Who owns your restaurant's guest data?

Every reservation gives you a name, a phone number and a reason the guest chose you. Where that information ends up decides whether you can bring the guest back.

Where guest data usually lives

• The booking platform. Guests who book through a marketplace may be in the platform's system first and yours second.
• The POS. It knows what was ordered, and often who paid, but rarely holds preferences or consent.
• Your team. The best details, like allergies, birthdays and favorite tables, often sit in notebooks and memory.

What ownership means in practice

Ownership is less about a legal label and more about what you can do. Can you export every guest in a standard file? Can you contact guests directly? Is their permission to be contacted recorded next to their profile? If the answer to any of these is no, you are renting access to your own guests.

Five questions to ask any vendor

1. Can I export my full guest list, with visit history, whenever I want?
2. Do I pay per cover, per seated diner or per message, and what is my total in a busy month?
3. Where is each guest's consent for texts and email recorded?
4. What happens to my data and history if I cancel?
5. Do you use my guests' information to market other restaurants to them?

Start with one profile per guest

Whatever tool you use, aim for a single record per guest that holds contact details, consent, visits, allergies and notes. Everything else, from loyalty to campaigns, gets easier once that record exists.