Quandoo Is Shutting Down: What Restaurants in Italy Must Do Before 30 September 2026

2026-08-09 · Guides

Quandoo is shutting down, and Italy is one of the markets affected. The wind-down follows a fixed schedule: bookings stop on 30 September 2026, the window to export your data closes on 30 November 2026, and on 31 December 2026 the entire infrastructure is switched off. That leaves two separate problems, in this order: secure the guest database before it disappears, and choose a replacement — in practice, restaurant management software that handles reservations instead of the platform. This guide covers the three dates, the export procedure, and the criteria that matter when picking what comes next.

## The three dates to put in the diary

In short: from 1 October 2026 no more bookings arrive through Quandoo, and from 1 December 2026 nothing can be recovered. The two months in between are buffer for the export, not for the dining room.

| Date | What happens | What to do before it | | --- | --- | --- | | 30 September 2026 | Last day guests can book through Quandoo | Have the new system live and the booking link replaced everywhere | | 30 November 2026 | The window to export reservation history and guest data closes | Download the full export and check it line by line | | 31 December 2026 | Infrastructure is switched off: site, app and account are gone | Nothing — after this date there is nothing left to recover |

The three deadlines do not carry the same weight. 30 September 2026 is operational: if the new system is not live by then, the restaurant is no longer bookable through that channel from 1 October and the Quandoo link on your website becomes a dead end. 30 November 2026 is final: after that day, a guest database built over years can no longer be downloaded. 31 December 2026 is not a deadline to meet — it is the end of every option.

## What exactly do you lose if you do not export?

Short answer: the entire guest history. Names, email addresses, phone numbers, visit counts, notes and preferences (allergies, favourite tables, regulars) and — the detail most people discover late — the list of future reservations. Bookings already accepted for dates after 30 September 2026 still concern your restaurant: the guest turns up regardless. If that list is not saved and carried across, a party of ten arrives in October and nobody on the team has it in the diary.

One honest caveat about reviews: assume they are lost. Ratings collected on a marketplace are published by the platform, which remains their controller, and there is no publicly documented route for moving them to another vendor. Save a screenshot of your average rating and plan to rebuild your online reputation where guests actually look — in practice, on Google.

## How to export your guest data from Quandoo

Short answer: do it now, not in November. The closer 30 November 2026 gets, the longer response times can reasonably be expected from a support team that is itself winding down. Six steps, in order.

• 1. Check your access today. Log in to the partner account you use to manage reservations and confirm the credentials still work. If they belong to a staff member who no longer works with you, reset the password today, not in November.
• 2. Inventory what you need. Four items, not three: guest contacts (first and last name, email, phone), the complete reservation history, notes and special requests, and every future reservation, including those dated after 30 September 2026.
• 3. Find the official procedure in the partner area. There is no public documentation of the exact click path or of the file format: what counts is what you find inside your own account. If something looks off, ask support rather than guess.
• 4. Request a complete export from support. Write through the contact channels listed inside the account, spell out all four items from step 2, and put a date in writing by which you need the file.
• 5. Verify the file — do not just file it away. Open it, count the rows, spot-check that emails, phone numbers and notes are actually there. An incomplete export discovered in December is no longer an export: after 30 November 2026 there is nobody left to ask.
• 6. Keep a dated copy of the original file before any edits: it is your evidence of an orderly data handover.

If the export stays incomplete or support goes quiet, there is a concrete legal lever. For your restaurant's guest data you are the controller; the platform is only the processor. Article 28(3)(g) GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) requires the processor, at the controller's choice, to delete or return all personal data once the service ends. Make the request in writing, with a deadline.

You can lift this wording straight into your email: "As the data controller, and pursuant to Article 28(3)(g) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and our data processing agreement, we ask you to provide us by [date] with a complete copy of all personal data processed on behalf of our restaurant, including the guest database, reservation history, guest notes and all future reservations." Mind the limit of that claim: it covers only data processed on your behalf. For reviews published on the marketplace the platform is itself the controller, which is why a refusal on that point holds up. The step-by-step procedure is in our guide to exporting Quandoo data.

## What to look for in the software that replaces it

Four criteria, in order of importance for anyone moving right now.

