Managing restaurant reservations can be a real headache for most establishments. Clunky booking systems are more common than a well-done steak, so a solution to help on this aspect can be welcome. This Five Star Restaurant Reservations review looks at a tool that promises to streamline the reservation process for restaurants using WordPress.

I’ll share my hands-on experience through this review to break down the plugin’s functionality, and give you the scoop on whether it’s worth your time and money. Keep reading to see if this plugin can take the stress out of managing your restaurant’s bookings.

Meet Five Star Restaurant Reservations

As the name suggests, the Five Star Restaurant Reservations plugin promises to simplify restaurant online bookings. It’s versatile and caters to the needs of small, intimate cafes, sprawling multi-location establishments, and everything in between.

At its core, Five Star Restaurant Reservations is about giving you more control over your booking process. If you want to upgrade your current reservation system, this plugin presents an intriguing option that’s worth exploring. Let’s break down some of the features that caught my eye:

• Email and SMS notifications. You can keep everyone in the loop with automatic notifications about reservation statuses.
• Bans for abusive customers. A smart feature to help manage no-shows and problematic customers.
• Minimum and maximum party sizes. You’re able to take control of your restaurant’s capacity with party size limits.
• Booking deposits. This helps reduce no-shows through requiring a deposit.
• Mobile app integration. On higher tier plans, a mobile app syncs with the plugin for on-the-go booking management.

Along with this, you have typical functionality, such as being able to create a booking form that aligns with your restaurant’s branding, integration with the Block Editor, and more.

Five Star Restaurant Reservations Review: In Action

Upon installing Five Star Restaurant Reservations, you’ll encounter a setup wizard. This guides you through creating your reservations page, setting booking times, and configuring essential options. You can skip the tour if you prefer to explore on your own.

Once this is complete, you’ll come to the dashboard. At the top is the Get Support section with links to YouTube tutorials, FAQs, documentation, and support channels. Below, you’ll find a summary of all bookings made on your website.

For free users, the dashboard contains several upsell notifications that occupy significant space. It’s worth noting as you might find it distracting.

The Bookings tab lets you manage all your reservations. You can filter bookings by time, date, and status (Closed, Confirmed, Pending, and Trashed). You can also add new bookings manually from this section.

In the Settings tab, you can adjust booking schedules, notifications, payments, styling, and label customization (depending on the premium tier you choose).

Configuring Reservation Notifications

Five Star Restaurant Reservations offers comprehensive notification settings to inform you about any booking activities. To configure these options, navigate to Bookings > Settings > Notifications.

In the free version, you can set the reply-to name and email address for customer communications, specify the admin email address, and choose which events trigger admin notifications. These include new booking requests, confirmed bookings, and cancellations.

The premium version enhances this functionality with a streamlined notifications table. While you’ll still set basic information such as reply-to details and admin email, the table gives you more granular control over notification triggers and content.

As a premium user, you can also benefit from the ability to customize the subject line and design of the emails you send to customers from the Bookings panel.

This offers a welcome additional layer of personalization, and is something that can lack from other solutions.

Customizing the Appearance of Booking Forms

Five Star Restaurant Reservations provides a range of customization options for your booking form’s appearance. From Bookings > Settings > Styling, you can select three layout styles: a standard design available to all users, a modern minimalist approach, or a two-column layout separating booking information.

The plugin enables you to fine-tune various visual elements. For example, you can adjust the font family and color of section headings, modify the form’s border and background, and tweak the typography of form labels for improved legibility and visual appeal.

You can also customize buttons, including the colors for both normal and hover states. This styling lets you create a booking experience that feels cohesive with your website’s aesthetic while maintaining functionality.

Integrating Reservation Forms Into Your Website

Five Star Restaurant Reservations offers multiple methods for integrating booking forms into your website. Upon installation, you can create a dedicated reservations page for centralized booking management.

For custom page integration, the plugin provides flexible options. Using the native Block Editor, you can easily insert the Booking Form block where you need it:

For those using alternative page builders or editors, the a shortcode lets you display the reservation form on any page or post. I’d liked to have seen a dedicated module for more popular page builders as shortcodes are more in line with ‘classic’ WordPress workflows. The good news is that they already offer an Elementor widget.

Premium license holders can access additional functionality with a shortcode that displays a comprehensive view of current and upcoming bookings.

This also lets guests check-in, which is a handy addition that can improve the whole experience. It’s particularly useful for creating staff-accessible booking management areas without granting full back-end access to your website.

Five Star Restaurant Reservations Review: Pricing Plans

Five Star Restaurant Reservations offers three pricing tiers. The free version of Five Star Restaurant Reservations provides core online booking functionality.

It includes a customizable reservation form that can be added to any page with a Block or shortcode. You can set specific booking times and dates and receive email notifications for new requests with options to confirm it (or otherwise).

While basic, this version offers a cost-free starting point if you need to implement online reservations. The premium version provides more functionality and comes with three tiers. You essentially get all of the available functionality the plugin offers, with pricing depending on how many licenses you need.

A single site license is $67, five licenses are $247, and ten licenses are $397. These are all one-time payments with the option of an annual subscription if you’d like access to premium email support.

There’s also an Ultimate version of the plugin, which is $297 per year (or $29 per month) for a single site license. This includes everything from the Premium tiers plus table-specific booking, deposit support via Stripe and PayPal, SMS notifications, late-arrival alerts, and a mobile app for on-the-go reservation management.

In my opinion, this is an affordable and competitive premium solution, especially in comparison to the competition.

Five Star Restaurant Reservations Review: Support and Documentation

Five Star Restaurant Reservations offers comprehensive documentation that covers plugin setup and usage. The user interface is clean, with concise and easy-to-follow text:

However, you won’t find many images here. This might be a slight drawback if you’re a visual learner, but it doesn’t impact the overall quality of the documentation too much.

One notable omission is search functionality within the documentation, which could make finding specific information more challenging. However, the plugin’s YouTube channel offers a wealth of video tutorials, which you might find more accessible and practical.

The plugin provides an open web form through its support center for support. All premium and ultimate users also have access to dedicated email support.

Users’ Perspective About Five Star Restaurant Reservations

Reviews for Five Star Restaurant Reservations are sitting at a solid 4.7 out of five stars from 195 reviews on the WordPress plugin repository.

Many reviewers highlight the quality of customer support, noting the team’s responsiveness and helpfulness. Ease of use is another frequently mentioned positive aspect, with users appreciating the straightforward setup and operation. That’s always a good sign.

There are a few 1-star reviews in the mix, but many of these are years old, and I’d assume that those bugs are no longer an issue. Overall, the feedback from the user base is positive. As with any plugin, individual experiences may vary and it’s advisable to test the plugin to determine if it meets your specific requirements. Of course, the free version is always available to try.

Reservations Made Easy, With Five Star Restaurant Reservations

Five Star Restaurant Reservations packs a punch if you’re a restaurant that wants to streamline bookings. It’s versatile enough to handle all manner of business sizes. While the free version covers the basics, premium tiers will give you more robust features.

User feedback is generally positive too, especially regarding support and ease of use. That said, the plugin could use clearer labeling between its free and premium features, and fewer upsell notifications. Native integrations with popular page builders would be a nice touch too.

Does my Five Star Restaurant Reservations review give you the impetus to simplify your booking process? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below!