What are guest preferences? Restaurant personalization explained

Guest preferences are the dietary needs, seating choices, and special requests that guests have, stored in their profile for consistent, personalized service. For restaurants, tracking preferences means never asking a guest to repeat their allergies and always having their favorite table ready. Restaurants that actively use stored preferences see 25-35% higher guest satisfaction scores.

Key facts

• Definition: Stored information about a guest’s dietary needs, seating preferences, and recurring requests
• Key metric: Percentage of returning guest profiles with preferences recorded
• Good benchmark: 80%+ of regular guest profiles have at least one preference stored
• Why it matters: Anticipating needs instead of reacting to them is the foundation of great hospitality

The quick definition

Guest preferences are the specific likes, dislikes, needs, and requests that individual guests bring to your restaurant. Unlike one-time orders or situational requests, preferences are patterns that repeat across visits: a guest who always asks for a quiet corner, always needs gluten-free options, or always orders sparkling water.

When these preferences are recorded and accessible to your team, every visit feels seamless.

Why guest preferences matter

Safety first: allergies and dietary restrictions

The most important category of preferences is dietary:

A stored allergy preference is not a nice-to-have. It is a safety requirement.

The personalization effect

Guests notice when you remember their preferences:

Small acts of memory create disproportionate loyalty.

Operational efficiency

Preferences reduce friction during service:

• Kitchen knows about restrictions before the order, not after
• Hosts seat guests correctly on the first try
• Servers skip the “any allergies?” script for known guests
• Fewer remakes, comps, and complaints

How to track guest preferences

1. Collect at the right moments

Preference data comes from three sources:

Resos reservation forms include fields for dietary needs and special requests, feeding directly into the guest profile.

2. Categorize for quick access

During a busy service, staff need to scan preferences in seconds:

• Allergies: Always at the top, visually flagged
• Dietary: Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, halal, kosher
• Seating: Booth, window, quiet area, outdoor, bar
• Drinks: Still/sparkling water, favorite wine, cocktail preferences
• Service: Pace preference (quick lunch vs. leisurely dinner), birthday handling

3. Share across the team

Preferences in a notebook behind the bar help no one on the floor:

• Store preferences in your reservation system where all staff can see them
• Brief hosts and servers during pre-shift on tonight’s preference-heavy guests
• Push allergy alerts to the kitchen automatically
• Ensure part-time and new staff have the same access as veterans

4. Update regularly

Preferences evolve. A guest who was dairy-free last year might not be anymore:

• Confirm allergies at least once a year
• Update seating preferences when guests mention changes
• Note new favorites when ordering patterns shift
• Remove outdated preferences that no longer apply

5. Use preferences proactively

The real value is in acting on preferences before the guest asks:

Best practices

• Start with allergies. Get the safety-critical preferences right before anything else. One missed allergy flag can have serious consequences, while a missed seating preference is just a minor inconvenience.
• Do not over-collect. Five useful preferences are better than twenty ignored ones. If your staff will not read it during service, do not bother recording it.
• Let guests self-serve. Online reservation forms with preference fields let guests tell you what matters to them. This is often more accurate than staff observations and saves time.
• Review before every service. A 30-second scan of tonight’s guest preferences during pre-shift prevents 90% of preventable service failures.

Related terms

• Cover - Each guest served may have unique preferences that affect service
• No-show - Preference data adds value to the guest profile that helps justify deposit policies
• Walk-in - Walk-in guests present fewer chances to capture preferences in advance
• Waitlist - Digital waitlists can capture basic preferences even from walk-in guests

Related: How to reduce no-shows | Large party bookings | Capacity planning