Noteworthy information on reservations

Combination of POS system and reservation system

Combining a POS system with a reservation system is very simple in practice - provided you know a few basic interrelationships and customise the system to your business. This connection not only increases your added value, but also improves your service quality almost automatically:

  • The flow of guests can be controlled in a more targeted manner,

  • Capacities are utilised more efficiently,

  • and your team works in a more structured and successful way.

Best practice: Working successfully with reservation programmes

Today, reservation systems are much more than digital table books - they are a decisive factor for capacity utilisation, service quality and guest loyalty. But not every system works in the interests of your company. The decisive factor is who retains control of your guest data.

Your data - your capital

Many international reservation portals offer attractive services, but require in-depth insight into your customer data. As a rule, this information then flows back to the portal - not to you. In doing so, you are handing over a valuable part of your guest relationship. The Hypersoft reservation system and the integration with aleno take a different approach:

You always retain full data sovereignty, regardless of whether you use the systems individually or in combination. Even if you later decide in favour of another system, your data remains in your possession.

Beware of seemingly free or prominent portals

Some large reservation platforms link to your Google Business account and direct interested parties from there directly to their own paid widget. In some cases, your restaurant may even appear as "not available" - while other establishments in your area are recommended. As a result, you not only lose reservations, but also visibility and trust. Even after a short test phase or a previous cooperation, your restaurant may still appear in their search results - often with a note such as "currently not bookable". This gives guests the impression that you are closed or unavailable.

Data protection and interface clarity

With POS interfaces, some international providers require that all booking data - far beyond what is technically necessary - is transmitted to their systems. This may involve sensitive information such as guest data, frequencies or sales patterns. That doesn't happen with hypersoft and aleno:

  • Only the data required for operation is transmitted.

  • Your information remains exclusively in your area of responsibility - an important aspect for compliance, trust and long-term brand loyalty.

Combined strategy for maximum freedom

International platforms can undoubtedly attract new guests - especially in tourist regions or with high online visibility. But make targeted use of these opportunities:

✅ Own reservation as a basis:

  • Use aleno as your primary system to manage independent bookings via your website.

✅ Controlled third-party reservations:

  • You can manually transfer reservations via portals to aleno - e.g. up to 15 % online contingent for additional reach.

✅ Clear separation:

  • Your main bookings and guest data remain in your hands, while you only use targeted external outreach. This allows you to combine reach with independence - and strengthen your brand, your data sovereignty and your commercial success.

Best practice: The right lead time for reservations

The lead time is the time span (in minutes) between the moment of the reservation request and the planned arrival of the guests. It is a small detail with a big impact - because it determines whether your reservation system is used efficiently or whether guests bypass it. (Note: If you work with aleno, please only set the lead time there)

Why excessively long lead times are problematic

Of course, every team wants to have enough time to prepare guests and coordinate tables without stress. However, lead times that are too generous often lead to your reservation system being used less frequently without being noticed.

Typical scenario:

A guest wants to drop by spontaneously, but the system shows "no free tables" - because the lead time is set too long. The guest then calls directly or simply drops by - and is placed anyway. This is humanly understandable, but counterproductive, as the system loses credibility and efficiency as a result. In the long term, this creates a dangerous dynamic:

Guests find that online bookings "don't work" and in future will not make them at all - or end up on an external platform that, in the worst case, forwards them to other establishments.

The reservation system as a colleague

Think of your reservation system as a team member - a digital colleague who takes work off your hands and helps to make quality visible. For this colleague to function well, he needs your support: up-to-date information, realistic attitudes and confidence in his logic. Too long a lead time is like saying to this colleague: "You'd better not do anything, we'll sort it out spontaneously." Short-notice bookings, on the other hand, are not a risk, but a sign of functioning digitalisation.

Best practice recommendation

✅ Keep the lead time as short as possible:

Enable bookings at short notice so that guests actively use the system.

This increases your booking rate and at the same time reduces the workload of your telephone and reception staff.

use digital processes consistently:

With the Hypersoft option "Book automatic walk-ins"(best practice: turn walk-ins into check-ins), your system can recognise all occupied tables in real time - regardless of whether they are reserved or spontaneous. This gives you a complete overview and you can even release all tables for reservation.

✅ Quality remains our top priority:

Of course, you must ensure that guests arriving at short notice are also optimally looked after according to your concept. But that's exactly what your system is there for - it coordinates instead of overwhelming.

Conclusion

Short lead times promote digital bookings, ensure genuine system acceptance and boost your capacity utilisation. They signal: "Modern catering works for us - efficient, flexible and guest-oriented." With Hypersoft and aleno, you retain control at all times, offer maximum availability and prevent guests or platforms from controlling your business.

Further topics: Set lead time

Best practice: Turn walk-ins into check-ins

Walk-ins - guests who arrive without a reservation - are quite normal in everyday life. However, if your reservation system does not automatically record these guests, this can quickly lead to incorrect notifications:

  • The system believes that a table is free even though it has long been occupied - and this undermines your entire table logic.

This is particularly fatal in companies where the reservation system is increasingly being used. The result is "workarounds" that do more harm than good: long lead times, unnecessary phone calls or spontaneous guests who are disappointed on the spot. This weakens the reliability of your system - and costs you sales. The right way: synchronise the system with reality

To ensure that the reservation system always knows the current status, activate the function: Automatic walk-in for booking non-reserved tables

This means that even spontaneous guests are immediately registered as check-ins in the system - including table allocation. This means that your table allocation is always up-to-date and reliable.

