Knowing your guest is at the heart of any personalized hospitality. When a restaurant tracks preferences and dining habits, it can create experiences that feel special and thoughtful rather than transactional. If a guest loves window seats or prefers sparkling water, that shouldn’t be left to chance or memory.
When you create the right guest profiles, you can turn data into meaningful insights that help you make guests feel valued from the moment they walk through the door.
What is a restaurant guest profile?
A restaurant guest profile is a digital record that captures essential information about your diners. Think of it as a living document that grows richer with each visit. Beyond basic contact details, comprehensive profiles track preferences, dining patterns, and meaningful interactions that help your staff deliver consistent, personalized service.
Effective guest profiles include practical details like seating preferences and dietary restrictions alongside more nuanced information—perhaps a guest always celebrates their anniversary at your restaurant or prefers a specific server. When this data is accessible to your entire team, it transforms everyday service into meaningful hospitality.
The most powerful restaurant customer profiles connect reservation history with spending patterns, giving you insights into what brings people back. Does a guest always order the ribeye steak? Are they wine enthusiasts who appreciate recommendations? Do they typically dine with family or business associates? These details help staff anticipate needs before guests even realize them.
What do great restaurant guest profiles look like?
What does using guest profiles effectively look like in practice? Here’s how some leading restaurants use OpenTable to deliver exceptional hospitality and build stronger connections with diners.
Recognizing VIPs and personalizing service across 75-plus restaurants
With OpenTable’s POS integration, IHG tracks guest spending and dining preferences to identify their highest-value diners. Staff can greet returning guests as VIPs while tailoring service based on real-time insights and creating memorable experiences, no matter which global restaurant they visit.
“Armed with guest information, staff can do what they do best: deliver personalized service and recognize high-value guests, making them feel like VIPs.” — Quinn Logan, Director of Restaurant and Bar Marketing, IHG
Using guest profiles to create memorable experiences and grow revenue
Little Betty Steak Bar uses OpenTable’s guest profiles to keep their staff informed and one step ahead. Servers regularly update profiles with guests’ favorite wines, as well as special occasions and menu preferences, ensuring every diner feels recognized and valued. Personalized insights also guide upselling, like tailored wine recommendations, enhancing experiences, and revenue simultaneously.
“I may not have been your server last time, but I know how you like your steak.” — Jamey Shirah, CEO, Revival Restaurant Group
Guest profiles create personalized dining experiences and increase efficiency
At YaYa’s Euro Bistro, guest profiles are central to providing warm, personal hospitality. The staff greets diners by name and anticipates seating preferences, customization service based on stored guest insights. This ensures that every visitor feels valued and recognised, right from their arrival.
“Making every guest feel special from the moment they walk in means greeting guests by name, providing personalized service, and meeting all expectations.” — Dennis Dickey, Special Project Manager, PB&J Restaurant Group
Personalizing automated marketing and driving repeat visits
Stock Hill leverages guest profiles through OpenTable’s automated email marketing campaigns. Customized messages incorporate the restaurant’s branding and reward guests with personalized incentives, such as complimentary items or discounts. According to marketing manager Meredith Schulte, guests frequently return specifically because they received these targeted emails.
“In less than two weeks, we’ve seen guests coming in just because of those emails and rewards. It’s been a nice way to automate things so that we’re always front of mind with people.” — Meredith Schulte, Marketing Manager, Stock Hill
Building deeper guest connections through guest profiles
At Mestizo Chelsea in London, UK, Alexis Sanchez uses OpenTable Pro’s guest profile features to personalize interactions before guests even arrive. By reviewing diner preferences and reservation notes, he can reach out personally, offer pre-ordering, or recommend tailored experiences. This detailed approach helped Alexis secure a booking worth over £1,000 through personalized messaging.
“I love that I can see a booking come in real-time and have the contact number of the guest. It means I can message them about benefits at the restaurant and provide pre-ordering options if they prefer.” — Alexis Sanchez, Bookings General Manager, Mestizo
Why guest profiles matter for your revenue
Robust guest profiles can help you boost your revenue. When you use guest profiles to recognize repeat guests and remember their preferences, they’re more likely to return—and regulars typically spend 67% more than first-time visitors.
The financial benefits extend beyond individual visits, though. When guests feel personally connected to your restaurant, they become natural ambassadors who bring friends and family. Word-of-mouth marketing is invaluable and costs you nothing beyond delivering an exceptional service with plenty of personalization.
Guest profiles also help identify your most valuable diners. A guest who visits monthly for lunch might not seem significant until your profile data reveals they’ve brought in over 20 different colleagues throughout the year. Having access to these insights lets you invest your hospitality efforts where they’ll generate the greatest returns.
Tips for turning guest profiles into revenue-driving assets
With the right approach, you’ll gain insights that drive targeted marketing and feel personal rather than promotional. Guest profiles help you understand what brings diners through your door and keeps them coming back.
