A dollar or two per diner doesn't sound like much. That's by design — per-cover pricing is built to feel painless at the moment you sign up, and to show its real size only at the end of the month.
So let's do the end-of-the-month math.
Per-cover, multiplied by reality
Say your dining room seats 300 covers a week through your reservation book — a modest number for a busy fifty-seat room open six nights. At $1 per cover, that's about $1,300 a month. At $2 per cover — common once the platform's own network sends the guest — it's $2,600 a month.
Read that again: $2,600 a month for reservations. Not for the food, not for the staff, not for the website. For the list of who's coming.
And the fee scales the wrong way. A great month — full book, no-shows down — is the month you pay the most. Your success is their revenue model.
The network fee is the quiet one
Per-cover platforms usually charge less for guests who book on your own site and more for guests who come through their app or network. That sounds reasonable until you realize who's doing the marketing: you. Your Instagram, your Google listing, your regulars — and if the guest taps the platform's button instead of yours, the cover price doubles or triples. Some platforms add a monthly subscription on top of the per-cover fees, plus charges for table management features.
The honest question to ask any per-cover quote: "What did your average restaurant my size pay in total last month — fees, subscription, everything?" If the answer is a shrug, do the math above with your own cover count.
Flat-rate, and what "included" means
The alternative is boring, which is the point: a flat monthly number that doesn't care how full your book is. The reservation system is part of your website, not a meter running on top of it.
On Remi, reservations are included in every plan. Take online orders through Square and the whole site — reservations included — is free, $0/mo. Dine-in only? The flat plan is $99/mo with founding pricing (regular $149), reservations included. No per-cover fee, no network surcharge, no separate booking bill. A fully booked Saturday costs the same as a quiet Tuesday.
The booking page is part of the cost too
A reservation system your guests can't use costs you covers that never make it into the math above. We rebuilt our booking page so every time slot is a real button, the whole flow works by keyboard, and the page skips straight to the first day you're actually open instead of landing guests on a closed Monday. The details are in the booking page changelog — or just try it: book a test table at Volta.
Your guest list stays yours, exportable, on your domain. For the full pricing picture, the cost page has the math.