When guests choose to dine at a restaurant, it’s not just the food. It’s the entire dining experience. The allure of the setting, the ease of mobility inside the venue, the attentive hosts, and, of course, the delicious food. It’s a blend of benefits that come together with a carefully designed restaurant floor plan and dine-in experience.

Restaurant floor planning is a careful process in the design of every venue.

Read on to discover the essential considerations for your venue’s floor plan and how using restaurant floor plan management helps you.

What is restaurant floor planning software?

Careful creation and design of a restaurant floor plan is essential to the success of a venue. F&B concepts use restaurant floor planning software to ensure a smooth experience for guests and staff alike.

You can get floor planning software through architects and F&B consulting firms, or as part of your restaurant’s reservation system.

Floor planning systems are often referred to as restaurant table management systems because they include features related to merging tables.

Considerations for your restaurant’s floor plan

  • Available space and sections: This includes whether the venue is located on a single floor or if it’s a two-story venue.
  • Restaurant flow: This includes the kitchen, areas for restrooms, and their proximity to seating areas.
  • Accessibility: Is there valet parking? Is the venue accessible to guests who use wheelchairs?
  • Adherence to building codes: Building codes and regulations are mandatory laws that determine the standard for various systems.
  • Natural light: The availability of natural light in a venue can affect where guests like to sit during the day.
  • Guests and staff: A good restaurant floor plan entices guests to keep coming back and helps staff improve table turnover rates.

How it works: Restaurant floor management

Manage seating for large groups

A restaurant table management system shows you which tables are occupied, who is closing their check, and which seats are available.

A floor plan within your table management system allows hosts to make these decisions faster and more efficiently, ensuring guests don’t wait for too long.

Seat walk-ins faster

By reviewing your venue’s floor plan, including available tables and upcoming restaurant bookings, you can seat walk-in guests faster.

Manage table arrangements to suit special events

Whether you have a special event like an engagement party, or regular dining and music events, you can use your table management system to arrange your seating.

Manage table-tops for special days

One of the most popular events in the F&B industry are Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.

Using the restaurant’s floor management software, restaurant managers can create a cozy atmosphere, while ensuring couples’ privacy as well.

How Servme’s restaurant floor planning software helps you

1. Availability across all devices

Servme is available via the web app, along with iOS and Android phones and tablets.

2. Multiple floor plan views for efficient management

F&B venues, using Servme, get 3 different views of the floor plan, ensuring quick seating, faster table turnover, and efficient organization throughout the day.

Hosts can see the restaurant’s floor plan via grid view, list view, and floor plan view.

3. Automated table combinations

Known as smart recommendations, automated table combinations is a super easy-to-use feature that will help you seat guests in seconds.

For reservations or walk-in guests, simply add the number of guests you want to seat and Servme will recommend the best tables to combine.

4. Reservation management features

As a restaurant reservation management system, Servme helps restaurants streamline online and phone bookings, manage floor plans, waitlists, and more.

Servme integrates with platforms like Zomato, Tripadvisor, Reserve with Google (depending on location), and others.

5. Restaurant CRM

Servme offers F&B concepts a robust restaurant CRM.

  • Manage seating based on guest preferences
  • Send email marketing campaigns
  • Tailor SMS marketing and WhatsApp marketing messages for guests
  • Use the guest notes feature to improve guest satisfaction, retention, and future personalization

6. Guest notes

This Servme feature allows guests to enter notes such as preferences, dietary requests, allergies, and other needs in your reservation widget.

7. Manager Notes

A favorite feature among hotel F&B concepts is Servme’s Manager’s Notes feature. This helps restaurant managers create notes for staff relating to the flow of the day, special events, VIP guests, or notes regarding seating arrangements.

8. Guest surveys

Use automated guest surveys in your restaurant to ensure everything is top-notch.

9. Automated seating via booking widgets

When your guests make a reservation via a booking widget, they are automatically allocated seats on your restaurant floor planning system.