◍For restaurants and local retail

Three things, and all three are about being up to date, not about design:

1. Opening hours — correct, the same everywhere, including public holidays and closing days.
2. The entry in the map service. For many businesses more important than their own website: that is where people search, where photos and reviews are, and where the route is started.
3. Current pictures of how things really are.

What matters less than most people think: an elaborate website. Anyone looking for a restaurant decides in the map view — the website is only opened to check the menu or the opening hours.

This leads to the most important recommendation in this chapter: look after the map service first, then the website. And keep both the same.

In all places at the same time — and there are more of them than you think:

• Website (contact page and footer).
• Map service.
• Business directories.
• Social networks.
• Phone announcement, if you have one.
• Notice on the door.

What causes the most trouble: public holidays and special hours. A guest standing in front of a locked door because the website said something different does not come back — and may write a review about it.

What helps:

• A notice at the top of the page that can be set for a period and then disappears by itself.
• Store special opening hours in the map service — it is designed for this and displays them prominently.
• A list you work through with every change.

As text on the page, not as a PDF — that is the most important difference.

Why:

• A PDF loads slowly and is tiresome to read on a phone. That is exactly where most people look.
• Text is found. Someone searching for “schnitzel Radebeul” will not find a menu that exists as an image.
• Text can be changed without anyone having to rebuild a PDF.

What is legally required:

• Prices as final prices, including VAT.
• Additives and allergens — the labelling obligation also applies online if you publish the menu.
• Details of origin, where prescribed.

And the practical point: if the menu changes weekly, it is better to show a fixed selection plus a reference to the daily menu than to maintain a menu that is never right.

If you publish the menu: yes, and as final prices including VAT.

What the Price Indication Ordinance (Preisangabenverordnung) requires:

• Final price per item.
• Unit price per litre for drinks or by weight for food, where applicable.
• Additional costs must be stated if they apply — service charges, surcharges.

What you should not do: publish a menu without prices. It does not come across as exclusive but as off-putting, and guests then expect the worst.

And if prices change often: add the date of the last update and check regularly. A price shown lower online than on the menu in the restaurant leads to a discussion at the table.

Reply — to good ones and bad ones, factually and without delay.

What works:

• Short. Two or three sentences.
• Factual. Even with unfair reviews. Whoever justifies themselves loses; whoever replies factually wins with everyone reading along.
• Specific. “The table really was not ready, we are sorry — we have changed the procedure.”
• Do not argue. One reply, not an exchange of blows.

What you must not do:

• Invent or buy reviews. That can lead to formal legal warnings (Abmahnungen) and fines.
• Show only good ones, if you embed reviews on your own site.
• Encourage guests to leave reviews with incentives without disclosing it.

And the most important point: asking for reviews is allowed — and the most effective lever there is.

Real, current ones, and not many — but the right ones.

What guests want to see:

• The room, as it really looks. Not empty and tidied up, but in use.
• Two or three dishes that are typical of you.
• The entrance, so that people recognise it.
• The terrace or outdoor area, if you have one.

What does not work: stock photos of food you do not serve. People notice, and it works against you.

On the technical side: landscape, good light, get closer. Food photos work best in daylight by the window.

And update them after a refurbishment. A picture of the old dining room is a disappointment waiting to happen — in both directions.

Via a form, yes — as a real booking with table management, no.

The difference:

• Form: the guest gives the preferred time and number of people, and you confirm. You keep control over capacity.
• Booking system: the guest immediately gets a confirmed table. For that you need a specialised service.

For most small businesses the form is sufficient and even better — because an automatically allocated table rarely matches the actual planning.

What to look out for:

• Say when you will confirm. “We will get back to you within 24 hours” removes uncertainty.
• Always show the phone number as well. Someone who wants to book for tonight will call.
• Same-day reservations via a form are unreliable — say so.

It is the most important element of your website — more important than any text or picture.

Why: in this sector, people decide at short notice. Someone looking for a table for tonight calls. Someone who wants to know whether you are still open calls.

What that means in practice:

• Number in the header, on every page, clickable on a mobile phone.
• Big enough to hit with your thumb.
• Also stored in the map service and correct.

And the second part: answer the phone. An answering machine during opening hours costs revenue. If you cannot answer, say on the page when you can be reached.

The most common avoidable mistake: a number as an image that cannot be tapped.

If you have regulars: yes — but sparingly and with a reason.

What works:

• Few issues a year, but with real content: new menu, seasonal offers, events, holiday closures.
• Sign-up on the premises — with a slip of paper and double confirmation by email. That is the way that actually brings addresses in this sector.

What you absolutely must bear in mind: consent with double confirmation. “Simply adding” addresses from reservations or the guest book is a breach — and a common one in this sector.

And the alternative that often works better: social networks for short-notice things, the newsletter only for what can be planned. If you do both, do not write the same thing.

It is personal data, even if it is “only” a reservation.

What you should bear in mind:

• Purpose limitation. A reservation does not entitle you to advertising. That requires a separate, voluntary consent.
• Delete after the visit, if there is no reason to keep it. Reservation lists are not an address database.
• Data minimisation. For a table reservation you need the name, number of people, time and a way of contacting them — nothing more.
• No details of intolerances unless necessary: allergies can be health data. Record sparingly what guests tell you of their own accord, and delete it afterwards.

And the classic to avoid: the reservation list lying open on the counter. Data protection does not start in the computer.

With time-controlled notices instead of text changes that someone has to reverse.

What is worthwhile:

• A notice at the top that appears and disappears by itself: beer garden open, winter menu, holiday closure.
• Seasonal pictures, if the difference is large. A snow-covered outdoor area in July does not work.
• A clear statement of what applies when — “Terrace from mid-April, weather permitting”.

What you should not do: rebuild the whole site. It takes time every time and hardly anyone notices.

And enter the changeover dates in advance — in February for April. What is decided in February is forgotten by April.

No — for a reason that only becomes apparent when it is too late: the entry does not belong to you.

A profile that is blocked, merged or claimed by someone else is not an exceptional case. If all your visibility is there, you lose it through a decision someone else makes.

In addition:

• Legal notice obligation. Business profiles need a legal notice (Impressum) too — most link to the website for it.
• Factual information. Nobody finds the menu, rooms, directions or events among thirty posts.
• Reservation requests outside opening hours.

The right division: the map service for visibility, the website as the point of contact. Both maintained, both the same.