 guests a month, public prices with sources, and when each model makes sense for your restaurant.

Restaurant reservation systems are billed in one of two ways. The first is a fixed monthly subscription: the same amount in January and in August. The second is a fee for every seated guest, known in the trade as a cover fee, usually charged on reservations that arrive through the provider's marketplace rather than from your own website. Under the second model the bill grows exactly when business is good.

This is not an attack on per-guest fees. They also pay for the traffic the marketplace brings you, and that is legitimate. The aim is for you to see the yearly figure, because most owners never add it up.

Who charges what in September 2026

Public price lists, checked on 10 September 2026:

What a per-guest bill looks like: a worked example

Since providers with per-guest fees do not publish the amount, we take an assumed €1 per seated guest. This is an illustration, not a price list; put your actual quote in place of that euro. The figures apply only to guests who arrived through the provider's marketplace, not to every guest in the restaurant.

A thousand guests a month through one channel is not out of reach for a restaurant running at full capacity in summer: that is 33 guests a day. If the provider also charges a subscription, add it to every line. If the fee is €2 instead of €1, double everything.

What a fixed bill looks like

With a fixed subscription you know the yearly cost in advance, at 100 guests and at 1,000:

Comparing the same restaurant with 600 marketplace guests a month: the assumed per-guest model costs €7,200 a year, jelo.hr Pro €708. A difference of roughly €6,500 is an order of magnitude, not a detail, and it stays that way even if you halve the per-guest fee.

For the other side of the ledger, jelo.hr's pricing page uses a simple measure: if the average reservation brings in €50, two reservations a month are €100 of revenue, more than the Pro plan costs. Everything above that is margin that stays with you.

The jelo.hr reservation system on a tablet at restaurant Volaria in Veruda marina
Restaurant Volaria in Veruda marina, around 130 seats: online reservations, table plan and guest notifications for a fixed monthly price, however many guests pass through the system in summer.

What you are actually paying for with a per-guest fee

Here we have to be fair. A per-guest fee is not just a software charge; part of it pays for traffic from the provider's marketplace. When a guest opens the app, types "fish restaurant nearby" and books with you, the provider brought you a guest you might not have had. That has value.

The question is how many of those guests come because of the marketplace, and how many are your existing guests who simply clicked the nearest button. If the guest was coming to you anyway, the fee on them is a cost with no new value. A practical test: in your regular-guest database, check how many marketplace reservations belong to guests who have been to you before. If that share is large, you are paying an intermediary for traffic you created yourself.

When each model makes sense

A per-guest fee makes sense if you are a new restaurant without a guest base, if you work in a city where guests genuinely pick restaurants through an app, or if every extra guest brings a margin that comfortably absorbs the intermediary. Then it is a marketing cost, and should be booked as one.

A fixed subscription makes sense if you have guests who come back, if most reservations arrive from your website, Google or word of mouth, and if you want the cost not to grow with success. It also brings a predictable budget, which in hospitality, where everything else changes every month, is worth something on its own.

The part not in the maths: whose guests are they

With a fee-based marketplace the guest is their user first and your guest second, and the guest database lives with them. The Quandoo shutdown showed this literally: new reservations stop on 30 September 2026, and after 31 December 2026 the website, app and infrastructure are switched off (quandoo.de/important-update). Restaurants that kept their guest base only there must export it before that date. The order of moves is in the guide Quandoo is shutting down: deadlines and a five-step plan.

A regular guest's card with visit count and notes in the jelo.hr system
Visit counts, notes and preferences for each guest stay in your system, not with an intermediary.

What you get for a fixed price on jelo.hr

The subscription has a six-month minimum term, the €99 activation covers setup, the website, reservation configuration, email notifications and one language, and each additional language costs €25. Before deciding you can use all Pro functions free for seven days, no card required.

What the fixed price does not include: the guest visibility jelo.hr adds is on the Jelo restaurant map in Croatia, so it does not replace traffic from a German or Italian marketplace. The full plan overview is on the pricing page, and if you want the maths done with your guest numbers and your average bill, get in touch through the contact page.