Restaurant Booking System: Take Table Bookings Online
How restaurants in Malta and Gozo take table reservations online: what a booking system does, deposits and no-shows, Google and Instagram bookings, and GDPR.
Systems & AI · Restaurants
WhatsApp chatbot for restaurants.
Book tables while the kitchen is busy.
Malta Digital builds a WhatsApp chatbot for Malta businesses. Restaurants need one most, because guests message at 7pm on a Friday, right when every hand is on the pass. This guide shows what a restaurant chatbot should answer, what it must hand to a person, the rules that apply in Malta, what it costs to run, and a free planner for your own numbers.
4.02 milliontourists visited Malta in 2025 (NSO)
Short answer
A WhatsApp chatbot for a restaurant answers guests on your WhatsApp number in seconds. It books tables into your booking system, shares hours, menus and directions, sends the allergen sheet, and passes anything tricky to a person: serious allergies, groups, events and complaints. It must say it is automated, and it can only message guests first with approved templates. Meta charges per message, and each business number gets 1,000 free service messages a month. Malta Digital builds these chatbots per project, connected to your booking system.
Key takeaways
- What is a WhatsApp chatbot for restaurants? An automated assistant on your restaurant’s WhatsApp number. It answers questions about hours, menus and allergens, books tables into your booking system, sends confirmations and reminders, and hands tricky chats to a person.
- Can a WhatsApp chatbot take table bookings? Yes, if it is connected to your booking system. It offers real free times, writes the booking with the guest’s details and sends a confirmation, so it cannot double-book a table.
- Can a chatbot answer allergen questions? It can send your allergen sheet and list which dishes contain which of the 14 allergens. It should never tell a guest with a serious allergy that a dish is safe. Those chats go to a person.
The short version
What a restaurant chatbot actually does.
Most restaurant chats are the same five questions. Are you open on Monday? Do you have a table for four tonight? Can I see the menu? Is the pasta gluten-free? Where do I park? A chatbot answers the easy ones at once and books the table straight into your booking system, so it never promises a table you do not have.
The WhatsApp Business app can only send a greeting, an away message and quick replies that a person picks. A chatbot runs on the WhatsApp Business Platform, the official channel for software. It asks the next question, checks free tables, writes the booking and sends a confirmation. When it reaches something it should not decide, it hands the chat to a person with everything already collected.
The goal is not to replace your host. It is to stop the Friday rush from leaving twenty messages unread until midnight, when the guests have already booked somewhere else.
Malta data
Busy island, many languages, few chatbots.
Malta welcomed 4,022,310 inbound tourists in 2025, 12.9% more than in 2024, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO). In December 2025 alone, British, Italian and Polish residents made up 49.0% of tourists. Many of them message in their own language, often from their hotel, and often late.
The number of food and drink businesses keeps growing too. Eurostat counts 2,647 restaurants, cafés, bars and caterers in Malta in 2024, up from 2,391 in 2021, with 17,020 people working in them. Yet only 10.3% of Malta’s accommodation and food firms with 10 or more staff used any AI in 2025, against 23.9% of hotels. Restaurants are behind the hotels next door, which makes a fast, polite WhatsApp reply a real edge.
What it answers
What the chatbot handles, and what goes to a person.
Decide this before anyone writes a single reply. A good restaurant chatbot is strict about its limits. It answers from your own information only, and it never makes up a dish, a price or an allergen.
| Guest asks about | The chatbot does | A person takes over when |
|---|---|---|
| A table | Offers free times from your booking system, books and confirms | The group is above your limit or wants a private area |
| Opening hours and holidays | Answers from your hours, including public holidays | Never, if your hours are kept up to date |
| The menu and prices | Sends the current menu and answers from it | A dish or price is not on the menu |
| Allergens and diets | Sends the allergen sheet and says which dishes list which allergens | The guest mentions a serious allergy or asks if a dish is safe |
| Parking and directions | Sends the map pin and parking notes | Rarely |
| Events and big groups | Collects date, numbers, budget and menu wishes | Always, to agree the menu and deposit |
| A complaint | Thanks the guest and asks for details | Always, straight away, to the manager |
Allergens need the most care. The chatbot can send your allergen sheet and say which dishes contain which of the 14 allergens, because that comes from your kitchen. It must not tell a guest with a serious allergy that a dish is safe. That chat goes to a person, every time.
Twenty unread WhatsApps every Friday night?
