The category, defined

Private dining & events software for restaurant groups

One system that carries a private event from inquiry to event day — proposal, e-signature, deposit, BEO — across every location, with group-level menus, pricing, and reporting that single-location tools cannot provide. Excellent is built for exactly this: high-end US restaurant groups, AI-native, with staff training on the same platform.

Events · BEO · Lumière TempeSample data
GuestKitchenFloorInternal

Product Launch — Northwind

LocationLumière TempeDateSat, May 18 · 6:00–10:00 PMGuests110SpacesTerrace Room · Main Room

Run of show

  • 16:00Vendor load-in & setup
  • 18:00Guest arrival · reception
  • 19:00Dinner service
  • 22:00Last call · breakdown

Menu

Autumn Tasting · five courses

  • Squash velouté, brown butter
  • Diver scallop, celery root
  • Duck breast, quince, farro
  • Comté, honeycomb, walnut
  • Pear tart, crème fraîche

110 covers · 6 vegetarian · 2 shellfish allergy · 1 gluten-free

Signed by the host — this version is locked

A signed document is never edited. It is superseded by an amendment the host re-signs, and the original stays on file.

One BEO, drafted by AI from the event's real menus, spaces, and counts, and approved by a person before anyone sees it. The kitchen, the floor, and the guest each read the view meant for them — costs are stripped from the guest's copy when it renders, not hidden behind a setting.
01

What it has to do

The bar for a restaurant group, in seven capabilities. If a tool misses one, the gap becomes a spreadsheet, a second system, or a double-booked Saturday.

  1. 01One thread from inquiry to event day. A lead becomes a proposal, the proposal is signed and deposited from one link, and the details flow into the BEO the kitchen runs from. Re-keying between systems is where events go wrong.
  2. 02Group-to-location inheritance. Menus, packages, and pricing set once for the group, forked per concept or location, with provenance on every value. This is the line between group software and a single-location tool multiplied.
  3. 03A calendar that cannot double-book. Not a warning — a hard block. If the system allows a time-overlapping confirmed booking in the same room, the busiest night of the year is when you find out.
  4. 04Documents that lock. Signed contracts and paid invoices must be immutable, with an audit trail. Totals exact to the cent, snapshots frozen when money moves.
  5. 05Guest-facing surfaces that feel like your rooms. Proposals, portals, and payment pages are the first thing a guest sees. They should read like your hospitality, not like back-office software.
  6. 06Cross-location reporting. Pipeline, pace against goals, and revenue rollups per location, per concept, and for the whole group — without exporting to a spreadsheet.
  7. 07Staff training on the same spine. The people who sell and run events also need to be trained and certified. A separate LMS means a second system with the same people, locations, and menus — one platform means one record.

03A calendar that cannot double-book

Events · Lumière Scottsdale · CalendarSample data
Mon 13
Tue 14
Wed 15Chef Table — Iqbal6:30 PM · Confirmed
Thu 16Founders Dinner — Hale7:00 PM · Tentative
Fri 17Product Launch — Northwind6:00 PM · Confirmed
Sat 18Corporate Summit — Vantage6:00 PM · ConfirmedAutumn Wedding — Marchetti7:00 PM · Tentative
Sun 19
Confirming a second bookingTerrace Room · Sat, May 18 · 7:00–11:00 PM
Refused — “Corporate Summit — Vantage” already holds that space for an overlapping time. Pick another time or space.

Held by the database, not by a warning dialog — the room cannot be sold twice, whoever presses save and whenever they press it.

A tentative hold may sit on top of another booking — it is flagged, not refused. A second confirmed booking in the same space at an overlapping time is refused outright, by the database, even if two people press save at the same moment.

05Guest-facing surfaces that feel like your rooms

Guest portal · Lumière ScottsdaleSample data
LumièrePowered by
Your event at Lumière

Founders Dinner — Hale

Thu 16 July · 7:00 – 11:00 PM · Lumière Scottsdale

24 days to goHost: Sam Hale
  1. Proposal
  2. Signed
  3. Deposit
  4. Confirmed
  5. The big day

Your documents

  • Founders Dinner — ProposalAwaiting your signatureReview & sign
  • Founders Dinner — Event OrderFor your reviewRead

Payments

Total$14,000.00Paid$0.00Balance$14,000.00
  • Due soonDeposit — 30%Fri 26 June$4,200.00
  • UpcomingBalanceThu 2 July$9,800.00
Reserve your datePay deposit · $4,200.00Payments are processed securely by Stripe — card details never touch this page.

The details

DateThu 16 JulyTime7:00 – 11:00 PMLocationLumière ScottsdaleSpaceTerrace RoomGuests70 requested

These are the details on your request as it stands today. The guest count is the number you asked for — nothing is confirmed until your booking is. Tell your coordinator if anything should change.

One link, scoped by what it is allowed to see — the host gets documents and money, and the link the host forwards to their guests for photos gets the wall and nothing else. Neither is a login.

The link the host actually gets, in the venue's name rather than ours: the whole event on one page — where things stand, the proposal to read and sign, the deposit that holds the date, and the details of the night. No login, no password, and no PDF to hunt for in a mail thread.

06Cross-location reporting

Portfolio · Reports · This yearSample data
All locationsThis year
Booked revenue$454,50022 invoices
Collected$369,50081% collected
Active pipeline$212,40011 open events
Booking pace

Ahead of paceOn pace to finish at $694,187 — 107% of your $650,000 goal.

