SevenRooms Upgrades: raise your average check at booking

A guest who books online has already decided to come. It is the best moment to offer a glass of champagne on arrival, a birthday cake or a wine pairing: they are planning their evening, not looking at the bill. SevenRooms Upgrades turn the reservation into a first sale, before the guest even walks in.

The principle is simple: you create add-ons (paid, free or included), attach them to an Access Rule, and they appear in the booking flow. In this guide we cover the three types of Upgrades, step-by-step creation, price, stock and lead-time settings, the July 2026 updates, a worked example for a French restaurant, the mistakes to avoid and how to measure results.

Which SevenRooms Upgrades to offer to raise your average check

Upgrades work for anything prepared in advance or that sells better when guests think about it before service. The ideas that work best in a restaurant:

• Champagne or a cocktail on arrival: the easiest sale, with no preparation lead time.
• Birthday cake or celebration dessert: a classic, with a 24 to 48 hour order lead time.
• Wine pairing: for tables of 2 or 4, for example three glasses.
• Tasting menu or festive menu: a required Upgrade, see below.
• Terrace or premium table: monetize high-demand seating. SevenRooms names this use case explicitly.
• Flowers, merchandise: cookbooks, gift boxes, shop products.
• Useful information for the kitchen: a free Upgrade can collect the number of adults and children, or a vegetarian menu choice.

The three types of Upgrades: Selectable, Required, Bundled

SevenRooms has three types, set through the minimum and maximum quantities of the category.

Selectable Upgrades (optional). The guest chooses whether to buy. In the category, set Minimum Quantity to None Required. For the maximum you can choose Unlimited, Restricted to number of guests in party (no more pairings than guests) or Specific number (useful as a cap, for example 8 chocolate fondants per night). This is the type that supports Lead Times and Inventory Management.

Required Upgrades. The guest must choose one to book: tasting menu, chef's table, festive menu. Set the minimum to Restricted to number of guests in party (one menu per guest) or Specific number, and the maximum the same way. For a family-style menu you can require one starter, two mains and one dessert.

Bundled Upgrades (included). They are added to the reservation automatically, with no choice: a "Chef's selection with wine flight" for example. You add them in the Access Rule under Payment & Policy > Bundled Upgrades, not in Selectable Upgrades. Their description shows in the Guest-Facing Display as soon as the guest picks a time. If it is the only Upgrade on the Access Rule, the booking flow skips the Upgrades page.

Creating an Upgrade step by step

In the web portal, open Online Sales > Upgrades. Depending on your account and the help-center article, you may also see the path Marketing > Upgrades: it is the same page, depending on your interface version.

1. Pick a Template or start from scratch. Since July 2026, Templates are the default experience: they cover common Upgrade types with recommended settings you can adapt to your venue. To start from scratch, go to "Your upgrades", choose the category, then Add an Upgrade.
2. Fill in the Upgrade: name, price, description, image, lead time, inventory and Reservation Tags (details below).
3. Assign it to a category, existing or new.
4. Attach the category to an Access Rule (next section).

A Live Preview updates as you type, from the guest and the staff point of view. Use it to proofread the price, wording and photo before going live.

Category settings

The category groups related Upgrades ("Wine pairings", "Celebrations", "Shop"). It carries:

• the guest-facing name. Tick Show Category Name on Widget for both optional and required categories so guests understand what they are choosing;
• the minimum and maximum quantities (see above);
• service charge (Apply Service Charge), tax (Apply Tax, rates managed in Settings > General > Tax Rates) and gratuity (Apply Gratuity).

In France your prices are tax-inclusive: if the Upgrade price already includes VAT, do not add tax on top.

You can reorder categories and Upgrades by drag and drop (Reorder Upgrades): the order on the page is the order guests see.

Price, photo, description: what sells

Price. Three options: Fixed Price, free (€0), or Don't Show Price to track an Upgrade without displaying an amount. Free is useful to collect information (vegetarian menu, children) or for an included treat.

Description. Say what is included and what the guest needs to know: "2 glasses of Champagne Brut, served at the table on arrival". Main allergens belong on any menu.

Image. Optional, but it changes conversion. It must be rectangular, display at 175 × 130 px and weigh under 1 MB.

Reservation Tags. When the guest picks the Upgrade, one or more tags are applied to the reservation automatically. Your team spots the tables to prepare ("Cake", "Wine pairing") and you can filter those reservations for reporting. To segment your guests afterwards, see our SevenRooms Auto-tags guide.

Stock and lead times: Inventory Management and Lead Times

Two settings prevent surprises in the kitchen. They are only available for optional categories, not for Upgrades in a required category.

Lead Times: require notice

A Lead Time requires a minimum notice between purchase and reservation. In the Upgrade, turn on Require lead time, enter the duration and choose Hours or Days. Examples: a celebration cake at 48 hours, flowers at 24 hours, a made-to-order tasting menu at one week.

If the reservation falls inside the window, the Upgrade simply does not appear at checkout, with no error message. Editing or removing a Lead Time only affects new bookings.

