CentralPlanner

Overview

CentralPlanner is a reservation-management system for businesses that book tables, rooms, or activities. It suits operators who want guest records and space planning alongside online booking. Its free tier is tightly capped, while paid packages add unlimited reservations and progressively more automation and follow-up tools.

Reservations create guest contacts and build visit histories, keeping repeat guests’ bookings connected. CentralPlanner also manages rooms, tables, seating capacity, and suggested table combinations. That range makes it relevant to restaurants, hotels, sports centers, and other businesses booking spaces or activities—not only dining rooms.

Businesses can embed reservation forms on their websites or Facebook pages. The system is accessible in a browser on internet-connected devices, with free iOS and Android apps as well. An API key allows an external application to write directly to a CentralPlanner account, useful for businesses connecting their own software.

Key features

Guest records and capacity

Linking reservations to guest contacts gives staff a history to refer to when handling returning visitors. Table and room management, capacity tracking, and suggested combinations help operators decide where a booking fits. These tools are a better match for businesses coordinating space than for those that only need a simple online form.

Booking automation and follow-up

From Premium, CentralPlanner can check capacity and automatically accept or reject online requests; manual review remains possible. This can reduce routine decision-making, but operators who want that automation must move beyond the lower tiers. Professional adds capacity planning, reservation attachments, reminder emails, and post-visit thank-you or review emails. Its 5GB attachment allowance covers PDF documents and images, a useful operational resource with a defined storage ceiling.

The maker says it normally answers questions within 10 minutes on workdays and around 10 hours on weekends, with round-the-clock on-call support for outages. It reports German data-center hosting, daily backups to decentralized storage, and redundant core infrastructure supporting 95% average annual availability.

Pricing

CentralPlanner is freemium, with a 30-day trial and paid packages whose prices are shown in euros per month, excluding VAT. The Starter plan is free forever and allows 50 reservations per month. It is a sensible way to begin or handle low booking volumes, but the monthly cap makes it a poor fit for busier operations.

Basis costs 19,90€ / Monat zzgl. MwSt. and raises the reservation allowance to unlimited. It suits businesses that have outgrown Starter’s quota but do not need Premium’s automated booking decisions. Premium costs 34,90€ / Monat zzgl. MwSt.; it keeps unlimited reservations and adds automatic capacity-based acceptance or rejection of online requests, making it the stronger choice for operators looking to reduce manual review.

Professional costs 59,90€ / Monat zzgl. MwSt. and includes unlimited reservations plus 5GB of file storage. Capacity planning, attachments, reminders, and post-visit emails make it the most complete package for teams that need both operational planning and customer follow-up. The trade-off is the higher monthly cost and a fixed attachment limit. The paid-plan terms are VAT-exclusive, so businesses should account for VAT when comparing costs.

Platforms

CentralPlanner supports web, Android, and iOS, and also provides an API. Browser access works from internet-connected devices, while mobile apps offer a dedicated option for staff away from a desk. The API is relevant to businesses that want an external application to write into their account.

Who it's for

CentralPlanner is a good fit for restaurants, hotels, sports centers, and other operators that need to manage bookings against rooms, tables, or activity capacity. It is particularly compelling when guest history and space planning matter together, or when online reservations need to be handled with increasing automation. Businesses with fewer than 50 monthly bookings can start free; those exceeding that volume need a paid package for unlimited reservations.

It is less suitable for a small operation seeking a permanently uncapped free plan, or for teams that do not need guest and capacity management and would rather pay only for a basic booking form.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Guest contacts and reservation histories keep repeat-visitor records together.
• Pros: Room and table management, seating capacity, and suggested combinations support more than simple booking intake.
• Pros: Premium adds automatic capacity-based decisions, while Professional adds planning and post-visit communication tools.
• Cons: Starter stops at 50 reservations per month, so growing businesses must move to a paid tier for unlimited volume.
• Cons: VAT is added to the stated paid-plan prices, and Professional attachments are limited to 5GB.

Alternatives

For a wider category comparison, browse Restaurant Reservation Software.

• Anolla is worth considering if a free basic online table-reservation plan and broader device coverage, including macOS and Windows, matter more than CentralPlanner’s stated guest-history and capacity tools.
• Favouritetable offers a free-for-life tier capped at 30 online bookings per month, with onboarding and no contract; it may suit a restaurant with modest booking volume that values those terms.
• Eat App has a free tier for 100 guests monthly and a Lite plan with unlimited guests; consider it if those guest-based limits align better with your operation than CentralPlanner’s reservation-based cap.
• Resos is another freemium option with web, mobile, and API support; consider it if its booking limits or core-feature package better fit your needs.
• simpleERB offers a free trial with 250 covers and no credit card or commitment, making it an option for a time-limited evaluation.
• TabTake Reservations has a free Direct plan for one location and up to 150 orders monthly, but reservations are excluded from that plan; it is relevant if order handling is the priority.
• GetReserve has a free plan with an online booking page, reservation book, one floor-plan space, and guest profiles with visit history; consider it if those specific basics are sufficient.
• MyResApp offers a permanent free plan for the first 5,000 qualifying restaurants; it is an alternative to consider if your restaurant qualifies for that initiative.

Verdict

Choose CentralPlanner if your business needs one system for reservations, guest histories, and managing capacity across tables or rooms. Premium is the key step for automated booking decisions, while Professional is better suited to teams that need planning, attachments, and email follow-up. Look elsewhere if the 50-booking free cap is too restrictive or if you want a simpler booking tool without CentralPlanner’s broader management approach.