Apply now and tell us how guests book today. We reply with what the chatbot would answer, what it would hand to your staff and what it would cost.
Free tool
Work out your chats, hours and message costs.
Put in how many WhatsApp chats you get and how long each takes. The planner works out the staff hours a month, how many a chatbot could free, how many booking requests arrive after hours or during service, what the bookings you keep could be worth, and whether you pass Meta’s 1,000 free service messages. Nothing you type leaves this page.
Restaurant chat planner
Starting numbers match the worked example below. Replace them with yours.
Your WhatsApp month
Your result appears here as you type.
How it works
A booking on WhatsApp, step by step.
- The guest writes. “Table for 4 tonight?” The chatbot replies in their language and says it is an automated assistant, with a person available.
- It asks what it needs. Date, time, number of guests, name, and any note such as a high chair or a birthday.
- It checks real tables. It reads free times from your booking system and offers two or three, so it never double-books.
- It books and confirms. The booking goes into the system with the guest’s number, and a confirmation goes out at once.
- It reminds. A reminder the day before, sent as an approved template, lets the guest confirm or cancel with one tap, so the table can go to someone else.
- It hands over. Groups above your limit, serious allergies, complaints and anything unclear go to a person, with the whole chat and the details already collected.
If your tables live on paper today, start with a restaurant booking system. A chatbot needs a live list of free tables to book against. Reminders on their own already cut no-shows; our no-show cost calculator shows what they cost you now.
The rules
The rules that apply in Malta.
Tell guests it is automated. Article 50 of the EU AI Act says people who talk to an AI system must be told so, unless it is already obvious. One line in the first reply does it, plus the option to reach a person. Our guide to GDPR and AI chatbots shows a good first message line by line.
The 24-hour window. When a guest messages you, a 24-hour customer service window opens and the chatbot can reply freely. Outside it, you can only write first with an approved template, such as a booking reminder, and only to guests who agreed to hear from you, as the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy requires.
Offers need consent. Sending “two-for-one on Tuesday” to past guests is direct marketing. Under Malta’s S.L. 586.01 and the GDPR you need the guest’s clear agreement first, and an easy way to stop. A box that is not pre-ticked, at booking time, is the simple way. Our restaurant CRM guide covers guest lists and consent.
Allergen information must be available. For food that is not prepacked, Article 44 of EU Regulation 1169/2011 says guests must be able to get allergen information, and Annex II lists the 14 allergens. The chatbot can share it, but your kitchen owns it, so keep one up-to-date allergen sheet that the chatbot reads from.
Meta allows business assistants, not general ones. Since 15 January 2026, general-purpose AI assistants are restricted on the WhatsApp Business Platform. A restaurant chatbot that answers about your restaurant and books your tables is the kind of use Meta still allows.
Costs and example
What it costs to run, with an example.
Meta charges per delivered message, not per chat, and guests messaging you cost nothing. Replies inside the 24-hour window are service messages. Since 1 October 2026 Meta charges for them again, but every business number gets 1,000 free service messages a month. Reminders and confirmations are utility templates, charged at the rate for the guest’s country. Malta numbers are in Meta’s “Other” market, while the UK, Italy, Germany, France and Poland each have their own rates. A guest who taps a Facebook or Instagram ad that opens WhatsApp opens a free window of up to 7 days.
Here is an example restaurant, not a client: a 60-cover trattoria in Valletta that gets 150 WhatsApp chats a week. These are the planner’s starting numbers.
| Item | A month | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp chats | 650 | 150 a week × 52 ÷ 12 |
| Staff time on chats now | 43 hours | 650 chats × 4 minutes |
| Hours the chatbot frees | 26 hours | 60% of chats answered without a person |
| Booking requests after hours or in service | 91 | 35% of chats arrive then, 40% of those are bookings |
| Bookings saved | 18, worth about €1,456 | 20% of those were lost before, at €80 a booking |
| Service messages sent | 2,600 | 4 replies a chat; the first 1,000 a month are free |
At 2,600 replies a month, the restaurant passes the 1,000 free service messages and pays Meta’s rate on about 1,600. Our guide to WhatsApp chatbot cost explains the rates and has an estimator you can fill in with live prices.
Your options
Quick replies, a ready-made bot or one connected system?
The free WhatsApp Business app. Fine for a small café: a greeting, an away message, a few saved replies and a link to the menu. A person still answers everything else.