When you should definitely activate this function

If you offer almost all tables for reservation (e.g. 100%), activation is mandatory. This is the only way the system knows which seats are actually occupied - and can plan reservations intelligently, without duplications or gaps.

Record the number of guests - for precise key figures

If your reservation system does not calculate by tables but by seats, also activate the option: Query number of guests at Walk In

This means that not only the table, but also the number of people are registered during a spontaneous visit. This data is valuable - for analyses such as turnover per guest, occupancy times or staff capacity. These settings are already defined as standard for aleno integration.

Time factor: Realistically map the occupancy period

To ensure that your system works correctly in terms of time, define a standard occupancy time in minutes for walk-ins. The table is automatically marked as occupied for this period: Walk-In Occupancy time

For more flexibility, activate the option at the POS: Check occupancy time for Walk-In at the cash desk

This allows the operator to customise the time - for example for short lunches or long dinners:

If a new reservation collides with the planned duration, the system automatically displays a warning. This keeps your team informed at all times and allows them to react proactively:

Intelligent checkout control

With time-controlled checkout, the cash register automatically sends a signal to the reservation system as soon as the last invoice has been created. The table is then considered free - or, if you wish, with a delay, e.g. to realistically depict guests lingering for longer.

To do this, use: Book Check-Out delayed- with a defined standard time, or Check-out delay at the cash desk the POS option so that operators can decide individually - this way the checkout is automatically suggested the next time:

Conclusion

With these intelligent walk-in options, you ensure that your reservation system always knows the truth in real time. This allows you to avoid double bookings, improve capacity utilisation and offer guests a reliable, professional experience - with or without a reservation. And the best thing:

With the Hypersoft-aleno integration, all of this works fully automatically and seamlessly at the POS.

Further topics:

Number of customers for better analyses

Quickly book walk-ins manually...

Best practice: Targeted promotion of evaluations with aleno

Guest reviews are far more than just a barometer of sentiment - they are crucial for the digital visibility and credibility of your business. With aleno reservations, you can actively control this process and automatically invite your guests to rate you - in a friendly, professional and effective manner. Automated, but personalised.

After a restaurant visit, aleno can send your guests an automated message - e.g. by e-mail or SMS. Thank you for your visit and ask for a short evaluation.

This small, friendly gesture has a powerful effect: guests feel valued and you receive valuable feedback that contributes directly to further development. You decide whether the reviews are used internally for quality control or whether you refer your guests specifically to external platforms - such as Google Business. To do this, you can simply integrate the respective links into the message.

In this way, your online reputation grows naturally - and you benefit in several ways:

✅ More visibility:

Current reviews improve your ranking on Google and review platforms.

✅ More trust:

Authentic guest reviews are more convincing to potential new customers than any advertising.

✅ More feedback:

Internal feedback also helps to continuously improve service and processes.

How it works in practice

An anonymised example shows the effect: a restaurant with 120 seats used the aleno function consistently for three months. Result:

  • Over 200 new online reviews on Google and Tripadvisor.

  • Average rating rose from 4.1 to 4.6 stars.

  • Significantly higher visibility in local search results.

  • Guests particularly praised the personalised approach after the visit.

This feedback has a direct effect on your capacity utilisation: more positive reviews mean more trust - and therefore more reservations.

Best practice tip

Always formulate your evaluation request with a personal touch:

"We hope you had a pleasant evening with us. We would be delighted if you could share your experience briefly - your feedback helps us to become even better."

With Hypersoft and aleno, you can combine professional guest management with intelligent online reputation - efficiently, authentically and sustainably.

Use reservations in the graphic table overview

The information from reservations (Hypersoft and aleno) can be displayed in the graphic table overview. The settings for this take place in the eBooking Communicator.

In the minutes before start area, you control whether and how many minutes before reservations should be displayed in the graphic table overview and the event list of the cashier mode.

With Display Reservations you determine that the reservations are displayed in the event list.

The color setting also marks a reserved table in the Graphical Table Overview with the color you have selected.

The color change allows you to change the color at the set time. This means that as soon as the reservation approaches, this is signalled by a different color. For example, you can display reservations 120 minutes in advance and change the color 60 minutes in advance to indicate this. This value is also used for checking during walk-in or other attempts to book the table and indicates a reference to an existing reservation.

The color change in the minutes after start area changes the colors after the scheduled reservation and is in case the guests have not yet checked in.

In the area Not appear after you define when and how a not appear should be displayed - the reserved seats are automatically released again!

In the graphic table overview, the "hotspot" must cover the area of the table in which the color is to be changed. The program determines the most frequently occurring color in this area and replaces it according to your specifications. We therefore recommend that the tables be designed in a single colour, if possible without any travel.

If you are working with high-resolution images, you may not be able to tell with the naked eye whether the colors are different but similar.

Station settings: reservation areas

This setting option allows you to assign the areas from the reservation to a POS terminal. This can also be more than one area per POS terminal. This setting is currently only active for the Hypersoft reservation.

These settings are then applied as the default filter in the check-in dialogue of the respective cash register. If areas are specified for one cash register, the synonym "standard area" is displayed in the respective selection in the reservation view (also for several).

Time zones of the systems

Please ensure that the POS site system, the Hypersoft portal server and (if in use) the aleno system operate in the same time zone.

Back to the overarching topic: eBooking Reservations