It’s Friday night. A group of tourists is walking through the city, hungry and looking for a good restaurant. They don’t stop in front of your window to check the menu. Instead, they pull out their phone and type “Best restaurant nearby.” Google Maps appears. They look at photos and read reviews to get a feel for the place. And then comes the moment where restaurants surprisingly often lose reservations. No reserve button! Back, next restaurant.

Sounds harsh? Maybe. But this is exactly how guests decide today. Not on the street. Not on your homepage. Google is where guests choose, or bail.

Why the reserve button on Google is more important than restaurants think

Many restaurants still see Reserve with Google as “a handy feature.” It’s not. It’s one of the most powerful free distribution channels a restaurant can get. Make reserving via Google easy? You convert. Make it complicated? Guests go to a competitor who makes it simple. It’s that simple on Google Maps. Restaurants with a reserve button:

• get chosen faster
• convert better
• look more professional
• capture more reservations

The impact of “Reserve with Google”

Does that button really make a difference? Yes! A guest who is quickly searching for a restaurant nearby isn’t thinking: “Let me first open the website, check the menu, and fill out a form.” They think: “Where can I reserve now?”. Robert van den Eeckhout, Guestplan: „Conversations with restaurants show that those using Google Reserve see 15%-25% more reservations.“

Guestplan and Google: partners since 2017

A proud moment, because this story didn’t start yesterday. Guestplan was one of the first reservation systems worldwide to allow restaurants to receive free reservations via Google Search and Google Maps.

Matthijs Pet, Guestplan: “That was back in 2017. At the time, restaurants in many countries paid for this type of integration. In fact, in many places they still do. Google itself doesn’t charge restaurants—only the intermediaries take a commission. But not with Guestplan.”

Full services now available via Google

Until recently, it wasn’t possible to offer services through Google. That has changed. Want to offer specials, deals, packages, terrace reservations, or deposits via Google? Now you can. Restaurants can run their entire reservation flow via Google. Working with deposits? That can be done, for example, via Mollie.

How many reservations are you missing?

Maybe the question isn’t: “Should we activate Reserve with Google?”. But rather: “How many reservations are we missing without it?”. Guests are already searching on Google. They’re already comparing you with competitors. And at the critical moment, one thing matters: Can they reserve immediately?

Open Guestplan → Settings → Online Reservations → Activate Reserve with Google. Usually, it goes live within about a day. After that, you’re visible exactly where guests make their decision. Google. Not tomorrow. Not later. But at the very moment someone thinks: “I want to eat here.”