The Italian Restaurant Owner's Playbook

If you’re an international owner running a restaurant in Italy and looking at booking systems in 2026, you’re navigating a market that doesn’t behave the way it does in the US, the UK, or most other Western European countries. The dominant North American systems — OpenTable, Resy, SevenRooms — have limited presence and limited fit […]

For international restaurant owners operating in Italy, Google reviews tend to sit in an uncomfortable spot on the priority list — important enough to acknowledge, not urgent enough to systematically address. There’s often a residual belief that reviews matter, but they matter roughly the same way they did in your home market, and roughly as […]

For international restaurant owners running a place in Italy, asking for reviews sits in an awkward cultural middle ground. The scripts you brought with you from another market — “If you enjoyed your meal tonight, we’d really appreciate a Google review!” — feel natural in the US, the UK, or Australia. In Italy, they land […]

If you’re running a restaurant in Italy as an international or expat owner, you already know the basics work differently here. The customer base splits into two completely separate audiences: the local Italian diners — who know the neighbourhood, the cuisine, and probably your competitors — and the tourists, who know absolutely nothing about anywhere, […]

Running a restaurant in Italy is a privilege and a challenge in equal measure. The food culture is extraordinary, the competition is fierce, and the customers — both locals and the millions of tourists who visit each year — are increasingly making their dining decisions through one single tool: Google Maps. 92% of local searches […]

If you're evaluating booking platforms for your restaurant, you'll encounter two fundamentally different pricing models: commission-based and flat-fee. At face value, both seem reasonable. But the long-term cost difference between them...

If you run a restaurant in Italy, you’re probably familiar with the standard pitch from booking platforms: sign up, list your tables, and watch the reservations roll in. Easy, right? But here’s what they don’t put in bold on the pricing page — every single booking comes with a cost attached to it. That cost […]