WhatsApp guest lists for restaurants
Fill quiet nights from your own guest list.
Table taps, missed calls and post-visit check-ins become a WhatsApp guest list your restaurant owns. We build it, run it and turn it into covers, reviews and return visits.
160
covers on one Friday event night, our best to date. 102 of them booked through WhatsApp from one message to 983 guests.
1,034
missed callers followed up on WhatsApp.
Up to 91%
of broadcast messages read. Around 80% on a typical send.
One steakhouse in the North East of England, 2026. Covers as reported by the venue; calls and read rates from message logs. The 160-cover Friday (October 2026) was our best night to date, not a typical one, and click-to-WhatsApp ads ran alongside the messages that week.
THE GAP
Most of your guests leave without a trace.
You work hard to fill the room. Then the bill is paid, the table is turned and that guest is gone. No name, no number, no way to invite them back.
01 Walk-ins pay and leave.
Your busiest nights are full of people you never get to know. Once they walk out, you can't reach them again.
02 Missed calls go elsewhere.
A phone ringing out during service is a booking heading to the place down the road.
03 Someone else holds the data.
Booking and delivery platforms keep the guest relationship. You pay to reach people who already chose you.
04 Problems surface too late.
An unhappy guest often says nothing on the night. You find out from a review, when it is too late to put it right.
FIRST-PARTY FOOTFALL
Every venue has footfall. Very few own it.
Stop paying for eyeballs. Your best audience walked through the door tonight, and most of them will leave without a trace. TapChat turns that footfall into guests you can bring back, in five steps.
01Â Â Footfall
Guests through the door and callers on the phone. Busy, valuable and anonymous.
02Â Â First touch
A card on the table, or a call nobody could answer, opens a WhatsApp chat with your venue. No app, no form.
03Â Â Value exchange
Something on the house for a first name and a yes. A fair swap, not a data grab.
04Â Â A guest who said yes
Named, consented and on a list you own. Not rented from a platform or buried in a booking system.
05Â Â Return and upsell
The right offer to the right guests: steak night, a birthday, a quiet Tuesday, a table for the whole group. Visits you would never have had.
None of this is new. It's the execution.
THE DIFFERENCE
We already have WhatsApp Business.
Keep it. The free app is a good inbox. What it does not do is the hard part:
01 Get guests in.
A tap on every table and a WhatsApp after every missed call. The app waits for people to find you.
02 Follow up.
A check-in after every visit, birthdays and rebooking, running every night without anyone remembering to send them.
03 Send to the right people.
Steak lovers hear about steak night. Locals hear about Tuesdays. One reply stops it.
04 Run it for you.
We plan, write and send, and report what each message booked. The app needs someone behind the bar to do all of that.
If you answer a handful of messages a week yourself, the free app may be all you need. TapChat is for venues where the phone rings out on a Saturday and the list is worth working.
THE FIX
The guest list your venue has never had.
TapChat closes all four gaps on the one app your guests already have open. Every tap, missed call and check-in is a chance to win a named guest's yes. Each yes sits on a list you own.
Four moments. One list that keeps working.
01
A tap at the table
A discreet card on every table. One tap opens WhatsApp with a thank-you from the house. The guest gives a first name and chooses whether to hear from you again. A walk-in becomes a guest before the mains arrive.
02
A missed call, answered on WhatsApp
When the phone rings out mid-service, the caller gets a WhatsApp from you, usually within a minute, with the answers to their question and your booking link.
03
A check-in after the visit
A short, personal message a couple of hours later, from your manager by name. Anyone who had a bad night can tell the manager privately, while there is still time to put it right.
04
A reason to come back
Steak night, a new menu, a birthday treat. One message to the people who asked to hear about it, booking through your usual link.
THE CHANNEL
Stop emailing your whole database.
A newsletter to everyone is easy to ignore. Texts from an unknown number look like spam. A menu link on the table captures nobody.
TapChat sends one WhatsApp message, in your venue's name, to the guests who asked to hear about that night. Steak lovers hear about steak night. Locals hear about Tuesdays. That is why it gets read, and why it gets booked.
Up to 91%
of broadcast messages read. Around 80% on a typical send, at one restaurant in 2026.
102 covers
booked through WhatsApp from one message to 983 guests, not the whole list. Friday 2 October 2026, as reported by the venue. Ads also ran that week.
MISSED CALLS
When the phone rings out, the booking doesn't.
Nobody can pick up. The call diverts, a short recorded line says a WhatsApp is on its way, and it arrives within a minute. The caller asks their question in their own time and books through your usual link.
No guest made to talk to a machine. People reply when it suits them, and they do: 65% replied, half within 30 seconds.
Works with whichever booking system you use. It hands over your own booking link, so it can never promise a table you do not have.
A written thread your team can step into. Every enquiry in one place, not on a notepad by the till.
A guest you can invite back. Callers can say yes to hearing from you, so a missed call can turn into a regular.
A voice agent answers the call. TapChat starts the relationship.
92%
of post-visit check-in replies were positive (271 of 294, to August 2026).
27 sec
median first reply across 1,441 guest conversations in the 90 days to August 2026, day or night.
1,034
missed callers followed up on WhatsApp, January to August 2026.
FULLY MANAGED
We run it. Your team serves.
We build it, run it and report on it every month. Your floor team sends nothing during service.
What we do
Your WhatsApp number in your venue's name.
Table cards and staff cards, supplied and set up.
A missed-call divert on your existing line.
Guest journeys written in your venue's voice.
An assistant that answers from your menus and hands to a person.
Messages planned, written and sent, with your sign-off.
A monthly report: new guests, covers, reviews and feedback.
What your team does
Put the cards on the tables. Read the reward code at the till. Pick up the chats the assistant hands over.
Assign any chat to the right person.
Duty manager, events team, head chef. The whole conversation goes with it, so complaints reach someone who can fix them.
Works with any booking system.
Guests book through your usual link, so nothing needs connecting and nothing changes at the host stand.
Your phone line stays.
We only add a divert for calls nobody answers.
PRICING
Fully tailored. Fully managed.
Every plan is customised to your venue: your covers, your footfall and how many sites you run. Your cards, your number and your guest journeys are all included, and you get a written quote before anything starts.
The three-month guarantee.
Cards on every table and the missed-call divert switched on from go-live. If you do not have 250 guests you can reach on WhatsApp by the end of month three, we refund month three's fee. Either way, you can stop at month three with no notice.
Read the guarantee terms
Built for independent restaurants and restaurant groups.
See it working on your own phone.
30 minutes with Mark. We will tap through the whole guest journey with you, from table card to rebooking, and show you what it would look like in your venue. No slides, no hard sell.
Prefer email? hello@gettapchat.co.uk