Here’s how to maximize their impact:
Train staff to collect meaningful information
Your FOH team plays a central role in building valuable guest profiles. Train hosts and servers to tactfully capture details that enhance the dining experience. Encourage them to note special occasions, food preferences, and unique details shared during service. These insights allow you to deliver personal touches that make guests feel valued and create marketing messages that resonate with individual preferences.
Automate profile updates to save time
Manual data entry takes valuable time and often creates inconsistencies. Look for a restaurant reputation management solution that automatically updates profiles after each visit. Features like automated tagging based on visit frequency or dining preferences helps your marketing stay relevant without requiring constant attention.
Guide tableside recommendations
Servers can make informed suggestions that feel intuitive rather than pushy if they know a guest typically enjoys high-end wine or specific menu categories. This approach turns standard upselling into genuine hospitality while naturally increasing check averages through relevant recommendations.
Integrate your systems for complete guest views
Guest information scattered across different platforms creates fragmented profiles. When your POS, reservation system, and other tools don’t communicate, you miss opportunities to understand the full picture of your guests. Integrating these systems builds profiles that include spending patterns alongside dining preferences.
Leverage automated follow-ups
Manual marketing requires constant attention that busy restaurants simply don’t have. Set up automated messages triggered by specific guest behaviors or milestones. Birthday greetings, anniversary reminders, or “we miss you” campaigns for guests who haven’t visited recently can all be set up to deploy automatically. Consistent communication maintains relationships without adding to daily workloads.
Introduce guests to your other concepts
Restaurants with multiple locations or concepts can use guest profiles to encourage exploration across their portfolio. When you understand dining preferences, you can make relevant recommendations about your other venues. A guest who loves your casual pizza spot might appreciate learning about your wine bar’s happy hour if their profile shows an interest in unique wine selections.
Ways to leverage guest profiles across your restaurant
Now that you’ve built quality guest profiles, it’s time to put this information to work. Guest data becomes valuable when it shapes your day-to-day operations and marketing strategy.
Here are some ways to drive both guest satisfaction and revenue.
Personalize the dining experience
If a regular returns, your staff can greet them by name and reference their previous visits. Perhaps they love your seasonal desserts or always prefer a corner table. This level of personalization creates memorable moments that generic service simply can’t match.
A guest who celebrated their anniversary last year might appreciate a server mentioning it with a “Welcome back! Celebrating another anniversary with us?” Even the small gestures demonstrate attentiveness that guests value.
Create targeted marketing campaigns
When it comes to using guest profiles in marketing, they can reveal patterns that help you craft messages that resonate. Maybe you’ve noticed a segment of guests who consistently order craft cocktails. When you launch a new cocktail menu, send these guests a dedicated email invitation to try your latest creations. The specificity feels considerate rather than promotional, all while helping to drive higher engagement rates and bookings.
Enhance special occasions
Detailed profiles help you exceed expectations when guests celebrate at your restaurant. Birthdays, anniversaries, and graduation dinners become opportunities to showcase your attentive service. With advance knowledge of the occasion, you might arrange a complimentary dessert or prepare a special table. Thoughtful touches often lead to annual traditions, where guests return year after year for their celebrations.
Recover after service issues
Even exceptional restaurants occasionally disappoint guests. When service falls short, guest profiles provide context for meaningful recovery. Having the tight restaurant reputation management system can flag feedback alongside guest information, so you can respond appropriately. Your response to a first-time visitor might differ from how you address a loyal regular who’s had dozens of positive experiences before one disappointment.
Guest profiles with OpenTable
OpenTable’s guest relationship management helps restaurants know their guests better than ever with richer guest insights powered by the largest diner network and partner integrations. Our tools let restaurants collect important information that can transform the guest experience and is accessible to your entire team.
With OpenTable guest profiles, you can:
- Access 360° guest profiles showing photos, spend data, primary location, and dining patterns
- Keep tabs on VIPs, influencers, and top spenders with detailed pre-shift reports
- Tag guest preferences and add profile notes accessible across all devices
- Automatically identify your most valuable guests through smart tagging
- Track comprehensive visit history and spending patterns with POS integration
- View guest context directly within review responses for more personalized follow-up
- Access OpenTable’s global guestbook to identify walk-ins and phone reservations
The power of OpenTable extends beyond individual service moments. We help you personalize the guest experience with a deep understanding of their preferences and dining history to create consistent experiences that build loyalty. For restaurant groups, these profiles work across locations, so guests receive personalized service no matter which venue they visit.
Integrations with OpenTable
OpenTable connects with over 200 popular restaurant tools, creating a unified tech ecosystem that enriches guest profiles. When integrated with your POS system, reservation data links directly to spending habits to reveal valuable patterns about guest preferences. These connections eliminate data silos, so guest information flows seamlessly between systems. The result is a comprehensive profile that gives your entire team access to the same reliable guest insights.
From data to delight
Guest profiles transform restaurants from places that serve food into destinations where memories are made. Centralizing guest information, training your team to capture meaningful details, and using those insights across every touchpoint will help you build relationships that last far beyond dessert.
