The restaurant booking glossary
The floor's vocabulary, explained in two sentences and with Spanish market figures: what a no-show is and what it costs you, how your own booking engine differs from a portal that charges per diner, and why a deposit is the strongest lever against empty tables. Read it to decide better, and to stop paying for bookings that are already yours.
The terms that cost you money, in two sentences
These are the terms you actually use on the floor and at the door: the ones that show up in a booking, in a contract with a portal, or in the maitre d' conversation on a Friday at nine. Each definition starts with the term itself, reads on its own and gets straight to the point.
We write it ourselves, the team building Qomanda at Alture (Granada), working every week with restaurants across Granada and Andalusia. Whenever there's a figure —a commission, the cost of a no-show, a sector rate— it comes with its source linked. And when a term hits your bottom line directly, we tell you how Qomanda solves it.
A booking engine and a portal are not the same thing
The term that causes the most confusion is “commission”, and it almost always comes from mixing up two different things. A booking engine is the system that manages your availability and confirms tables on your own website. A portal or marketplace is, on top of that, a directory that lists you to its users and charges you on every booking that comes through it: TheFork's published Spanish rate is 0.95% + €0.50 per booking, plus a monthly plan fee.
The practical difference comes down to two things: whose customer it is, and what you pay when business is good. With your own engine, the bookings and the data are yours and the cost doesn't move however full you get. Qomanda is exactly that: your engine embedded on your website in 12 auto-detected languages, with no per-diner and no per-booking commission, for €49/month. Try it free for 30 days, no card.
The terms, made clear.
- No-show
- A no-show is a booking that never turns up and never cancels: the table stays blocked, no one else can take it, and the restaurant loses that revenue. In Spain the average no-show rate was 3.3% in 2025, down from 3.6% in 2024, and re-confirmations and card guarantees are the levers that most help cut it. Qomanda covers both: reminders, card deposits and your real rate in the analytics.
- Overbooking
- Overbooking means accepting more bookings than the dining room can seat, betting that a share of guests won't show. It's a risky bet: if more people turn up than expected you get waits, tables turned away at the door and bad reviews. It pays more to fine-tune real capacities and seatings —the ones you configure in Qomanda— and protect your riskiest bookings with a deposit.
- Seating capacity (aforo)
- Seating capacity (aforo) is the maximum number of guests a restaurant can seat at once, capped by available tables, regulations and what the kitchen and floor can handle. Managing it per seating prevents overwhelming the pass and lets tables turn without creating queues. In Qomanda you set it per seating and the engine stops offering tables the moment you hit it.
- Seating / turn (turno)
- A seating, or turn (turno), is each time slot in which the restaurant seats a wave of guests; for example a first lunch seating at 1:30pm and a second at 3:00pm. Defining seatings and their average length tells you how many times a table can turn and how many bookings fit without swamping the kitchen. In Qomanda you define them and the engine works out which slots to offer.
- Waitlist
- A waitlist is the ordered queue of guests who want a table when there's no availability, whether they book online or arrive as walk-ins. Run well, a gap from a last-minute cancellation isn't lost: it gets filled. Qomanda includes the waitlist and its notifications inside the €49/month, with no separate module.
- Booking engine
- A booking engine is the system that manages availability and confirms bookings in real time, usually embedded in the restaurant's own website so guests book without calling. Unlike a portal, the bookings and the customer data belong to the restaurant. Qomanda's embeds on your site in 12 auto-detected languages and costs €49/month, with no per-diner commission.
- Booking deposit (guarantee)
- A booking deposit or guarantee is an amount the restaurant holds or charges to the guest's card when they book, deducted from the bill or refunded if they turn up, and forfeited only on a no-show. It's the most effective measure against no-shows, and its use is growing: in Spain, 21% of restaurants already required a card guarantee in 2025, double the 2023 figure. In Qomanda you switch it on only for the bookings you choose, and it's charged on the restaurant's own Stripe account.
- Per-cover commission
- A per-cover commission is the fee some booking portals charge the restaurant for each GUEST seated through their platform —not per booking— so a table of six pays six times. It's a variable cost: it climbs the fuller you are. Don't confuse it with a per-booking commission, charged once per reservation, or with fixed plan fees and payment-gateway charges, which are separate. Qomanda charges neither per diner nor per booking: just a flat €49/month.
- Walk-in
- A walk-in is a guest who arrives without a booking and asks for a table on the spot. Slotting them into the free gaps without jeopardising confirmed bookings is what fills the room in off-peak hours with no queues. In Qomanda you seat them on the same live floor plan, from your phone, mid-service.
