Is Quandoo closing? What Australian restaurants need to do

Yes, Quandoo is closing. Quandoo is winding down its restaurant booking platform across every market it operates in, Australia included. Diners can keep searching and booking through Quandoo until 30 September 2026. From 1 October 2026 you can no longer take new or existing bookings through the platform, and on 31 December 2026 Quandoo's website, app and back office are switched off entirely. Quandoo has said confirmed reservations will still be honoured, and that its support team will help partners export their data before the shutdown.

Updated July 2026 — the 1 October cut-off, the day your bookings need to already be running somewhere else, is now under three months away. If you're still on Quandoo, this is the guide to moving off cleanly before then.

This isn't a contract you give notice on — it's a fixed, public timeline that's the same for every venue. Below: what each date means, what happens to your customers and data, how to choose a replacement, and a simple week-by-week plan to make the switch before spring.

Is Quandoo really shutting down in Australia?

Yes. This is a full platform wind-down, not a price change or a single feature being retired. The three dates that matter are all public and fixed, with no per-venue negotiation and no reprieve for staying — the marketplace itself is going away. So the only real decisions left are where your bookings live next and how quickly you move your customer list.

What the dates mean for your venue

30 September 2026 — last day for new bookings. Diners can still find and book your venue through Quandoo up to this date.
1 October 2026 — bookings stop. From this day, you can no longer take new or existing bookings through Quandoo. This is the date your booking flow needs to already be live somewhere else.
31 December 2026 — platform removed. Quandoo's website, app and back office are switched off. Anything still living only inside Quandoo — including your customer list — goes with it.

The deadline that actually governs your planning is 1 October. Working backwards from there with a few weeks of breathing room means having a replacement chosen and your customers moved well before the spring rush.

What happens to your customers and bookings?

Two things are at risk: the bookings already in the system, and the customer list you've built up. Quandoo says confirmed reservations will be honoured and that it will help partners export their data — so the action item is clear: export your customer list while the platform is still up, and get it into a system you control. Don't leave it until December, when the infrastructure is being removed and the support wind-down is in full swing.

What Quandoo's closure does not mean

It's worth being precise about what you're losing, because it's easy to over- or under-react. Quandoo did two different jobs:

A diner marketplace — the website, app and partner network that put your venue in front of new diners, charged at $3.50 per guest who booked through it. This rented audience is the part that's going away, and nothing else is a like-for-like replacement for it.
Your own booking tools — the widget and booking page that took reservations from people who already wanted to come to you. This part is easy to replace, and usually cheaper to run once the marketplace fees come off the top.

So the honest framing is: the marketplace discovery is closing, and your own bookings simply need a new home. Be wary of any "alternative" that claims to instantly replace a diner network — that's a different, and far more expensive, thing.

How to choose a Quandoo replacement

For most independent venues, the questions that matter are:

Do I own my bookings and my customer data? Look for a platform where the customer list is exportable and yours, not locked inside a network.
Flat fee or per-cover? Quandoo's $3.50-per-network-guest model meant your costs grew with your covers. A flat monthly fee is predictable and usually cheaper once you're busy.
Is there a setup fee? Quandoo charged $99 (Basic) or $299 (Premium) to start. Plenty of alternatives charge nothing.
Will someone move my data for me? A done-for-you customer-list migration removes the main reason switching feels hard.
Is it built and supported locally? Australian-built tools tend to fit AU venues' workflows and support hours better.

We go through these trade-offs side by side on the TableNest vs Quandoo comparison, if you want to see exactly how the two line up.

Your week-by-week plan to move before 1 October

With the cut-off under three months out, there's no need to panic — but there is a need to start. A calm version of the switch looks like this:

Now — export your data. While Quandoo is still up, export your customer list and any upcoming bookings. This is the one step you can't do after 31 December.
This month — choose a replacement and set it up in parallel. Stand up your new booking widget and page alongside Quandoo so nothing falls through the gap. You keep taking Quandoo bookings until 30 September.
Through September — point your traffic at the new system. Update the booking links on your website, Google Business Profile, Instagram and Facebook so new bookings land in the platform you control.
By 30 September — go fully live on the new system. From 1 October, Quandoo can't take bookings anyway, so this just formalises the move.

Our Quandoo switch page walks through this soft-landing plan and handles the data migration for you.

Moving to TableNest

TableNest is an Australian-built booking system designed for exactly this kind of move. It runs your own bookings — an embeddable widget for your site plus a hosted booking page you can share — with SMS confirmations and a customer CRM, on a flat monthly fee from $29 AUD, with $0 setup and $0 per-cover. It's month-to-month, with no lock-in. To make the move off Quandoo painless, we import your customer list for you, free, so the regulars you earned come across with you. (We migrate the customer list, not Quandoo's internal booking history.)

To be clear about what it is and isn't: TableNest is not a diner marketplace and won't send you new diners the way Quandoo's network did — that network is the part closing. What it does is give you full control of the bookings that come to you, at a flat fee. From the $49 Business plan you can also add booking deposits (on Stripe or Square) to cut no-shows, and gift cards that scan and auto-deduct at your Square terminal — tools Quandoo never gave you.

Quandoo closure FAQ

When exactly do Quandoo bookings stop?
The last day diners can book through Quandoo is 30 September 2026. From 1 October 2026 no new or existing bookings can be taken through the platform, and the platform itself is removed entirely on 31 December 2026.

Will I lose my customer data when Quandoo closes?
Only if you don't export it. Quandoo has said it will help partners export their data before the shutdown, so the safe move is to export your customer list now, while the platform is still running, and load it into a system you control.

Do confirmed reservations still get honoured?
Yes — Quandoo has said confirmed reservations will still be honoured. The risk isn't the bookings already confirmed; it's new bookings after 1 October and your customer list after 31 December.

What's the best Quandoo alternative for an Australian restaurant?
For most independent venues the priorities are owning your customer data, a flat fee instead of per-cover charges, no setup fee, and local support. TableNest covers those from $29 AUD per month and imports your customer list for free — see the full comparison.

Do I have to pay per booking after I leave Quandoo?
Not with a flat-fee platform. Quandoo charged $3.50 per network guest; TableNest is a flat monthly fee from $29 AUD with $0 per-cover, so busy nights don't cost you more.

The bottom line

Quandoo is closing: new bookings stop on 1 October 2026 and the platform is gone by 31 December. The two things to protect are your booking flow and your customer list, and the safe move is to choose a replacement and migrate your customers well before the October cut-off. Pick something you control, with a flat fee instead of per-cover charges, and get your data out while Quandoo is still up.

See your soft landing off Quandoo → · Compare TableNest vs Quandoo →

Closure dates are from Quandoo's own public announcement to restaurants; pricing is Quandoo's published Australian schedule (verified June 2026). Confirm your own details with Quandoo directly.