Running a food business in Ireland

A Free Restaurant Booking System, and What Free Covers

Plenty of booking systems are "free" until the first busy weekend. Here is what a genuinely free plan should include, where the catches usually hide, and how to tell when it is time to pay for more.

How to Reduce No-Shows at Your Restaurant

No-shows are not one problem, so there is no single fix. Most are forgetting, some are carelessness, and a few are habit. Here is how to deal with each, starting with the cheapest.

How to Set Up a Walk-In Queue for Your Restaurant

A walk-in queue replaces a clipboard and a crowd in the doorway with a list on people’s own phones. Here is how to set one up, what to decide before the first busy night, and the mistakes to avoid.

How to Set Up Online Reservations for Your Restaurant

Online reservations are mostly decisions, not software: when you take bookings, how long a table is held, and what you ask for up front. Here is how to make those decisions and put bookings where diners already are.

The Floor, and the People Who Do Not Turn Up

A view of the room rather than a list of names, and a record of who actually turns up — so the decision about which bookings need a deposit is an informed one rather than a guess about a stranger.

A Waitlist: Sell the Table a Cancellation Frees Up

When a date is full, a waitlist takes the name instead of losing the customer. When somebody cancels, the table goes to the list automatically rather than sitting empty on your busiest night.

Take Bookings on Your Own Website and Instagram

A booking form that sits on your own website, and a link that works from an Instagram bio or a story. Same diary as every other booking, and no commission on a reservation.

Early Bird Offers: Fill the First Sitting

A perk attached to a quiet booking slot and badged on it, honoured at the table. No deposit, no ticket, no code — and the wording is frozen onto the booking so staff always see what was promised.

Gatherings: Private Hire and Large Group Bookings

Take enquiries for the bookings too big to just book — quote back, hold a deposit at 4.5%, split it across the group, and collect everyone's dietary requirements with one link.

Restaurant Reservations, Deposits and No-Show Protection

Take bookings from wherever a diner finds you, protect the covers you have taken with deposits and card holds, and pay 0% on every deposit. Free up to 75 bookings a month.

Mosey Queue: Manage Walk-Ins Without a Booking System

A free digital waitlist for the door. Guests join from their phone with no app and no account, get a message when the table is ready, and stop crowding your entrance.

Boost Irish Restaurant Bookings for Christmas, Valentine’s & Special Occasions with Mosey

Learn how Irish restaurants use Mosey to increase bookings for Christmas 2025, Valentine’s Day, January quiet periods, communion season, and Mother’s Day. Promote festive menus, family packages, and early bird deals effectively.

Grow Your Irish Restaurant Business in 2025: Marketing, Bookings & Customer Loyalty with Mosey

Discover how Irish restaurants and cafés increase footfall, boost revenue, manage multiple locations, and build loyal customers in 2025. Mosey offers bookings, promotions, events, analytics, and direct marketing to help food businesses thrive across Dublin, Cork, Galway, and beyond.

Restaurant Technology & Market Insights Ireland 2025: Boost Bookings, Data, and Revenue with Mosey

Discover how Irish restaurants and cafés leverage technology, market insights, and automation to increase bookings, manage menus, integrate POS systems, and stay GDPR compliant in 2025. Mosey helps food businesses save costs, attract customers, and reduce failure risks.

How to Run Restaurant Promotions That Actually Work

Most restaurant promotions discount a meal somebody was going to buy anyway. The ones that work move demand into a quiet hour, sell a limited number, and bring people back at full price. Here is how to run those.

Run Promotions: Sell the Quiet Table Before It Goes Cold

A promotion is an offer customers buy in advance rather than one they turn up hoping for. Cap how many you sell, choose which days they are valid, and take the money before anybody sits down.

Sell Event Tickets: Fill the Night Before It Happens

Supper clubs, tastings, quiz nights and launches. Sell tickets at 4%, take the money before the night rather than after it, run a waitlist when you sell out, and check people in at the door in a second.

Sell Gift Vouchers: Money Now, Custom Later

Customers buy a voucher on their phone and redeem it in person, or send it to somebody else as a gift. You are paid when they buy, not when they redeem, and you can add bonus credit to push the amount up.

Deal Hours: Put a Price on Your Quiet Period

A discount that only exists between three and five on a Tuesday, on the items you choose, on the channels you choose. It switches itself on and off.

Mosey Food Stays: Food-Led Breaks for Hotels

Reach food lovers planning a trip, with a flat subscription from €19.99 a month. No commission, no per-booking fee, and guests book on your own site at your own rates.

Grow Revenue: Vouchers, Promotions, Events and Memberships

Bring money in before the meal and reasons to come back after it — gift vouchers, promotions, Deal Hours, ticketed events, gatherings and recurring memberships, from 4.5% commission.

Food Trails: Bring a Street of Venues Its Own Footfall

Several venues, one ticket, one afternoon. A trail sends customers to each stop in turn and settles the money automatically, at 8% commission.