Inventory Management: avoid overselling

Inventory Management caps how many Upgrades can be sold. Turn on Limit inventory, choose the type and enter the quantity:

• Daily limit: one cap per reservation date (for example 10 cakes per day). It resets every day. It cannot be edited afterwards: to change the quantity, recreate the Upgrade.
• Manual limit: one total across all dates (for example 25 bottles of a limited-release wine). You can edit the quantity. When it sells out, the Upgrade is hidden and automatically deactivated in Venue Management Settings.

The type (Daily or Manual) cannot be changed once chosen. If a guest cancels, the quantity returns to stock automatically. You can combine a Lead Time and an inventory limit on the same Upgrade.

Warning: Lead Times and Inventory Management only work with the New SevenRooms Reservation Widget. They are not supported on the Legacy Reservation Widget or on external booking integrations. If your site uses the legacy widget, ask your Customer Success Manager how to migrate.

Attaching Upgrades to Access Rules

An Upgrade is only visible if its category is attached to an Access Rule. Go to Settings > Availability > Access Rules, open the rule, Edit, section Selectable Upgrades > Edit, find the category in Search Upgrade(s), then Done and Save. You can also do it from the category, via Which Access Rules Should Offer This Upgrade Category?

Three things to know:

• You attach a whole category, never a single Upgrade. Every Upgrade in the category is offered.
• Access Rules inherit by default the Upgrades of the Shift (Perks & Upgrades section). You can override them rule by rule: no Upgrade for standard dinner, a bottle of rosé on the terrace, a celebration dessert on a "Birthday" rule, a wine pairing for the chef's table.
• A category with no rule shows "No Availability Selected": guests cannot see it.

This is how an optional category (champagne, cake) lives on your regular service while a required category (tasting menu) sits on a dedicated rule. For a prepaid festive menu, everything is detailed in our guide to the Christmas menu and prepaid New Year's Eve on SevenRooms.

Your team can also book with Upgrades internally. For an Upgrade limited by stock or lead time, SevenRooms shows a warning and you confirm: you can knowingly exceed the stock. And a guest who did not take a paid Upgrade can be offered one again when confirming or modifying their reservation.

Worked example: what a French restaurant gains

Take a fictional Paris restaurant: 400 online reservations a month, 2.5 covers on average (1,000 covers) and an average check of €58 tax-inclusive. The take rates below are working assumptions, to adjust with your own data.

• Champagne on arrival, €14 a glass, taken on 15% of reservations (60), 2.5 glasses on average: €2,100.
• Wine pairing, €35 per person, taken on 10% of reservations (40), 2 people: €2,800.
• Birthday cake, €9, taken on 6% of reservations (24): €216.
• Premium terrace, €8 per person, on 5% of reservations (20), 2.5 people: €400.

Total: about €5,500 of extra revenue a month, or €5.50 per cover. The average check goes from €58 to €63.50, which is +9.5%, and nearly €66,000 over a year, without a single extra service.

This is revenue, not margin: start with high-margin, low-effort Upgrades.

Mistakes to avoid with Upgrades

• Too many Upgrades. Five choices per booking tire the guest. Aim for 3 to 5 in total, in clear categories.
• Forgetting to attach the category to the Access Rule. The most common one: the Upgrade exists but nobody sees it ("No Availability Selected").
• Putting a Lead Time or stock limit on a required category. It is not possible: keep these for optional categories. For a required category, manage the deadline through the Access Rule's Booking Window.
• Using the legacy booking widget. Without the New Reservation Widget, your lead times and stock limits do not apply and you risk overselling.
• Choosing the wrong stock type. Daily and Manual cannot be switched later, and a Daily limit cannot be edited.
• Adding VAT on a tax-inclusive price. Check the category's tax rate.
• Not briefing the team. If a Reservation Tag flags a cake, the floor must know who prepares it and when.

Measuring the impact of Upgrades

SevenRooms offers a dedicated dashboard: Reporting > Upgrades Reporting and Upgrades Export. Depending on your plan it may not be included: if you cannot see it, ask SevenRooms or your Customer Success Manager.

• Lifetime Value: total revenue generated by Upgrades and the share of reservations containing one.
• Performance: trends by day, week or month, including upcoming reservations, useful for stock preparation.
• Popular Upgrades: your best-selling Upgrades and categories.
• Upgrades Export: detail per reservation, including who booked and through which channel.

Calculations exclude cancellations, no-shows, tax, tip and service charge. Then compare the average check before and after over comparable periods, and remove the Upgrades nobody buys.

SevenRooms Upgrades: frequently asked questions

Need help setting up Upgrades on SevenRooms?

Upgrades are one of the most profitable levers in SevenRooms, but only when they are well attached, well presented and measured. Between categories, Access Rules, taxes, stock and the booking widget, the settings interact quickly.

māhie is an agency specialised in restaurants and hospitality, and a SevenRooms expert. For your Upgrades, we can:

• design your Upgrade offer: products, prices, descriptions and photos, based on your menu and your guests;
• configure categories, Access Rules, stock and Lead Times, taxes included;
• audit your current setup and check the New Reservation Widget is in place;
• integrate the widget on your Webflow or WordPress site and track conversions;
• train your team on internal booking with Upgrades and Reservation Tag follow-up.

Want to raise your average check from the booking? Discover our SevenRooms support or Contact māhie: we will review your setup together.