Easy Eatery v0.8.8 released

Our biggest reservations update yet

Running a busy venue means making hundreds of small decisions every day.

Who's bringing children?

Which tables are dog-friendly?

Can a large party be seated without disrupting service?

How quickly can bookings be analysed at the end of the month?

With Easy Eatery v0.8.8, we've focused on making these decisions easier than ever.

This isn't just another update with a handful of new features.

It's probably the biggest release we've ever shipped, introducing smarter reservations, more flexibility for venues, a completely rebuilt booking engine, and laying the foundations for the next generation of business analytics for our customers.

Let's take a look at what's new.

Smarter bookings for modern hospitality

No two parties are the same, and your reservation system should reflect that.

Children can now form a part of the booking flow

Bookings can now include the number of children in a party, giving venues a much clearer picture of who's arriving.

You can now:

• Set venue-wide limits on children.
• Configure child-to-adult ratios within a booking.
• Choose whether they're referred to as Children or Highchairs.
• Select the icon used throughout the reservations interface.

Whether you're a family-friendly café or a fine dining restaurant with limited capacity for children, Easy Eatery now adapts to the way you operate.

Dogs are welcome too

More and more guests dine with their four-legged friends, and Easy Eatery now supports tracking dogs within bookings too.

You can give guests the option to let you know if they're bringing dogs, how many they're bringing and include any additional information during the booking process.

Venues can specify dog-friendly tables, control the number of dogs allowed per booking and allow our intelligent table assignment system to assign suitable tables automatically.

It's another small detail that makes a big difference to day-to-day operations.

Our smartest table assignment yet

Auto table assignment has received its biggest upgrade since it was first introduced.

Easy Eatery can now:

• Automatically combine multiple tables for larger parties.
• Assign tables based on their proximity to one another in your venue.
• Consider table size, booking priority and dog-friendly seating.
• Search other dining areas when the preferred area is full while still respecting booking rules.
• Automatically assign an entire day's bookings with a single click.
• Optionally use non-adjacent tables when required.

The result?

Less manual work, faster planning and better utilisation of your dining space.

Managers still retain complete control, but now the software does far more of the heavy lifting.

Better data. Better decisions.

We've introduced a brand new Booking Data Export feature, allowing venues to export bookings into CSV over a chosen date range.

Whether you're analysing reservations, reconciling deposits, preparing reports or understanding trading patterns, your booking data is now much easier to work with.

We've also added estimated booking spend values for adults and children.

Although these figures aren't displayed within Easy Eatery just yet, they're already powering the foundations for exciting analytics features currently in development.

Watch this space.

Booking agreements and marketing made easier

We've introduced two new ways to strengthen your booking journey.

Booking agreements

You can now create custom booking agreements that guests must accept before completing online reservations.

Whether it's cancellation policies, dress codes or dining terms, it's now easier to ensure expectations are clear before guests arrive.

Mailchimp integration

If you're using Mailchimp, guests can now opt into your mailing list directly during the booking process with a simple checkbox.

Growing your audience has never been easier.

A completely rebuilt booking experience

One of the biggest changes in v0.8.8 is something your guests may never even notice.

We've completely rebuilt the customer booking form from the ground up.

While it looks basically the same, underneath it's an entirely new architecture designed to deliver:

• Faster and more reliable availability checks.
• Better handling during busy booking periods.
• Improved error handling.
• Support for future payment providers.
• Customisable booking error messages.
• A platform that's ready for the next generation of Easy Eatery features.

Sometimes the best improvements are the ones that simply make everything work better.

A brand new availability engine

This release also introduces an entirely redesigned availability engine for table reservations.

Instead of calculating availability piece by piece, Easy Eatery now builds a complete picture of your venue before determining which bookings can be accepted.

That includes sessions, dining areas, tables, existing reservations, occupancy timelines, closures, booking rules and much more.

The result is:

• More accurate availability.
• Better performance.
• Improved protection against overbooking.
• Smarter explanations when a time isn't available.

It's one of the largest technical improvements we've ever made, providing a stronger foundation for everything that comes next.

A cleaner, faster reservations interface

We've also refreshed much of the My Easy Eatery control panel.

You'll notice:

• Cleaner visuals with fewer shadows and improved spacing.
• Redesigned booking tiles that make key information easier to spot.
• Better visibility of adults, children and dogs.
• Improved timeline readability.
• Smarter handling of multi-table bookings.
• Better performance throughout daily reservations.

The interface feels lighter, clearer and faster without changing the workflows you already know.

Plus plenty of quality-of-life improvements

This release also includes:

• Improved walk-ins with support for children and dogs.
• Optional alignment of walk-ins to booking slots.
• Better Stripe payment references.
• New reservation settings for the latest features.
• Improved booking summaries.
• Refined booking management actions.
• Numerous performance improvements.
• A wide range of bug fixes across reservations, permissions and the user interface.

Built for today. Ready for tomorrow.

Version 0.8.8 represents far more than a feature update.

This update is a major step forward for Easy Eatery, improving the experience for venues, simplifying everyday operations and introducing the technical foundations that will support the exciting features we have planned over the coming months.

From smarter table assignment and richer booking information to a completely rebuilt booking engine and future-ready analytics, this is our biggest reservations update yet.

I can't wait to see what you'll do with it.