About Now Book It

It’s no secret the folks at Now Book It have hospitality in their DNA.

For more than 7 years, the brand has been partnering with hospitality venues across Australia and New Zealand to help manage guest bookings and reservation data.

The very essence of the Now Book It brand was born from a desire to improve the status quo and revolutionise the way venues were able to leverage customer data to create great customer experiences. 

From Managing Director to the Customer Service team, Now Book It are passionate about the hospitality industry and bring something unique and special to the table.

Craig Joel, Managing Director and Founder of Now Book It, has worked in hospitality from the beginning of his career, later opening his own restaurant and previously held the position of President of the Catering Institute of Australia (ACI) for ten years.

It was during his appointment at ACI, and liaising with many restaurateurs, he became aware of the impracticalities and limitations of the guest reservation systems that were being used.

Owners were paying per person booking fees, high commissions and managing daily operations with third party software platforms that owned or co-owned the venues data.

Feeling sure there must be a better alternative, Craig sat down with a group of restaurant owners and collectively, they designed a ‘blueprint’ for a reservations system that worked to benefit the Restaurateurs.

The collaboration resulted in a system that empowered restaurateurs to take control of their business using a custom built platform which enabled  complete ownership of their data, using it to benefit and grow their business. The software also introduced a flat monthly fee structure in line with what restaurateurs wanted.

Just 12 months later, Now Book It was launched in Western Australia. As a testament to the success of the system, in a matter of months it was scaled to meet the demands of a national market.

“It was an exciting time as we got the sense that we could make a real difference. We totally disrupted the industry with a new way of doing things”, said Craig Joel.

As a result, Now Book It leads the market in online reservations and gift cards throughout Australia and New Zealand. Currently partnering with over 6,000 venues and rapidly growing.

The Now Book It team supports thousands of restaurant partners every day with dedicated staff on the ground in every urban centre. The extraordinary standard of service and support  is one of the things that truly sets the brand apart from it’s competitors.

From the outset, the product was developed by people in the hospitality industry, for the industry. That’s what makes Now Book It so unique and loved by the hospitality community. Our success has always been attributed to how we collaborate with industry and meet their changing needs.

Almost a decade later, Now Book It leads the way with new and innovative product offerings, which have been designed in conjunction with restaurateurs to meet the rapidly changing needs of the industry.

According to Craig Joel (CEO), “Our culture and brand are firmly focused on a partnership approach.”

That’s how Now Book It started out, and that will never change”.