This period $454,500 · Goal $650,000

By location

  • LocationEventsConfirmedGuestsBookedCollected
  • Lumière Scottsdale93640$184,500.00$151,200.00
  • Lumière Tempe72470$131,000.00$118,400.00
  • Lumière Phoenix52300$86,750.00$61,300.00
  • Hearth Phoenix41210$52,250.00$38,600.00
  • All locations2581620$454,500.00$369,500.00

Booked is the invoiced value of the period's events; collected is money actually received against it. Both are read from immutable snapshots frozen when money moved, so last year's number cannot quietly change when this year's prices do.

The whole group on one screen: what every location booked and collected this year, and whether the group is on pace to hit the number it set. No exports, no per-location logins, no spreadsheet stitching four accounts together — and the same rows roll up per concept on a concept's own page.

A single-location tool, multiplied, is not group software.

Seven capabilities are the bar. What decides whether a group clears them is the data model underneath: menus that fork instead of duplicate, a calendar that refuses a conflict instead of warning about it, and one record for events and for the people trained to run them.

02

Built for a different job

Most event software is built for one venue, or for banquet halls in general. Excellent is built for high-end restaurant groups running private dining across several locations: menus and pricing set once for the group and tailored per concept or location, AI that drafts proposals and BEOs for a person to approve, and staff training on the same platform as events — one system, one record, every location.

Group-native, not retrofitted

Concept-to-location inheritance is the data model, not a parent-account overlay. Set a menu or price once, fork it for a brand or a single location, and always see where a value came from.

AI-native, not bolted on

AI writes the first draft of proposals, BEOs, and replies; your real menus, spaces, and prices fill in exactly. A person approves everything before a guest sees it.

Events and training, one platform

The same people, locations, and menus power private events and staff training — courses, graded assessments, version-pinned certifications. One login instead of an events tool plus a separate LMS.

Group-native, not retrofitted

Events · Menus · Autumn TastingSample data

$145.00per guest, set at the group

  • Group Five courses, authored once for every conceptBase
  • Lumière ConceptPrice held at the group figure for the whole brandLocked
  • Lumière Scottsdale LocationAdds a sixth course — the truffle supplementOverridden here
  • Lumière Tempe LocationTakes the menu exactly as the group wrote itInherited

A location can change whatever its concept has not locked. Nothing is copied, so the group edits one menu — not one per location.

One menu, authored once for the group and resolved per location — with every value showing where it came from. Change the group's version and every location that inherits it changes too; the one field a location changed stays its own until someone resyncs it.

Events and training, one platform

Craft · Roster · All locationsSample data
RosterExpired cards: 1
  • Elif DemirManagerLumière ScottsdaleStaff ID EMP-1065Current trainingSteps of ServiceCompleted · 96%completed 12 Jun 2026Documents on fileFood Handler CardActiveExpires 4 Mar 2027
  • Diego FuentesBartenderLumière ScottsdaleStaff ID EMP-1060Current trainingAllergen Handling — CertificationCompleted · 88%completed 3 Jun 2026Documents on fileAlcohol Service (TIPS)ExpiredExpires 22 Jul 2026
  • Ravi PatelSous chefLumière PhoenixStaff ID EMP-1068Current trainingKitchen Closing & SanitationAssignedDue 14 Aug 2026Documents on fileFood Protection Manager (CFPM)ActiveExpires 9 Nov 2026

Assignments are not hand-kept: a standing rule targets a role at a location, so the next bartender you hire inherits this training the day they're added. Every completion is pinned to the immutable version of the content it was earned against, and Compliance evidence prints the register — version, score, and content fingerprint per line — as one document for an insurer or an inspector.

The same team, on the same platform as the events they run: who is trained, on which version of the material, whose training is due, and whose alcohol-service card has lapsed. A separate training tool would mean a second copy of these people and these locations — and the copy is always the one that goes stale.
03

Compare the field

Side by side with the tools most groups are choosing between — including, stated plainly, where each of them is the better choice.

04

Common questions

What comes up before a group shortlists anything: what the category is, how group software differs from a single-location tool, what to look for, and what it costs.

What is private dining and events software?

Software that runs a restaurant's private events business end to end: capturing inquiries, drafting proposals, e-signing contracts, collecting deposits, generating BEOs for the kitchen and floor, and reporting on the pipeline. For restaurant groups, it also has to manage this across several locations and concepts at once, with shared menus, pricing, and rollup reporting.

How is software for restaurant groups different from single-location tools?

The data model. A single-location tool multiplied across locations means duplicated menus, duplicated templates, and per-location configuration that drifts apart. Group-native software inherits: menus and pricing are set once at the group level, forked per concept or location where needed, and every value shows where it came from. Reporting rolls up across locations instead of living in separate accounts.

What should a restaurant group look for in events software?

Seven things: one thread from inquiry to event day; group-to-location menu and pricing inheritance; a calendar that hard-blocks double-bookings; immutable signed documents and locked payment records; guest-facing surfaces worthy of the room; cross-location reporting with pace and goals; and staff training on the same platform, so events and training share one record of people, locations, and menus.

Does Excellent include staff training?

Yes. Excellent Craft runs courses, graded assessments, version-pinned certifications, and printable compliance evidence packs on the same platform as events — the same people, locations, and menus, one login.

What does private dining software cost?

Most of the category is quote-based. The incumbent prices per location with paid add-ons for floorplans and advanced reporting, plus a documented platform fee on payments; some single-location tools publish transparent flat pricing. Excellent publishes its price: $360 per location per month, everything included — floorplans, pace reporting, staff training, every user — with no setup fees and never a percentage of sales. Total cost of any tool is the subscription plus add-ons, payment fees, a separate training tool if events software does not include one, and the admin hours spent re-keying between systems. The Tripleseat cost calculator adds this up with your own numbers.

Now onboarding restaurant groups

Hold the back office to the standard of the dining room.

Create your group’s workspace and hold this page’s checklist against it. Free to build — one plan, everything included, when you go live.