How Liquid & Larder Replaced 2,500 Lost Covers Without Lifting a Finger

Liquid & Larder is an Australian hospitality group known for its novel, experience-driven concepts. With venues designed to awaken the five senses, from textured menu paper to bespoke restaurant scents, each meal is a sensory adventure. 

This level of detail and differentiation has guests clamouring for tables at Liquid & Larder’s four venues: Bistecca, The Gidley, The Rover and Alfie’s. However, high demand and limited availability inevitably mean some guests are turned away, hoping they’d get another chance to book.

This challenge led Liquid & Larder to search for a reservations system that could help maximise their limited availability while efficiently managing excess demand. They also wanted a customisable system that could adapt to their needs.

“The original decision to go to SevenRooms was to have a platform that worked for us rather than us having to manipulate our processes to fit another platform,” said Kim McDiarmid, partner at Liquid & Larder.

“Because all of our restaurants are in such high demand, we wanted something to fit in as many people and give as much availability online as possible at any given time.”

When SevenRooms’ Priority Alerts feature rolled out, Kim and his team realised it could effectively manage guest overflow. In fact, in just six months, this feature drove 962 reservations and 2,583 covers for Liquid & Larder’s venues.

The way it works is simple: If a guest’s preferred reservation date, time or party size isn’t available, they can set a Priority Alert that will notify them via text message or email if a table becomes available. This helps the team accommodate more guests without added stress because it’s an automated process — customers don’t have to email or call the restaurant. 

“As soon as a table cancellation occurs, we’re able to fill it without overloading the reservations team with queries. If we didn’t have Priority Alerts, we would probably get hundreds of emails every morning with table requests. So having that work for us, it’s hugely beneficial. It’s actually critical for our success at this stage.”

Since Priority Alerts are sent right to phones and inboxes, this extra communication makes customers feel valued, not like their request is lost in the ether. 

“Our customers just want to hear a response or know there’s action being taken so they can rest assured that if a cancellation happens, they will be notified,” Kim said. “Whereas, if a guest calls and tries to get a reservation, and there’s nothing available, that lead is often left unsure whether their inquiry will be fulfilled. But the communication around Priority Alerts just puts them at ease knowing they’ll be in line for a table should someone cancel.”

Not every night is a restaurant’s busiest, so SevenRooms worked with Kim and his team to create an optimised floor plan that reduces the impact of open tables. Now, Liquid & Larder can adjust table capacities and reservation inventory for each location based on low or high demand. 

The optimisation enables them to lower table minimums on a slow day, allowing smaller parties to book larger tables that would have otherwise gone empty. On busy days, they can tweak the floor plan to maximise every table’s capacity. 

Used in conjunction with Priority Alerts, guests get the chance to book a table they otherwise would not have had, creating same-day bookings for delighted guests and Liquid & Larder’s venues.

“The open floor plan has made a huge difference as well. Opening the floor plan to allow for more last-minute availability on those quieter days has driven a lot more traffic,” Kim said. “If there’s a larger table that’s only available for six, normally, the day of, we’ll reduce that six to a four, and then it will almost always be filled.”

With SevenRooms’ reservation system and Priority Alerts, Kim and his team can maximise each venue’s floor plan and inventory while keeping customers happy and coming back for more. 

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Interested in learning how SevenRooms can help you get more out of your restaurant’s inventory and floor plan? Reach out today to schedule a demo.