Boost Irish Restaurant Sales: Early Bird, Student & Weekend Specials with Mosey

Learn how Irish restaurants use Mosey to promote early bird deals, student discounts, weekend specials, and local partnerships. Reach hungry customers ready to book tonight.

Sell Restaurant Event Tickets & Promote Experiences in Ireland with Mosey

Learn how Irish restaurants use Mosey to sell event tickets, manage wine tastings, chef’s tables, pop-ups, Christmas parties, and recurring events. Boost bookings and revenue today.

An Alternative to Eventbrite for Irish Food Events

General ticketing platforms sell everything from concerts to conferences. For a supper club, tasting or cookery class, the fees and the audience both matter. Here is how to compare them, and what selling on a food-first platform looks like.

How to Start a Loyalty Scheme for Your Café

A good café loyalty scheme is simple, reachable and invisible at the counter. Here is how to design one — what to reward, how quickly, and why the paper stamp card is the weakest version.

Coalitions: One Membership, Several Independent Venues

Several independent venues sharing one membership, with the money settled based on where it was actually used. A card for one café is a card nobody carries; a card for eight is one somebody uses weekly.

Run a Membership: Turn Regulars Into Subscribers

Charge monthly or annually for perks, credit and member-only nights. It turns your best customers into predictable revenue and gives them a reason to choose you when they are deciding between three places.

Run a Loyalty Programme, Free

Reward spend or visits, keep your own customer data, and pay nothing to run it. Loyalty is free on every tier, with 1% commission on rewarded spend up to €150.00 a month and 0.4% after that.

Mosey Tap: Everything a Customer Is Owed, on One Screen

A customer taps a tag on your counter, or reads out a six-digit code, and everything they are owed from you opens on one screen. Works alongside whatever till you already have, and there is no separate charge for it.

Take Card Payments Without a Card Terminal

A card terminal is one more device to rent, charge and pay fees on. For customers who use Mosey, the phone in their pocket can do the same job — and record their loyalty at the same time. Here is how it works, and where you still need a terminal.

Your Data: Who Can See It, and Who It Belongs To

Your customer relationships are yours, card details never touch Mosey, there are no third-party analytics trackers anywhere in the product, and each member of your team sees only what their role allows.

Refunds: What You Decide, and What the Law Decides

Mosey does not decide refunds — that contract is between you and your customer. What follows is the line between the refunds you decide and the small set the law decides, and why dated bookings sit outside it.

Getting Paid: Your Money Goes to Your Account

Mosey never holds your money. Every payment goes to your own Stripe account and pays out to your bank on your own schedule, with commission taken at the point of sale rather than invoiced later.

Mosey Pricing: What Everything Costs

Every rate in one place. Free to list, commission only when you earn, and paid plans only for reservations and Food Stays. All figures exclude VAT.

Take Payments In Store with Mosey Pay at 1.5%

Let customers pay their bill from their phone at 1.5% commission, with no booking fee, tips kept in full, and loyalty and membership benefits applied automatically at the counter.

The Mosey Till: Take the Order, Take the Money, Close the Day

A till that runs in a browser tab on hardware you already own. Lines and modifiers, tables and split bills, shifts with a cash count and a Z report at the end of the night — and it keeps selling when the broadband goes.

Lower Fees, Instant Payments: Mosey Boosts Irish Restaurant Revenue

Discover how Mosey helps Irish restaurants save on commissions, get paid instantly, and increase per-customer revenue with upselling tools. Transparent fees, no hidden costs.

Restaurant Costs, Profit Margins & Marketing Ireland 2025: Save Money with Mosey

Learn how Irish restaurants reduce marketing, POS, and operating costs in 2025. Mosey’s all-in-one platform helps restaurants save €3,600+ annually, capture direct bookings, and increase profit margins without expensive systems or delivery app fees.

What Is "Pay Now, Redeem Later," an Alternative to Bank Loans For Irish Restaurants, Cafes & Food Trucks

Explore "Pay Now, Redeem Later" as an alternative to bank loans for Irish restaurants. Discover how "Pay Now, Redeem Later" transforms cash flow.

Restaurant Marketing Ideas That Cost Little or Nothing

The best restaurant marketing is rarely an advert. It is being easy to find, easy to choose and easy to come back to. Here are ideas that cost little or nothing, in roughly the order they pay off.

Ways to Increase Footfall at a Café or Restaurant

Footfall is not one problem. People have to find you, have a reason to come in now, and have a reason to come back. Here are practical ways to work on each, most of which cost little or nothing.

Sponsored Posts and Push Campaigns: Reaching People Directly

Two ways to reach people directly: a sponsored post that appears in the feed near you, and a push campaign to customers who agreed to hear from you. Both show the audience before you pay.

Replying to Ratings: The Reply Is for Everybody Else

You are not writing to the person who complained. You are writing to the next hundred people deciding whether to eat with you, and they are reading how you handle being criticised.

Boost: Put Your Venue in Front of People Nearby

Paid reach inside Mosey. Put your venue, a dish, an event, an offer or a food trail in front of people nearby, with the estimated reach shown before you pay and a budget you set yourself.

