Most independent restaurants still take bookings by phone or DM, then hope people show up. No-shows on a busy Friday night are pure lost revenue — the table sat empty and nobody got seated in it.

The fix isn't a $10k reservation system. It's three Make.com steps wired together:

1. Online booking form → writes the reservation to a shared calendar/sheet

2. Instant confirmation email → sent the second they book, so they know it's real

3. Automatic reminder 24h before → cuts no-shows dramatically because people get a nudge while there's still time to cancel or reschedule

We build this exact flow for restaurants: $400 to set it up and test it against your real booking process, then $50/mo so it keeps running and gets small tweaks as your process changes — no dev retainer, no bloated POS contract.

If you run a restaurant and are still doing bookings manually, this pays for itself the first weekend it stops two no-shows.