How to create a restaurant

Last updated

14 February 2025

Overview

The Restaurants feature enables you to manage and display information about dining facilities within your accommodation. This feature helps guests discover your dining options, access essential details like opening hours and menu highlights, and make reservations—all from within the guest app. This article walks you through the process of adding and configuring a restaurant in the CMS.

Before getting started

Before creating a restaurant, make sure you have the following:

• Access to the CMS: Content > Facilities > Restaurants.
• Basic information about the restaurant ready: restaurant name, cuisine type, description, opening hours, etc.
• High-quality images of the restaurant’s areas, food and special features. Images should be in landscape format (800 x 420 pixels) and not exceed 1 MB.
• If your guests speak multiple languages, prepare translated versions of restaurant descriptions to improve accessibility.

Step-by-step guide

Step 1: Create your restaurant

1. Navigate to the Content section of the CMS
2. Select Restaurants from the left-side menu under Facilities
3. Click Add
4. Choose between using a template or creating a restaurant from scratch:
   • Templates include a default name, tag, and image. Select a template and click Save to start editing.
   • Create from scratch by clicking Create a new service in the upper-right corner.

If you selected a template, click Edit on the desired restaurant to continue editing.

Step 2: Fill in the restaurant information

• Name: Enter your restaurant’s name. Keep it under 30 characters to ensure it fits on one line on most devices.
• Subtitle: Add a short tagline to describe the restaurant (e.g., “French cuisine”). Keep it under 45 characters so it fits on one or two lines.
• Description: Provide a detailed overview, including the atmosphere, specialties, and unique offerings.

If your restaurant serves guests in multiple languages, click the flag icon to add translations.

Step 3: Upload images of your restaurant

If you created the restaurant using a template, it will already include a preloaded image.

Make sure your image files don’t exceed 1 MB. The recommended dimensions are 800 x 420 pixels (landscape format). The first image uploaded will be the cover image of your restaurant.

To upload an image:

1. Click the image icon to open the upload window.
2. Drag and drop images or select them from your computer.
3. Click Insert, then Save changes.

To delete an image:

1. Hover over the image and click the trash icon.
2. Click Save changes to confirm.

The following steps are optional and can be edited later.

Step 4: Include additional information about your restaurant

Additional details help guest understand your restaurant’s unique features. Click Add additional info and select the options that apply:

• Title and description:

This adds two text boxes (title and subtitle) and an icon to be customized as needed. You can also link this information to an existing service by ticking the Link to service checkbox. See examples below:

• Bullet list

This provides a list of items to customize as needed. You can use it to highlight key points of your restaurant.

• Dress code

This option provides a default text box and an icon to inform guests of any attire requirements. Just fill in the text box under the title.

• Location description

Use this option to provide directions to find the restaurant (e.g., floor number or building name).

• Website:

Add your restaurant’s website.

• Video URL

If you want to share audiovisual content with guests, this option provides a default link box with an icon and title.

• E-mail

Use this field to include a contact e-mail for guests. When tapping on the email address from the guest app, the email client will open automatically.

• Phone number

This option allows you to include the restaurant’s phone number. When guests tap on it, the number will be dialed on the phone to call the restaurant. For this reason, you should add the country code to the phone number since guests might not have a local phone line.

• YouTube

You can include a YouTube link to provide audiovisual content. If you want the link to open in a browser, tick the box Open YouTube in browser.

• Virtual tour

This option provides a preset field to include a link to a virtual tour of your facilities.

• URL list

In case you need to provide several links of interest to guests, use this preset option.

Websites that cannot be embedded must have the Open URL in browser checkbox selected.

To remove any additional info item, click on the red X icon next to it or, if not applicable:

1. Click Additional info
2. Click on the items to be removed. They will change color as you click on them.
3. Close the pop-up window and click Save changes

Step 5: Add tags to improve searchability

Tags help guests find your restaurant when searching in the app.

1. Click on the Tags text box.
2. Select one or more relevant keywords from the dropdown menu.
3. Click Save changes.

Step 6: Add the restaurant location on the map

This feature is useful for large properties with multiple dining locations.

1. Enable the Map location toggle button.
2. Search for the restaurant’s name on Google Maps and select the correct location.
3. If needed, manually drop a pin on the map.
4. Click Save changes.

You can deactivate the location at any time using the toggle switch.

Preview on the guest app

As you create your restaurant, use the Preview button at the top of the page to see how it appears in the app. This allows you to verify information, descriptions and images before going live.

Next steps

Now that you’ve created your restaurant, here’s what you can do next:

1. Organize restaurants into categories: If you manage multiple restaurants, use categories to improve navigation.
2. Choose a booking system: Select the booking system that better suits your service needs.
3. Add your restaurant menu: Create a digital menu to display dishes, drinks, and prices. Follow the steps in this article.

Need further assistance?

If you have additional questions or require further assistance:

• Contact us via live chat
• Send a ticket to our Support team
• Visit STAY Academy, our training platform.