- Cover
- A cover is each guest seated at a table; it's the unit used to measure occupancy, average spend and, on some portals, commission. It isn't the same as a booking: a single booking of a table for four equals four covers, and on a portal it's paid for four times. Qomanda charges nothing per cover: €49/month, however full you get.
- Table turnover
- Table turnover is the number of times the same table is occupied within one service. If a two-top is used at 8:30pm and again at 10:30pm, it has turned twice. It's the most direct lever for billing more without adding tables. In Qomanda you tune it with seatings and average dining duration until the table turns once more without swamping the kitchen.
- Average dining duration
- Average dining duration is the time you estimate a party will occupy a table, from being seated to the table being released. It's the figure the booking engine uses to know when it can offer that table again: too short and you risk overlaps, too long and you leave gaps you could have sold. In Qomanda you set it and the engine respects it when offering the next slot.
- Direct booking
- A direct booking is one that comes through your own channels —your website, your phone, your Instagram— rather than an intermediary portal. The upside is twofold: you pay no commission on it, and the guest ends up in your database. Every booking that comes through Qomanda is direct, commission-free, with the guest's record in your CRM.
- Booking marketplace
- A booking marketplace is a portal with its own audience —like TheFork— that shows restaurants to users browsing it and charges the restaurant a commission for each diner arriving through it. It can bring you customers who didn't know you, but the cost grows with your volume and the customer relationship belongs to the portal. With your own engine like Qomanda's you pay a flat €49 and the diner stays in your CRM.
- Booking widget
- A booking widget is the form embedded in a restaurant's website so guests can book without leaving the page, usually with one line of code (an iframe). It's the piece that turns your website into a booking channel of its own rather than a shop window with a phone number. Qomanda's runs in 12 auto-detected languages: you paste it in and the bookings land in your system.
- KDS (kitchen display system)
- A KDS, or kitchen display system, is the screen where the kitchen sees orders in progress and marks the state of each dish: pending, preparing, ready, served. It replaces the paper ticket rail and lets the floor know where each table stands without walking in to ask. Comandas, Qomanda's optional module, brings its KDS wired to the same floor plan where you seat the table.
- QR self-ordering
- QR self-ordering is the system where the guest scans a code on their table, sees the menu on their phone and places the order themselves. It coexists with waiter ordering, and you can usually choose whether those orders go straight to the kitchen or are approved by floor staff first. In Comandas, Qomanda's add-on, every table can have its own QR and that call is yours.
- Cover / diner
- A diner (or cover) is each person seated to eat, not each booking. The distinction matters because many costs in the industry are calculated per diner: a booking for six counts as six covers and, in per-cover commission models, is paid for six times. In Qomanda you pay €49/month, whoever sits down.
- Occupancy
- Occupancy is the percentage of your capacity you actually fill in a service, measurable by covers or by tables. It's the KPI that tells you whether the problem is demand —nobody's coming— or fit —people come but the tables don't line up— and each is fixed differently. Qomanda's analytics give you occupancy, booking source and no-shows on the same screen.
- Cancellation policy
- A cancellation policy is the set of rules you define about how late a booking can be cancelled without consequences and what happens if nobody warns you. It's the foundation any deposit rests on: communicate it before booking and back it with the card charge Qomanda makes on your own restaurant's Stripe account.
Average no-show rate in Spain in 2025 (down from 3.6% in 2024)
Revenue lost with every table that fails to show (€27/diner x 2.9 guests)
Restaurants in Spain already requiring a card guarantee as a deposit in 2025 (double the 2023 figure)
Qomanda's flat price per restaurant, with no per-diner or per-booking commission
The market figures quoted (no-show rate, average spend per diner, annual loss and use of guarantees) are Spanish industry estimates published by TheFork and the trade press in 2025-2026, linked to their sources; they are not Qomanda data and vary from restaurant to restaurant. Third-party rates come from their public pricing and may change. The brands mentioned belong to their owners; we are not affiliated.
Before you make the move.
What restaurants thinking about switching usually ask us. No fine print.
A booking engine manages availability and confirms tables on the restaurant's own website, with no per-diner charge. A portal like TheFork adds a marketplace that lists your restaurant to its users and charges on every booking that comes through it (in Spain, its published rate is 0.95% + €0.50 per booking plus a monthly plan fee). Qomanda is your own engine: a flat €49/month, no per-diner and no per-booking commission, and the guest's record stays in your database.
Fill your room.We handle the rest.
We move your guests and your floor plan across with you, and stay through the launch. You run the service; the software is on us.
€49/mo · no fees · 30 days free · cancel anytime