Restaurants are missing a trick by ignoring mobile as a way of attracting today’s diner, who increasingly locates, researches, books and reviews restaurants whilst on the move. So says online restaurant reservations service, Livebookings, based on research carried out among 300 UK restaurant websites which found that only 2.6 per cent of British restaurants have a website that is optimised to take advantage of mobile, even though, according to Google stats, 23 per cent of web browsing is now done on the mobile.

With 36 per cent of the UK population now owning smartphones, and PC searches decreasing by 15 per cent year-on-year, restaurants that don’t facilitate mobile reservations are missing out on a massive opportunity to fill tables, the company says. To address the gap, Livebookings has launched a mobile platform called Pocket Diner, which creates a mobile-optimised version of a restaurant’s existing website. 

Sites built on the Pocket Diner platform are fully integrated with Livebookings’ reservations and marketing platform, restaurant managers to access all bookings through the internet in one place. Other key features include a real-time content management system, which allows restaurant owners to manage and customise information such as menus, maps etc., on their site, and GPS technology to locate visitors and push details on the nearest restaurant or latest offers. 

Restaurant chains already using Pocket diner include Strada, Giraffe, Masala Zone and Café Rouge. “Pocket Diner is ideal for restaurants that understand the value of their online presence and want to optimise it to take advantage of the new generation of mobile web users,” notes Stephanie Rice, marketing coordinator at Giraffe.