• 1. The guest data must be yours, and exportable at any time. This is the whole lesson of the shutdown. Before you sign, check that an export button for the guest database exists — and press it during the free trial. If it is missing, or has to be requested from support every time, the same problem returns in a few years.
• 2. Commission per cover, or a flat fee. Portals are typically paid as a commission on every booked guest; reservation software is paid as a flat monthly subscription. Run your own numbers: at 300 covers booked online per month, a hypothetical €2 per cover is €600 a month, or €7,200 a year — and it grows precisely in the months the restaurant trades best. Real rates differ by vendor, so get yours confirmed in writing.
• 3. A booking page of your own. You need a booking link for your website, your Google listing and Instagram, plus a widget to embed in an existing site. If online table booking only ever runs through the vendor's own profile, you are rebuilding the dependency you are escaping.
• 4. Google integration. Restaurant searches almost always start on Google or Maps. A system connected to Reserve with Google puts the booking button directly on the restaurant's listing, with no intermediate step and no marketplace commission.

## Reservation management: portal or software?

Short answer: they are two products solving different problems, and the Quandoo shutdown concerns the first kind. A portal supplies demand and charges for it per use; software supplies the tools and charges a flat fee.

| | Booking portal (marketplace) | Reservation management software | | --- | --- | --- | | Pricing model | Commission per guest or per cover | Flat monthly fee | | Guest database | Shared with the platform | The restaurant's own, exportable | | Booking channel | Your profile on the portal | Your own page and link, embeddable widget, Reserve with Google | | Reservation diary | Included, but inside the platform | Included, independent of the vendor | | If the vendor shuts down | You lose the channel and the data | You export the data and switch tools |

This is not an ideological choice. If a portal brings in new guests who would never have found you, the commission earns its keep. If most bookings come from people who already know you — they search the name, open the Google listing, book — you are paying commission on your own guests.

## What restaurant management software actually has to do

The baseline in 2026: a reservation diary you can read on your phone in the dining room, a table plan, automatic confirmation and reminder emails to guests (one of the most effective levers against no-shows), an exportable guest database, and a public booking channel. Everything else — a digital menu with a QR code, review requests, a POS link — is useful, but comes after.

## Stolio: what it does, what it costs, and what it does not do

Disclosure: Stolio is our own product, so no sales prose. The limitations are listed below too, so nobody wastes time.

Stolio is a reservation system for restaurants, not a portal: it does not bring new guests, it manages the ones already looking for you. It is paid as a flat monthly fee, with no commission per cover or per guest. Standard (€19.90 per month) includes the online reservation system, a visual table plan, a guest database that is exportable at any time, automatic confirmation and reminder emails to guests, the restaurant's own website page, a public booking link, an embeddable booking widget, a staff mobile app installable straight from the browser, and Reserve with Google. Plus (€31.90 per month) adds a digital menu with a QR code, recommended dishes on the restaurant page, automatic Google review requests after a visit, daily lunch menus, allergens and categories, printable QR templates, and push notifications for every new reservation. Pro+API (€61.90 per month) adds the Syrve POS integration with two-way reservation sync, plus API access. Since August 2026 a single account can manage up to 5 restaurants, each with its own subscription, team and free trial. Plan details are on the pricing page.

The limitations, stated plainly. The dashboard interface exists in Czech and English only — there is no Italian version. The guest-facing booking flow and the automatic emails guests receive are in English or Czech, not Italian. Subscriptions are charged in Czech koruna (CZK) even though prices are quoted in euro. Support replies in English or Czech (in German for German-language enquiries): Italian-language support is not established. If an Italian interface is a requirement for your restaurant, those are good reasons to pick a different vendor — and we would rather say so before a migration than after one.

If you already work in English and the priority is getting out of Quandoo without losing the guest database, it is workable: the trial runs 14 days with no credit card, and we help with the migration and setup free of charge. Email info@stolio.cz with the file you exported from Quandoo attached.

## The plan, in order

• This week: confirm access to the Quandoo account and request the complete export of all four items.
• By mid-September 2026: choose the new system and run it in parallel, so there is time to load tables, opening hours and capacity calmly.
• By 30 September 2026: replace the booking link everywhere — website, Google listing, Instagram, Facebook, email signature — and remove the Quandoo widget.
• By 30 November 2026: confirm the export is complete and archive the dated original copy. After this date there is no going back.

The shutdown is a nuisance, but it is also the moment to stop keeping the guest database inside a platform you do not control. Whichever vendor you choose, the only question that really matters is: if this one closed tomorrow, could I take my data out in ten minutes? To try Stolio, start the 14-day free trial — no credit card required.