Quandoo is shutting down in 2026: six alternatives for restaurants, honestly compared

Around 17,000 restaurants across the German-speaking market have until year-end to switch reservation systems. What the major vendors really cost, how migration actually works — and where the most expensive mistakes hide.

The winners at a glance Short version · June 2026

★ Best overall for most restaurants

No fixed fee, €0.60 only when the guest shows — and runs parallel to Quandoo during the switch.

↓ to calculator

Only for maximum marketplace reach

Worth it only if marketplace discovery of new guests is the priority — otherwise you pay commission on guests you'd have had anyway.

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Flat fee at very high volume

If you want predictable flat costs and enough bookings that a monthly plan beats per-booking pricing.

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Lowest base fee among flat-rate plans

A solid entry if you specifically want a classic monthly plan — Skiper still costs less at low volume.

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It was in April 2026 when Markus Reinhardt — owner of a 70-seat traditional inn in Munich — got the email: Quandoo, the reservation system he had used for over five years, would shut down on December 31. Reinhardt wasn't alone. Around 17,000 restaurants, many of them in Bavaria, Vienna, and Tirol, were suddenly facing the same question. Which system do we pick now — and what do we need to do to keep the switch from blowing up mid-service?

Quandoo was, for more than a decade, one of the strongest reservation marketplaces in the German-speaking market. The shutdown means restaurants lose not just the marketplace but the booking tool deeply tied to daily operations. Three dates govern the orderly handover:

I.What restaurants should be checking before September

Anyone serious about the switch starts not with which vendor is best but with three sober tasks — independent of the final choice:

• Export your guest data. Quandoo itself recommends exporting the guest database before the deadline. Skip this and you start the new system from zero — regulars' preferences, notes, allergies: all gone.
• Plan a parallel-running window. Four to six weeks of overlap between old and new system, or bookings will fall through the cracks during the handover.
• Check the contract terms. Several alternatives require 12- or 24-month lock-ins plus setup fees of €200 to €800. Mid-migration, flexibility beats a low headline price.

II.The six common alternatives, side by side

The table below puts the seven reservation systems with real market presence in the DACH region next to each other. Quandoo stays in the table for reference. Best-in-class entries per row are marked.

Scroll the table horizontally →

Vendor	Monthly fee	Per booking	Setup	Staff logins	Min. term
	€29–593	~€3.50 per guest (network)	€249–799	limited	12 months
	€29–1494	€1.50–2.00 per guest (marketplace)	€300–400	varies	12 months
	€0	€0.60 per seated booking	€0	unlimited	quarterly cancel
	$39–4495	~$1.50 per guest (network)	~$200	varies	12 months
	from €996	included in plan	€0	limited	12 months
	from €697	included in plan	€0	limited	12 months
	€89–1498	entry tier commission-free	€0	varies	12 months

Skiper charges per booking, not per guest. A reservation for six people costs €0.60. Manual, phone, and walk-in bookings are free. Cancellations and no-shows cost nothing. Competitor prices: list/indicative values from vendors' official pricing pages and independent market comparisons; each sourced and dated per vendor (see footnotes 3–8). Last checked: 18 June 2026. Final terms are partly negotiated individually and may differ.²

III.Three camps — and where Skiper sits

The market splits into two classic camps. The marketplace platforms — Quandoo, TheFork, OpenTable — bring their own diner traffic but charge a monthly fee plus per-guest commission on marketplace bookings. The commission-free SaaS camp — CoverManager, Resmio, Zenchef entry tier — charges a monthly fee but no per-guest commission, with no marketplace of their own.

Skiper, operated by Munich-based Skiper Technologies GmbH, sits structurally between them: marketplace presence like the first camp, but no fixed monthly fee — and no per-guest commission, but €0.60 per booking, billed only when the guest has actually arrived. A reservation for six costs €0.60, not — as on the classic marketplaces — up to €21.

On Skiper, a booking costs what it costs: nothing, if the guest doesn't show. Sixty cents otherwise. That hasn't changed since day one. Bero Lomsadze, co-founder

What that means in practice for restaurants leaving Quandoo:

• 30 days free, no credit card. Cancel quarterly, no long lock-in.
• Parallel operation with Quandoo is explicitly supported so no booking goes missing.
• Unlimited staff logins for the free staff app.
• 24/7 support via email, WhatsApp and video call — no upcharge.
• Already used by Wing Nation (Munich), Wunderkost, and Fischer Vroni at the Auer Dult festival.

The honest caveats. The Skiper diner marketplace is younger than TheFork's or OpenTable's. If your existing bookings come overwhelmingly through marketplace discovery — rather than through your own website, Google, and Instagram — you'll find more reach elsewhere. For very high-volume venues running 1,500+ marketplace bookings a month, a flat monthly subscription can be cheaper. For the vast majority of independents — over 90% of Quandoo's customer base by count — pay-per-success is structurally cheaper and considerably lower-risk.

IV.Calculator: what each vendor costs in your venue

Pick the vendor you want to compare Skiper against. Below, enter your rough monthly booking volume and average party size — the calculator shows both models line by line. Setup fees are amortized over 12 months for comparability.

Monthly base fee	€0	—
Setup (/ 12 months)	€0	—
Per booking	€0.60	—
Per guest	€0	—
Staff logins	unlimited	—
Min. term	quarterly	—
Total / month (est.)	€0	€0

Bookings per month (via marketplace)

− +

Average party size per booking

− +

Monthly difference €0

Indicative figures. Setup fees amortized over 12 months. Flat-rate plans include a booking allowance per tier; usage above it adds overage (assumed figures). Manual, phone, and walk-in bookings are free on Skiper and aren't counted here — real-world savings are usually higher.

V.The orderly handover

Ideally, a restaurateur sets up the new system on a late-summer Wednesday between 3 and 5 p.m. — the quiet hour between lunch service and the evening. Skiper self-registration takes about five minutes, the table plan another half hour, and the system runs parallel to Quandoo until that platform closes on September 30. The first 30 days cost nothing. If, after a month, the verdict is uncertain, cancel at the next quarterly mark — no contract breach, no remaining term.