CentralPlanner

CentralPlanner is an online reservation book for businesses that schedule tables, rooms, or activities. It is best suited to operators who need guest records and capacity management alongside online booking. Its free tier is a practical starting point, while higher tiers add automated booking decisions and operational tools.

Overview

Reservations automatically create guest contacts and contribute to a guest history, so staff can keep booking records connected to the people making them. The system also manages rooms, tables, seating capacity, and suggested table combinations. That makes it relevant beyond restaurants, including hotels and sports centers that take bookings for spaces or activities.

Businesses can accept online reservations through a form embedded on their website or Facebook page. From Premium onward, CentralPlanner can check capacity and immediately accept or reject online requests; manual review remains an option. This is useful for businesses ready to automate decisions, but the free and Basis tiers do not have that Premium booking capability.

Key features

CentralPlanner combines guest history with table and room planning rather than treating each reservation as a standalone entry. Suggested table combinations can help with seating decisions, while capacity planning in Professional adds a further layer for businesses coordinating bookings against available space.

Professional also includes reservation attachments, reminder emails, and post-visit thank-you or review emails. Its 5GB file allowance is aimed at operators who need to keep PDFs or images with reservations. These features make the top package more suited to a structured workflow; smaller operations may not need them.

The maker says normal questions are usually answered within 10 minutes on workdays and around 10 hours on weekends, with 24-hour on-call support for outages. It says servers are in German data centers, backups are made daily to decentralized storage, and redundant core components support 95% average annual availability. The help center describes an API key that lets an external application write directly to a CentralPlanner account.

Pricing

CentralPlanner is freemium, with a 30-day trial and four plans. Paid plan amounts are shown in euros per month before VAT; the displayed price for Starter is in US dollars, so compare the stated terms rather than assuming a shared billing currency.

The published plan terms distinguish the tiers by booking volume and operational features: Starter is capped, Basis removes the cap, Premium adds automatic capacity handling, and Professional adds planning and communications tools. Pick the lowest tier that covers the booking volume and workflow you actually need.

Platforms

Reservations are accessible in a browser from internet-connected devices, and free iOS and Android apps are offered. The platform listing also includes API access, which is relevant for businesses connecting an external application that writes reservation data to an account.

Who it's for

CentralPlanner is a sensible fit for restaurants, hotels, sports centers, and other businesses booking rooms, areas, or activities. Its strongest case is for an operator that wants guest history and capacity management in the same system, then can move to Premium or Professional as automation or operational controls become necessary. Businesses needing only a simple booking form, or a free plan that supports more than 50 monthly reservations, should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Reservations build guest history automatically, keeping contacts tied to booking activity.
• Pros: Table, room, seating, and capacity tools serve businesses beyond restaurant table booking.
• Pros: A free-forever Starter plan provides a no-cost entry point, while paid plans have unlimited monthly reservations.
• Cons: Starter's 50 reservations/month ceiling may be restrictive for a busy venue.
• Cons: Automatic acceptance or rejection based on capacity starts only with Premium.
• Cons: Professional's planning, communications, and 5GB of attachments require the top tier.

Alternatives

For a broader comparison of restaurant-focused tools, see Restaurant Reservation Software.

Choose Anolla if you want a free online table reservation option with paid features that can be activated as needed; its listed platforms also include macOS and Windows. Eat App is another freemium option, with a free plan capped at 100 guests monthly and a Lite tier offering unlimited guests for $99/mo. Favouritetable may suit a venue wanting a free web-based reservations diary, onboarding, and up to 30 online bookings per month, with no contract.

Resos is an alternative with a 350-booking monthly Basic plan and a 30-day period for paid add-ons before separate billing. simpleERB offers a free trial with 250 covers and no credit card or commitment. MyResApp is web-only and has a free offer for the first 5,000 qualifying restaurants, with its standard $189 per month pricing waived under that initiative.

TabTake Reservations is worth considering for order-focused needs: its free Direct plan covers one location and up to 150 orders a month, but does not include reservations. Tableo offers an Organise plan at $57.50 a month billed annually, with unlimited bookings, three user accounts, and website, Google, Facebook, and Instagram channels.

Verdict

Choose CentralPlanner if you need a reservation system that connects guest history with table or room capacity management, and you value a path from a capped free plan to automated booking decisions and fuller operational tools. Look elsewhere if 50 monthly reservations is not enough for a free plan, or if you need automatic capacity-based handling without moving to Premium.