The hospitality industry is changing. Guests are becoming more deliberate about where they dine, want certainty that a table will be available and, at the same time, expect personal service. Meanwhile, margins and labour costs are under pressure, making it increasingly important to achieve more with the same resources. For Jaap de Kort of Meyer Horeca Groep, this means one thing above all: organising more intelligently without losing sight of hospitality.

This development is also influencing how Meyer Horeca Groep organises its restaurants. De Kort: “At most locations, around 80% of our capacity is available for reservations. We deliberately keep the remaining 20% open for walk-ins. We want people to continue to feel welcome, even if they haven’t booked in advance.”

More pressure on operations

Changing guest expectations are not the only challenge. Costs are rising, margins are under pressure and not every price increase can simply be passed on to the guest. De Kort: “You have to think even more carefully about every euro you charge the guest and every euro you spend on your business.”

At the same time, Meyer Horeca Groep does not want this pressure to come at the expense of the guest experience. “You have to keep focusing on the floor, your employees and your guests, because that is where you make the difference.”

That focus requires a strong operational foundation. The better a restaurant knows in advance what to expect, the better the team can anticipate. This includes the number of guests, arrival times and special requests. De Kort: “Having a clear view of what you can expect on an evening creates calm and control.”

From reservation to relationship

A reservation is therefore more than simply a place at the table. The information available in advance can also contribute to a stronger guest relationship.

“If you know who visits your restaurant and what that guest likes, and you respond to that well, you will always do better than the competition.”

Special requests can be prepared in advance and returning guests can be recognised. According to De Kort, that recognition directly contributes to the feeling of hospitality.

Guest data is therefore becoming increasingly important. According to Bas van ’t Wout, CEO of Guestplan, this reflects a broader development within hospitality: “We see restaurants moving from simply managing reservations to wanting to understand their guests better and build real relationships. The data restaurants collect about their guests enables them to provide more personalised service.”

Technology as the foundation

Data is now being collected in more and more places within a restaurant: reservation systems, POS systems, kitchen systems and workforce planning software.

According to De Kort, the need is therefore shifting from separate systems towards an infrastructure where information comes together and systems can communicate with one another. “Technology should be a solid foundation that your restaurant can run on.”

De Kort also believes AI will play an increasingly important role. Administrative processes, schedules, analysis and other time-consuming tasks can increasingly be automated.

“AI makes your work, and especially your administrative processes, so much easier. It allows managers and entrepreneurs to handle secondary tasks more quickly, giving them more focus on the floor, where they make the difference for the guest.”

Van ’t Wout sees the same development: “Technology should not create more work for restaurant teams, but instead create space for what hospitality is really about. That can only happen when you build a foundation on which systems run smoothly and where guest data is collected centrally.”

Not one system for everything

According to De Kort, a strong infrastructure does not mean restaurants will ultimately need one system that does everything. Specialised systems can actually create more value, as long as they work well together.

“I think you should have the best programme for the task. What matters is that the systems are well connected.” He compares it to a professional kitchen: “You wouldn’t use a Swiss Army knife in a professional kitchen. You want a chef’s knife.”

The future, he believes, lies in an ecosystem where restaurants can use the best software for different parts of their operation, without those systems operating in isolation.

For Guestplan, this means playing a role within the hospitality infrastructure: not taking over everything, but ensuring that reservations, guest information and other systems work well together.

Van ’t Wout: “Restaurants don’t need one system that tries to do everything. They need a strong infrastructure in which the best systems work together and where the restaurant itself remains in control.”

Keep ownership of your guest data

According to both De Kort and Van ’t Wout, this control goes beyond operational processes. Ownership of guest data is becoming increasingly important.

De Kort sees the relationship with guests as an important part of a restaurant’s value. Having direct access to guest information makes it easier to recognise returning guests, remember preferences and respond more specifically to their needs.

He therefore sees a risk in becoming too dependent on external platforms. “When an external platform plays an important role in the relationship with guests, a restaurant may have less influence over what information is available, how that relationship is maintained and what it costs to reach guests again.”

For Van ’t Wout, this is an important part of the independence Guestplan wants to provide: “Restaurants should remain in control of their guest relationships and the data that comes from them. Technology should strengthen that relationship, not take it over.”

Ultimately, one thing remains central for De Kort: technology should never become the goal. “Keep focusing on the floor, your employees and your guests, because that is where you make the difference. And let software and AI work for you, saving time on processes that are time-consuming and inefficient.”

Because the better the foundation behind the scenes is organised, the more space there is for what ultimately makes hospitality special: attention to the guest.