Search for "TheFork commission" and you get the same number everywhere: about €2 a cover. That number is not on TheFork's site. What is there is something else, and the difference adds up to a different figure by the end of the year.
This piece puts side by side what TheFork publishes itself, what third parties write about it, and the part of your invoice you only see once you look for it. We sell an alternative — that is at the bottom, and the figures are above it.
What TheFork publishes itself
Two things, and neither of them is an amount.
No price. TheFork Manager's pricing page lists two plans, Performance and Enterprise, and both say "ask for pricing". There is no published subscription figure.
The commission is a percentage. This is the important one. TheFork describes the cost as based on a percentage of the average spend per guest for reservations arriving through TheFork, Tripadvisor and partners. Not a fixed amount per cover — a percentage of what that guest spends with you.
What is free: reservations through your own website, Instagram and Facebook are, according to that same page, included with no commission.
Why "a percentage" is not "€2 a cover"
A fixed amount per guest does the same thing everywhere. A percentage does not.
At a lunch café with an average spend of €25, 8% is exactly €2 — which is why everybody writes that number down. At a place averaging €75 a head, the same percentage is €6. At €120 it is €9.60.
| Average spend per guest | At 8% | 200 network guests a month |
|---|---|---|
| €25 | €2.00 | €400 |
| €50 | €4.00 | €800 |
| €75 | €6.00 | €1,200 |
| €120 | €9.60 | €1,920 |
The percentage is a worked example to show the mechanism — TheFork does not publish its own. Ask for yours in writing.
This is the model running exactly the wrong way round. The better your room does, the more each network guest costs. Your margin is in their formula.
The independent figures in circulation — roughly €1.50 to €4 a cover, subscriptions between €30 and €75 a month — are third-party estimates, not published tariffs. They may be right for an average business and a long way out for yours.
The blue button on Google
Here is a cost that is in none of the comparisons, and that led to a formal complaint in the Netherlands.
When somebody looks up your restaurant by name on Google and clicks the blue reserve button, that reservation in many cases runs through TheFork — and then it is a network reservation carrying commission. The guest was looking for you. You pay as though the platform sent them.
In January 2020 Koninklijke Horeca Nederland, the Dutch hospitality trade association, publicly demanded clarity about this. The substance of the objections:
- According to KHN, the blue reserve button on Google was being activated by default without the operator's explicit prior consent.
- KHN wanted platforms to ask permission before making policy changes, and lobbied for that in the European rules being drafted at the time.
- There was also a question about review averages, following a BNNVARA investigation — TheFork, per KHN, referred to "an algorithm" without explaining it.
The same statement carries a concrete example: an operator with five venues watched the monthly amount per venue climb from €65 to over €800, roughly €50,000 a year in total.
Worth saying plainly: this is from January 2020. Six years is a long time in software and it may have changed since. We were not able to establish what the position is now. But it remains the most concrete public accounting of this model in the Dutch market, and it is why "how does a reservation arrive" is a question you ask out loud.
What to ask before you sign
Five questions. In writing, and in this order.
- Is it a percentage or a fixed amount per guest? And if it is a percentage: of what exactly, and how is my average spend established?
- What is the monthly subscription? There is none on the site, so it has to come out of the quote.
- Which reservations count as network reservations? Specifically: the blue button on Google, and somebody typing my name into your app.
- Does a returning guest count again every time? Usually yes — and then you are paying for your own regular.
- What is the term, and what happens to my guest database if I stop?
A provider who answers four of the five has answered the fifth as well.
Work it out with your own figures
Take last month and count three things: how many covers came through the network, what your average spend per guest is, and — the important one — how many of those guests you would have had anyway.
That last one is the only question that matters. Four hundred network covers from people who did not know your address are four hundred covers you gained; what that may cost apiece is a marketing judgement and it can work out well. Four hundred network covers from regulars who happened to book through the app are four hundred payments for guests you already had.
Nobody can work that out for you, because only you know your own room. But it is one hour of work and it is the most expensive hour you will save this year.
The alternative, and when it is not the alternative
We charge nothing per guest. Not on any channel, not on any plan. The booking dashboard with online booking is €49 a month, free for your first six months, and whether a reservation arrives through your website, your QR code or the telephone makes no difference to the bill. It is all on the pricing page.
But be honest about what you are not buying: we have no guest network. We do not send you people who were not looking for you. If you have just opened on a quiet street, that is exactly what you do need, and then TheFork or OpenTable is a defensible spend — as long as you work it out again every six months.
Where we do something they do not: the telephone. A platform does not pick up. In an average restaurant five to fifteen calls an evening are lost, and those callers are already looking for you. Point by point in the Bubo vs. TheFork comparison, and the four systems stand side by side in comparing reservation systems.
Frequently asked questions
How much commission does TheFork charge per cover?
TheFork publishes no rate. Its own pricing page says the cost is a percentage of the average spend per guest, and both plans say "ask for pricing". Independent Dutch sources quote roughly €1.50 to €4 a cover, but those are third-party estimates.
Do I pay commission on reservations through my own website?
According to TheFork's own page, no: reservations through your own website, Instagram and Facebook are included. Reservations through TheFork, Tripadvisor and partners are not.
Does a reservation through the Google button carry commission?
In many cases yes, because that button routes the reservation through the platform. That was exactly the point KHN demanded clarity on in 2020. Ask explicitly how it is arranged now and whether you can switch that button on or off yourself.
What does TheFork cost per month?
They do not publish it. Independent comparisons quote subscriptions between roughly €30 and €75 a month, but the figure comes out of your own quote. Ask for it together with the commission percentage, because separately they tell you very little.
Is there a reservation system with no commission?
Yes, several. Guestplan is commission-free at €49.99 a month, Zenchef charges €0 a cover but publishes no monthly price, and with us it is €49 a month with the first six months free.