A ready-made restaurant chatbot. Many tools read your menu and take booking requests. They suit a single restaurant whose booking tool they connect to. Check where guest data is stored, who can switch the bot off, and whether a person can take over mid-chat.
A chatbot connected to your own system. This fits groups with several outlets, restaurants that take deposits for big tables, or places that want bookings, guest notes and consent in one record. We build it on the official platform, connected to your booking system or CRM, with a clear handover to staff. If guests also order takeaway, link the chat to your online ordering system instead of taking orders by hand.
Step by step
Launch it in four weeks.
- Week 1: collect the answers. Export a month of WhatsApp chats and sort them into bookings, menu, allergens, directions, groups and complaints. Write the approved answer for each, and the rule for when a person takes over.
- Week 2: connect the tables. Link the chatbot to your booking system, set your largest group size, and write the confirmation and reminder templates for Meta to approve.
- Week 3: test with staff. Your team books, cancels and asks awkward allergen questions in English, Maltese and Italian. Fix every wrong answer.
- Week 4: go live and watch. Read every chat for the first two weeks. Track three numbers: replies within one minute, bookings made in chat, and chats handed to a person.
Proof
A booking in three taps.
This is our scripted demo for a sample restaurant. The guest asks for a table, picks the number of people, chooses one of two free times on Friday and gets a confirmation with a reminder the day before. The first line says it is automated and that a person can take over. A live version reads free tables from your booking system instead of a script, and passes groups, allergies and complaints to your staff.
A few straight answers
What you might be wondering.
What is a WhatsApp chatbot for restaurants?
An automated assistant on your restaurant’s WhatsApp number. It answers questions about hours, menus and allergens, books tables into your booking system, sends confirmations and reminders, and hands tricky chats to a person.
Can a WhatsApp chatbot take table bookings?
Yes, if it is connected to your booking system. It offers real free times, writes the booking with the guest’s details and sends a confirmation, so it cannot double-book a table.
Can a chatbot answer allergen questions?
It can send your allergen sheet and list which dishes contain which of the 14 allergens. It should never tell a guest with a serious allergy that a dish is safe. Those chats go to a person.
Do guests have to be told it is a chatbot?
Yes. Article 50 of the EU AI Act says people talking to an AI system must be told, unless it is obvious. One line in the first reply covers it, with a way to reach a person.
How much does WhatsApp charge a restaurant?
Meta charges per delivered message. Guest messages are free, each business number gets 1,000 free service replies a month, and templates such as reminders are charged at the rate for the guest’s country.
Can the chatbot reply in Italian or Maltese?
Yes. Modern chatbots reply in the guest’s language. Approve the answers for each language you serve, and send harder Maltese or anything unclear to a person.
How much does a restaurant WhatsApp chatbot cost to build?
Malta Digital prices each chatbot per project after a short call. When it is part of a custom booking system or CRM, those systems start from €7,500, and you own the code.
Sources
Where these facts come from.
- NSO Malta: Inbound Tourism, December 2025 (NR 020/2026)
- Eurostat sbs_ovw_act: enterprises and persons employed by activity (NACE I56 and N77.11, Malta)
- Eurostat isoc_eb_ain2: use of artificial intelligence by activity (firms with 10 or more staff, 2025)
- Eurostat isoc_eb_iipn2: ERP and CRM use by activity (firms with 10 or more staff, 2025)
- Meta for Developers: Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (per-message pricing, 1,000 free service messages, free entry point window)
- WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy (opt-in, human escalation)
- AI Act Service Desk: Article 50, transparency for AI systems that talk to people
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers, Article 44 and Annex II (EUR-Lex)
- Laws of Malta: S.L. 586.01, Processing of Personal Data (Electronic Communications Sector) Regulations
- GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (EUR-Lex)
Keep reading
Related guides.
Restaurant CRM in Malta: Turn Guests into Regulars
What a restaurant CRM in Malta should hold, the guest groups that bring people back, the email and WhatsApp consent rules, and a free win-back calculator.
WhatsApp Chatbot Cost Malta 2026: Setup & Fees
WhatsApp chatbot cost in Malta: setup from €7,500, Meta per-message fees for market Other (+356), running costs, plus a monthly live-rate estimator.
A useful first step
Apply for a restaurant chatbot
Tell us how many WhatsApp chats you get, how guests book today and which booking system you use. We reply with what the chatbot would answer, what it would hand to your staff and what it would cost.
Step 1 of 3
Apply now for a business system
A few quick questions, about a minute. We usually reply within 2–3 hours.