What a reservation actually costs in 2026: OpenTable, Resy, Tock and the alternative

A reservation looks free. It is not. Every seating carries a platform cost, and the way that cost is structured changes how your dining room behaves.

Three pricing shapes

Subscription. Resy and Tock now sell combined plans, with the entry Platform tier listed at $249 per month (Resy plans and pricing). Predictable, and the marginal cover is free.

Per cover. Network-driven platforms bill a fee for each guest seated through their marketplace, with a lower or zero fee for bookings from your own website. Cheap when the network is quiet, expensive exactly when you are busy.

Percentage. Delivery marketplaces moving into dining charge on order value, which turns your best nights into your most expensive ones.

The hidden cost nobody bills you for

Per-cover networks are optimised for one metric: covers. Not party size, not celebration spend, not repeat visits. So a two-top of water drinkers and a table of ten with a cake, a toast and three bottles of wine are treated as equal wins by the platform and radically unequal by your P&L.

That misalignment is the real cost. You pay for volume while your margin lives in occasions.

What to measure per channel

• Platform cost per seated guest, all-in, including the monthly fee amortised over covers.
• Average check by booking source.
• No-show rate by booking source. Prepaid and deposit-backed occasions almost always run cleaner.
• Repeat visits within twelve months.
• Share of bookings where you captured a usable guest record.

Most operators find their direct and occasion channels win on every line except raw volume.

How amealio approaches it differently

amealio treats a reservation as the beginning of an experience, not a row in a seating grid. A booking carries the occasion, the party composition, dietary needs and the package the restaurant published. The restaurant keeps the guest record, sets its own celebration pricing, and can invite the same family back next year on the same date.

The practical difference shows up in three places:

1. Deposits and packages reduce no-shows and lift average check without discounting.
2. Context at the pass lets the team greet a table by name and occasion, which is the cheapest loyalty programme in hospitality.
3. Post-visit memory — photos, a thank you, a saved date — turns a single Saturday into an annual tradition.

A fair conclusion

If you need raw discovery in a dense city, a large reservation network still earns its fee. If you need margin, repeat guests and a dining room that fills on the nights you choose, price the occasion instead of the cover.

Run both. Measure per-channel contribution, not bookings. The channel that remembers your guest is the one worth keeping.