From Spanish tapas at Barrafina to Parrillan’s live-fire grill and the taquerias of El Pastor, Harts Group brings bold, authentic dining experiences to London. With private dining rooms and lively group-friendly spaces across the city, group bookings and events are a core part of their business.
But managing those bookings across multiple busy restaurants came with challenges: manual processes, scattered systems and missed opportunities.
To streamline operations and maximise bookings, Group Reservations and Reception Manager Davide Palermo turned to SevenRooms CRM, Marketing & Operations platform. SevenRooms not only brought clarity and control to their day-to-day operations—it also helped unlock the full potential of their group dining spaces.
With SevenRooms’ new Group Bookings feature, the team doubled group reservations year-over-year at Barrafina—while significantly reducing the workload.
Here’s how they made it happen.
From gaps to gains: Replacing Resy with a smarter system
When Resy left the UK market, the Harts Group team had to make a quick decision. The replacement system needed to be intuitive, automated and, most importantly, intelligent.
“Our previous reservation platform wasn’t smart,” he explained. “We were left with empty gaps between reservations. I was checking every single booking across seven venues every morning just to maximise space.”
Since switching to SevenRooms, that morning scramble has all but disappeared.
“We’ve been with SevenRooms for almost a year now, and we see far fewer empty tables than before. The booking algorithm does the work—it fills all the gaps.”
A game-changer for group bookings—and team efficiency
While standard reservations improved immediately, group bookings were still a challenge—until SevenRooms launched its new product.
“Before, guests couldn’t see our private spaces online. Unless they’d dined with us before, they didn’t even know to ask. We’d have to manually send menus, photos and pricing every time. Not a great process,” Davide said.
That all changed with SevenRooms’ Group Bookings product which allows venues to offer both reservations and group booking options directly within the Reservation Widget.
“Now, even someone booking a table for two can see that we offer group bookings. It’s essentially free advertising,” he added. “We can display pictures of the space, set menus, minimum spend—all on one page. And guests can book themselves.”
This visibility translated to real results. For Barrafina’s Borough Yards location alone, group bookings more than doubled year-over-year, increasing from 22 to 52 from January - April.
Across three venues, group bookings have generated £63,173 in revenue and 838 covers in 4 months.
Alongside an increase in bookings, the new self-serve booking feature has delivered another significant benefit: time saved.
“Guests used to email us just to ask if we had space. Now they can see everything and book directly. The number of enquiries our team needs to handle has dropped. That time is now reinvested in delivering better service,” Davide explained.
SevenRooms’ POS integration also streamlined post-booking logistics. “When the deposit is paid, the system knows. It deducts it from the bill automatically. No one needs to chase payments. Now our team can focus more on hospitality, not accounting.”
Smarter marketing and greater visibility
With more control over the guest journey, the team has leaned into smarter, more proactive marketing—especially around key moments like Christmas.
SevenRooms CRM helps Davide and his team collect and organize guest data, creating detailed profiles that capture dining preferences, past visits and special requests. This enables them to send highly personalized, timely marketing messages to guests.
“Using SevenRooms, we track who booked corporate events with us last year and email them directly to invite them back—sometimes with perks to secure an early commitment.”
A clearer picture for the whole team
“With SevenRooms, everything’s centralised in one place,” says Davide. “From reservations to marketing and events, everyone can see what’s happening and what’s booked.”
This shared visibility has eliminated guesswork across the team—making it easier to plan rotas, place orders and deliver seamless service so Davide and his staff can focus on what matters most—the guest experience.
Want to see how SevenRooms can transform your group bookings?
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