Your Customer List: Find Who Stopped Coming, and Ask Them Back

Every venue loses regulars quietly. Mosey builds the list from your own counter, orders and bookings, shows you who has gone missing, and lets you send them a reason to come back — to the people who agreed to hear from you.

Automations: The Messages You Never Get Round To Sending

Eight ready-made customer messages that send themselves — win a lapsed regular back, thank someone after an order, nudge a loyalty card one visit short. You set the rule once and approve the ones you want to see first.

One Inbox for Every Customer Conversation

Booking messages, order questions, private hire enquiries and job applicants in one place, with saved replies and a needs-reply filter so nothing sits unanswered.

Get Discovered: How Customers Find Your Place on Mosey

Ratings, the Gold mark, place hubs, dish discovery, food trails and paid outreach — the ways a customer who has never heard of you ends up at your table.

How Your Venue Earns Mosey Gold

The one mark on Mosey that cannot be bought at any price. Here is exactly how it is calculated, what is excluded, and why we will not sell it to you.

Work with Food Creators and Influencers

Book food creators for your venue with clear deliverables and escrow-protected payment, at 2.5% commission — no negotiation by DM and no paying up front and hoping.

Automating Your Food Business Marketing: Using App Notifications to Fill Slow Seats in Ireland

Boost your food business with app notifications! Discover how notifications can fill empty seats in Ireland's restaurants, saving time and money.

Fill Empty Tables Fast: Mosey for Irish Restaurants & Food Businesses

Increase restaurant bookings and revenue in Ireland with Mosey. Promote last-minute availability, flash deals, and events in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and beyond. Start free today.

How Do I Get More Customers for My Restaurant in Ireland?

Discover how to attract more customers to your restaurant in Ireland. Learn proven strategies to increase your customer base and boost business.

How Do I Increase Revenue at My Café in Ireland?

Boost your café's revenue in Ireland with smart strategies. Learn how to maximise revenue by bundling, extending hours, and offering deals.

Social Proof Ratings For Restaurants, Cafes & Food Trucks: Why User Ratings are More Valuable Than Ads in Ireland

Discover why 'Rating' is key for Irish restaurants, cafes, and food trucks. Learn how user ratings outshine ads in driving customer trust and visits.

Why Social Media Stopped Working for Food Businesses (And What You Can Do About It)

Discover why social media stopped working for food businesses and learn strategies to overcome declining engagement. Social media isn't what it used to be.

Rota, Timesheets and Leave: The Admin Nobody Wants

Build the rota once, have every member of staff see their own shifts, track the hours actually worked, and handle leave requests without a group chat. It is the admin nobody enjoys, in the place you already are.

Sell Courses: Teach What You Already Know

Sell cookery classes, coffee training, wine tastings or hospitality qualifications — online, in person or both. Bookings, payment and certificates are handled, and you can train your own staff on the same thing.

Hiring, Staff and Training for Hospitality Businesses

Post roles for free, hire specialists by the shift from 33 contractor categories, onboard staff with contracts and documents, and train them with courses — all from the same dashboard.

Restaurant Software for a Small Independent Business

A small independent does not need an enterprise stack. It needs a handful of things that work together, cost little in a quiet month, and do not need a manager to run. Here is how to choose them.

Running Several Venues: One Account, Separate Rooms

One account, several venues. Each site has its own menu, hours and team, staff see only where they work, and you get the comparison between them that a single-venue view cannot give you.

Pop-Ups, Trucks and Markets: Be Findable Where You Actually Are

A food truck is a schedule, not an address. Tell people where you will be and when, appear on the map while you are actually there, and take orders and payments without a permanent site.

Claim Your Place: You Are Probably Already Listed

There are over twelve thousand venues on Mosey and most of them have not been claimed by anybody. If yours is one of them, claiming it is free, takes a few minutes, and puts you in control of what people see.

Analytics and Owning Your Customer Data

Who your regulars are, what they order, when your quiet hours actually are, and what every fee cost you — with the customer relationship staying yours.

Menus: Scan Yours In Minutes and Make Every Dish Findable

Photograph your existing menu and let Mosey read it, then let every dish be rated, photographed and found on its own. Specials that expire themselves, and voice ordering when you want it.

Refer a Venue and Earn €100.00

Recommend Mosey to another food business: they get €75.00 of credit, you get €100.00 once they are properly up and running — or €119.99 off your own reservations plan instead.

Starting a Food Service Business in Ireland: Your Complete Guide to Success

An Alternative to Groupon for Irish Restaurants

Deal sites can fill a room, but the discount and the platform’s share together often leave a restaurant serving meals at a loss. Here is how to compare them honestly, and what a promotion looks like when the maths works.

An Alternative to OpenTable for Irish Restaurants

International booking systems often charge by the cover, so the bill grows as you get busier. Here is how to compare them fairly with a flat-priced, Irish-built alternative that also puts your tables in front of diners.