How much does OpenTable cost UK restaurants in 2026?

For UK restaurants, pubs, cafés and bars. The nollie bookings prices below apply to the UK; Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have a separate CRM offer.

nollie makes a competing product. Read this the way you would read anything written by a rival.

What OpenTable publishes about UK fees

The OpenTable UK plans page lists Core and Pro as quote-only. It does not give a per-cover amount. Its rules distinguish diners found through its network from your own website and phone bookings, and charge only for seated diners. Its concise wording is: “restaurants only pay for seated diners.”

The same page lists premium SMS at £19 a month as an add-on. Its standard contract runs for one year with annual renewal and requires notice 30 days before renewal to stop that renewal. Confirm which terms and messaging features apply to the proposal you receive.

Those facts help you read a quote. They do not supply a missing subscription figure or tell you how much your venue will spend. Ask the salesperson to show an ordinary month, a quieter month and a busy month using your own booking records. Keep the assumptions beside each calculation so you can revisit them after a service or a seasonal change.

The price lines to separate

A single headline amount is a poor budgeting tool if it combines fixed software costs with a variable acquisition bill. Use a table like this when comparing proposals. “Ask the vendor” means the evidence does not settle that part of the price, rather than that a service is absent or free.

UK pricing: separate the subscription, usage and extras

Cost line	OpenTable UK	nollie UK bookings
Monthly subscription	Quote only	Core: £99, up to 500 total covers
Cover charges	Seated network diners; ask for your rate	No per-cover fees
SMS	Published premium add-on: £19 a month; confirm scope	Optional £39 a month; 500 SMS, then £0.08 each
Setup	Ask the vendor	Separate one-off £129
Commitment	Confirm the written proposal and renewal date	Read the UK terms and your order

OpenTable facts in this table come from its UK plans page. nollie's figures come from our UK pricing. The messaging offers are not assumed to include the same allowance or functions.

For a small group, ask for this breakdown for each venue and for the group agreement. Check whether the quoted service covers the locations and workflows you intend to use. Do not multiply a single-site illustration and treat the result as an enterprise proposal.

A worked example: 300 seated network covers

This is an illustrative upper-rate scenario using a reseller-reported figure, not an OpenTable quote. The Access Group's comparison, dated June 2026, reports up to £2.50 per cover through OpenTable's diner network. Access sells a competing booking system. That source date describes its comparison, not a promise about the rate you would be offered now.

Assume 300 seated network covers in one month at that upper rate:

300 × £2.50 = £750 in illustrative cover charges.

The total would also include an unknown OpenTable subscription and any other applicable charges. We cannot calculate a complete OpenTable invoice from this example. A lower agreed rate would change the result, as would a different number of seated network diners. This is neither a universal bill nor a savings guarantee.

Now consider nollie's Core plan at £99 a month, with no per-cover fees, assuming the venue's total monthly covers fit within the 500-cover cap. That total must include its direct bookings. Having 300 network covers alone does not establish that Core is suitable if the venue also serves enough direct covers to exceed the cap. Choose a plan using the whole month's volume, not one channel's count.

Budget the separate £129 setup fee as well. If the venue chooses SMS, add £39 a month for 500 messages and £0.08 for each additional message. Email campaigns are included. Check the full plan and add-on detail against your requirements before comparing totals.

What to put in your own forecast

Start with a recent completed month rather than a target month. Collect the number of diners, the source of the booking and whether they were seated. Keep cancellations and no-shows visible in your working sheet so someone checking the forecast can understand the difference between reservations made and guests served.

Then add a busier period. A Christmas service pattern can look different from a quiet midweek run, so test the proposal against both. Ask how billing corrections are handled when the recorded channel or attendance does not match what happened in the restaurant. Get the answer in writing alongside the commercial proposal.

Keep optional products separate until you have decided to use them. Ask about setup, messaging, payment-related charges, promotional services and integrations relevant to your operation. This is a list of questions to resolve, not a claim that either supplier charges for every item. Include staff time in your internal comparison without pretending it is a vendor fee.

A marketplace and your own booking page do different jobs

A marketplace can put a restaurant in front of people who are still deciding where to eat. An own-brand page gives people who have already reached your venue's website a place to book. Both journeys matter, but a lower software bill does not by itself replace discovery.

nollie's UK proposition is your own branded booking page with guest marketing built into the booking system. Bookings build the guest record, and campaigns can be measured in bookings, covers and revenue. That gives you a way to work on repeat visits alongside the channels you use to attract new guests.

When assessing acquisition, ask where incremental demand is needed. A new venue building awareness may make a different decision from an established neighbourhood restaurant with a strong direct audience. Look at the services and sessions that need more guests, then ask what each approach would contribute. Avoid assuming that every marketplace diner is incremental, or that every direct booking would have arrived without marketing effort.

When OpenTable is the right choice

OpenTable can be the right choice if access to its diner network is central to your acquisition plan and the written commercial proposal makes sense for your business. If you already use it, examine the contribution of the guests it brings before making a change. A fee can be worthwhile when the demand it supports has value to the venue.

Ask your team to demonstrate the reservation workflows you use during service on each shortlisted system. Test a changed party size, a busy sitting and a guest returning with an existing record. Evaluate support, reporting and the work required to move. These are practical selection criteria, not a claim that one supplier automatically performs them better.

Staying with a system that meets your needs can be sensible. So can choosing nollie when direct booking, a shared guest record and included email campaigns match your priorities. There is no need to invent a universal winner: the decision should fit your venue's demand, volume and way of working.

Before you sign or switch

Request a dated written proposal with the subscription, fee basis, optional extras, setup and renewal conditions clearly separated. Compare it with a forecast that your manager can explain using actual service records. Keep the source and date of any third-party comparison attached to it, rather than passing the number around as a current supplier quote.

If you want a wider shortlist, read our UK restaurant booking systems guide. If you decide to change systems, use the booking-system switching guide to plan the transition. During a switch to nollie, booking and guest history can be imported while the incumbent stays live for a parallel run.

Bring your monthly total covers and current channel breakdown to a demo. That is enough to start a useful conversation about the right nollie plan and whether the booking and marketing approach fits your operation.