Academy → Glossary

What is a hospitality CRM? Restaurant customer management explained

Customer relationship management software designed specifically for restaurants and hospitality businesses to track guest interactions and drive loyalty.

A hospitality CRM is customer relationship management software designed for restaurants and hospitality businesses. For restaurants, it replaces the generic spreadsheets and disconnected systems with a single platform that tracks every guest interaction from first reservation to latest visit. Restaurants using purpose-built CRM tools report 15-25% increases in repeat guest rates.

Key facts

Definition: Software that manages guest relationships, profiles, and communications specifically for hospitality businesses
Key metric: Guest lifetime value (total revenue from a guest over time)
Good benchmark: CRM-using restaurants see 2-3x higher guest retention than those without
Why it matters: Turning first-time guests into regulars is the most profitable growth strategy for any restaurant

The quick definition

A hospitality CRM collects, organizes, and activates guest data across every touchpoint: reservations, visits, spending, preferences, feedback, and communications. Unlike generic CRM tools built for sales teams, a hospitality CRM understands the restaurant world. It knows what a cover is, tracks table preferences, flags allergies, and integrates with your reservation system and POS.

The result is a complete picture of every guest that your entire team can access and act on.

Why a hospitality CRM matters

Guest relationships drive restaurant revenue

Restaurant profitability depends on repeat business:

Metric	First-Time Guest	Regular Guest
Average spend	$45	$65
Likelihood to refer	10%	35%
Sensitivity to price	High	Low
No-show rate	15-20%	Under 5%
Lifetime value	$45	$3,000+

A CRM helps you systematically convert first-timers into regulars.

The limits of memory

In a 30-seat restaurant with one owner always present, personal memory works. But that model breaks at scale:

Challenge	What Happens Without CRM
Staff turnover	Guest knowledge walks out the door
Multiple locations	No shared guest history
Weekend vs. weekday staff	Different teams, no shared context
Growth beyond 50 covers/night	Too many guests to remember
Special occasions	Missed birthdays and anniversaries

Connecting the data dots

Most restaurants already collect guest data. The problem is that it lives in disconnected silos:

Data Source	What It Knows	The Gap
Reservation system	Booking history, contact info	Does not know spending
POS	Orders, spending	Does not know who the guest is
Email marketing	Open rates, clicks	Does not know visit history
Staff memory	Preferences, personality	Leaves when they leave

A hospitality CRM connects these sources into one guest profile.

How to implement a hospitality CRM

1. Start with your reservation system

The easiest path to CRM functionality is through your booking platform. Modern systems like Resos already include:

Automatic guest profile creation from bookings
Visit history and frequency tracking
Guest notes and preference storage
VIP flags and guest tags
Communication tools for confirmations and follow-ups

If your reservation system offers these features, you may not need a separate CRM at all.

2. Define your guest segments

Use your CRM to group guests into actionable segments:

Segment	Definition	Strategy
New	First visit	Welcome message, second-visit incentive
Returning	2-4 visits	Build preferences, invite to events
Regular	5+ visits	VIP perks, personalized outreach
Lapsed	No visit in 90 days	Re-engagement campaign
High-value	Top 10% by spend	Priority seating, exclusive access

3. Automate the routine communications

A CRM should handle repetitive touchpoints without manual effort:

Booking confirmations with personalized details
Reminder messages 24 hours before the reservation
Post-visit thank-you messages
Birthday and anniversary greetings
Re-engagement messages for lapsed guests

4. Train your team to use it

The most expensive CRM is the one nobody uses:

Show staff how to check guest profiles in under 5 seconds
Make note-taking part of the closing routine
Review guest profiles during pre-shift meetings
Recognize staff who deliver great moments using CRM data

5. Measure what matters

Track these CRM metrics monthly:

Metric	Formula	What It Tells You
Repeat rate	Returning guests / Total guests	Are you building loyalty?
Guest lifetime value	Total spend across all visits	Are regulars spending more?
Re-engagement rate	Lapsed returns / Outreach sent	Are campaigns working?
Profile completeness	Profiles with notes / Total profiles	Is your team using the CRM?

Hospitality CRM versus generic CRM

Feature	Generic CRM	Hospitality CRM
Contact management	Yes	Yes
Visit history	No	Yes
Table preferences	No	Yes
Allergy tracking	No	Yes
Reservation integration	No	Yes
POS integration	No	Yes
Cover tracking	No	Yes
Guest tags and flags	Basic	Restaurant-specific

Best practices

Do not overcomplicate it. A reservation system with built-in guest profiles covers 80% of what most restaurants need from a CRM. Only invest in a separate platform if you run multiple locations or have very specific marketing needs.
Focus on data quality over quantity. Fifty guest profiles with accurate preferences are more valuable than a thousand profiles with only a name and phone number. Invest in enriching your best guests first.
Make it visible. If your team has to log into a separate system to see guest data, they will not do it. Guest profiles should appear automatically when a reservation is pulled up.
Protect the data. Guest profiles contain personal information. Follow GDPR or local privacy regulations, train staff on data handling, and never share guest data with third parties.

Cover - The basic guest unit that a hospitality CRM tracks across visits
No-show - CRM data helps identify repeat no-show guests and apply deposit policies
Walk-in - Walk-in data capture is a CRM challenge that digital waitlists help solve
POS - Point-of-sale integration feeds spending data into guest profiles

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a hospitality CRM?

A hospitality CRM is customer relationship management software built for restaurants, hotels, and similar businesses. It tracks guest profiles, visit history, preferences, and communications in one system, helping you deliver personalized service and drive repeat visits.

Do restaurants really need a CRM?

If you have more than 50 covers per night, yes. At that volume, staff cannot remember every guest's preferences and history. A CRM ensures consistent, personalized service regardless of who is working or how busy it gets.

How is a hospitality CRM different from Salesforce or HubSpot?

Generic CRMs are built for sales pipelines and B2B relationships. Hospitality CRMs understand covers, table assignments, dietary restrictions, and service timing. They integrate with reservation systems and POS platforms rather than email marketing funnels.

Can my reservation system act as a CRM?

Many modern reservation systems include CRM features: guest profiles, visit history, notes, tags, and communication tools. Resos, for example, builds guest profiles automatically from bookings and lets you track preferences, flag VIPs, and manage guest relationships without a separate CRM.

What ROI can I expect from a hospitality CRM?

Restaurants using CRM tools typically see 15-25% increases in repeat visits and 10-20% higher average spend from recognized guests. If you serve 100 covers nightly at $50 average check, even a 10% improvement in repeat visits adds significant annual revenue.

Track Your Restaurant Metrics

Understanding hospitality crm is just the start. Resos helps you track covers, manage tables, and grow your restaurant.

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