Ask any restaurateur where they spend their shift and the answer is never "at a desk." You are on the floor, in the kitchen doorway, walking a table to their seats. The reservation book, meanwhile, is stuck on a laptop in the back office — which is exactly why a new booking, a change, or a cancellation so often gets noticed an hour too late. The fix isn't more screens on the wall. It's putting the reservation system where your hands already are: on your phone.
Does a reservation system need a mobile app?
Short answer: yes — but not the kind you hunt for in the App Store. Stolio works as an installable app (a PWA) that you add to your phone straight from the browser: open your dashboard, tap Install, and Stolio lands on your home screen and opens full-screen like any native app. There is no App Store listing to find, no download store, no review queue — it works the same way on iPhone and on Android. Every staff member can install it on their own phone in about thirty seconds, and the mobile app is included on every plan at no extra cost.
The feature that actually changes service: push notifications
The single most useful thing a phone can do for a restaurant is tell you the moment a table books. With Stolio's push notifications, a new reservation appears on your lock screen within seconds — *"New reservation: 4 guests, Friday 19:00"* — even when the app is closed. No refreshing a page, no waiting for an email that a provider like Seznam quietly files into the Hromadné folder, no finding out at the end of the night that you were double-booked. You see the booking as it happens and can confirm, move, or call the guest before the next course goes out.
This is also why the phone beats email for staff alerts. Confirmation emails to guests still matter, but for *your* team an email is easy to miss and often lands in a secondary tab. A notification on the lock screen is unmissable — which is the whole point when a Saturday-night booking arrives mid-rush. Push notifications are part of the Plus plan and higher.
Works on every device, for every person who needs it
Because it is the same web app everywhere, Stolio doesn't force you to choose a platform. The owner installs it on an iPhone, the manager on an Android, the host runs it on the tablet at the door, and the back office opens the exact same dashboard on a laptop — all in sync, all live. Table status, today's covers, guest history and the visual floor plan are identical on a phone and on a desktop, just laid out for the screen you're holding.
How to set it up (about two minutes)
1. Install the app. Open your Stolio dashboard on your phone. On Android, tap the install prompt; on iPhone, use Safari's Share button and choose "Add to Home Screen." Stolio is now on your home screen.
2. Turn on notifications. In the app, go to Settings → Notifications and enable push notifications, then allow them when your phone asks. Do this on each phone that should get alerts — every member of your team can have their own.
That's it. From that moment, new reservations reach the right people instantly, wherever they are in the building.
No commission, whichever device you use
None of this carries a per-booking fee. Where marketplace apps charge a commission on every cover they send you, Stolio is a flat monthly price from 499 CZK per month with zero commission per reservation — a full house on a Saturday costs exactly the same as a quiet Tuesday. The mobile app comes with every plan; real-time push notifications come with Plus and above.
The takeaway
You don't need another gadget behind the bar. You need the reservation book in your pocket and a tap on the shoulder every time a table books — which is exactly what a phone does better than anything else. If you're still deciding between systems, compare the options on the Czech market or start a free 14-day trial; setup takes about five minutes and no credit card. And if no-shows are your real headache, the notification habit pairs perfectly with our guide to reducing no-shows.