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.

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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

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

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.

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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
06Cross-location reporting. Pipeline, pace against goals, and revenue rollups per location, per concept, and for the whole group — without exporting to a spreadsheet.
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.

01One thread from inquiry to event day

Guest link · Lumière ScottsdaleSample data

LumièrePowered by Excellent

Founders Dinner — Proposal

A five-course dinner for 70 guests in the Terrace Room, yours for the evening, on Thursday 16 July from 7:00 to 11:00 PM.

Autumn Tasting · five courses

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

Autumn Tasting · five courses · per personQty 70 · Unit $145.00$10,150.00
Terrace Room · evening buyoutQty 1 · Unit $1,050.00$1,050.00

Service charge · 25% $2,800.00

Subtotal $11,200.00Total $14,000.00

A 30% deposit confirms your date. Final guest count is due 14 days before the event.

Awaiting your signature

The proposal a host opens on their phone, drafted by AI from this location's real menu and prices and approved by a person before it went out. No login, no attachment: the courses they'll eat, the lines they're paying for, and the charge worked out from them rather than typed in.

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.

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, 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 Excellent

Your event at Lumière

Founders Dinner — Hale

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

24 days to goHost: Sam Hale

Proposal
Signed
Deposit
Confirmed
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.

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.

04Documents that lock

Guest link · Founders Dinner — ProposalSample data

Sign

Founders Dinner — Proposal

Your full name (printed on the document)Sam HaleEmail (optional)sam@example.com

Type your signature to signSam HaleWhat you type here is recorded as your signature — bound to this exact version.Sign

Reserve your date

Pay deposit$4,200.00Balance due$9,800.00

Pay deposit · $4,200.00Payments are processed securely by Stripe — card details never touch this page.

The event confirms — the tentative hold on Thursday becomes a booking.
Your location is prompted to countersign, and the executed copy goes on file for both sides.
The deposit falls due, with the balance scheduled behind it.

Signed content fingerprint (SHA-256)4f2c9ab1e7d05863…Every signature above is bound to this exact fingerprint of the document content — a change to the content would change the fingerprint.

The same link, two screens on: the host types their name, and the deposit that holds the date is right there beside it. One sitting, no printing, no account — and the signature is bound to the exact version they read, not to a document that can be edited afterwards.

06Cross-location reporting

Portfolio · Reports · This yearSample data

All locationsThis year

Booked revenue$454,50022 invoices · by event date

Collected$369,50081% collected

Active pipeline$212,40011 open events

Booking pace

Ahead of paceProjected to finish at $694,187 by invoice date — 107% of your $650,000 goal.

This period $454,500 · Goal $650,000

By location

LocationEventsConfirmedGuestsBooked (event date)Collected
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

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.

Hold your own group to the seven.

Create your group’s workspace and check each capability against it. Free to build — one plan, everything included, when you go live.

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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

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

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.

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.

Excellent vs Tripleseat

Tripleseat is the incumbent event-management platform for restaurants, hotels, and venues, with the category's largest install base and partner ecosystem.

Read the comparison

Excellent vs Perfect Venue

Perfect Venue is a modern, affordable event-management tool with transparent published pricing and a free tier, built venue-first for independent operators.

Read the comparison

Excellent vs Event Temple

Event Temple is a modern, hotel-first sales and catering platform — CRM, function diary, and group room blocks — with the strongest multi-property story in hotel events software, proven at 60-hotel scale.

Read the comparison

Excellent vs Planning Pod

Planning Pod is a generalist venue-and-event management platform — around forty tools in one, from CRM and booking calendar to BEOs, floorplans, and invoicing — with flat event-volume pricing and unlimited users.

Read the comparison

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.

Start free Watch the demo · 3 min