Vikings, Govago launch online reservation

MANILA, Philippines - Niu by Vikings and Govago’s  ResDiary are introducing the first complete online booking system that allows restaurants to get closer to their diners  and manage tables more effectively.

With the landmark partnership, Resdiary will allow Niu to more efficiently accommodate customers, manage its reservations and maximize engagement with its diners resulting to only satisfied customers.

According to Niu marketing head Charles Stewart Lee, Niu means nine in the Viking language and is a significant number in Norse mythology. Niu, interestingly, has nine different stations of with a variety of meals ranging from Japanese, Chinese, Pan Asian,Grill, Carving, and Pastry to name a few.

Serving more than 4,500 restaurants in 17 countries, Resdiary eliminates the current pen and paper reservation making reservations faster and more organized. Govago president Dennis Ng said 100 percent of restaurants in the country still make reservations by writing down names, not even getting email addresses or telephone numbers.

“I think the restaurants here in the Philippines are still stuck in the dark ages to a large extent. I think Filipinos has evolved and grown and has become a bit more digitized over the past two, three years, Airlines and hotel bookings have been successful, but the vast majority of restaurants in the Philippines are still using a pen and paper diary to manage their bookings and that’s not what happens in the UK, Australia or the US markets, so there’s a long way to go in the Filipino market to get the restaurant industry in-line with the rest of the world,” Ng said.

“With ResDiary, there will be a bunch of features that Niu will immediately get access to,” said Ng. One of the features is the booking widget that can be added to the restaurant’s website, Facebook page and Twitter account.”

Niu by Vikings is located on the 6th floor of SM Aura Premier – open every day from 11 a.m. to 2:30 pm for lunch and from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. for dinner.

Govago, meanwhile, plans to aggressively expand Resdiary in the Philippines, targeting about 300 local restaurants by end of 2015.