Chef built his own reservation system BoekEerlijk with AI
Jeremy Arrascaete created the reservation widget BoekEerlijk for restaurants 
Jeremy Arrascaete created the reservation widget BoekEerlijk for restaurants
Four months after launch, fifty restaurants have already joined BoekEerlijk (Book Honest is the proper translation), twenty of them paying customers, and the system has processed more than 7,800 reservations. Founder Jeremy Arrascaeta runs it alone, alongside his job as a chef, and is competing for the Horecava Innovation Award 2027.
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BoekEerlijk | Fifty restaurants connected, AI now helps run the company
In May, chef Jeremy Arrascaeta made headlines in Trouw, De Ondernemer and Food Inspiration with a striking story: he used AI to build a reservation system for restaurants because he found existing systems too expensive. Forty restaurants signed up in the first few weeks. That number has now grown to fifty, ranging from Grou to Eindhoven and including restaurants in Belgium, twenty of which pay a monthly fee. The system has processed more than 7,800 reservations, over 2,000 in the past thirty days, and manages nearly 500 tables during service.
Jeremy Arrascaete created the reservation widget BoekEerlijk for restaurants
Jeremy Arrascaeta still runs it entirely on his own, alongside his job as a chef at De Tafelaar in Amersfoort. His latest step: as of this month, an AI assistant reads his business inbox, sorts restaurant inquiries, and drafts replies and LinkedIn posts. He personally approves every message before it goes out. “I’m not a software company, I’m a chef,” says Arrascaeta. “AI made building it possible, and now running it too. That way a one-man operation can serve fifty restaurants without a help desk. But the decision stays with me, and the guest and the restaurateur remain people.”
BoekEerlijk is built for volume
BoekEerlijk has no limit on reservations, tables or team members, and charges no commission per guest. The busiest connected restaurant has processed more than 2,300 reservations through the system since April; one restaurant that switched over in August ran nearly 500 reservations in its first month. Several connected venues work with forty or more tables. “The idea that a €25 system is only for the small café is wrong,” says Arrascaeta. “A busy restaurant with forty tables pays exactly the same with me as a lunchroom with ten.”
Everything the big systems offer is included
A reservation widget in the restaurant’s own house style (Dutch, English, German), a dedicated reservation page, a daily planner with automatic table assignment and table combinations, an interactive floor plan for use during service, peak-demand management that protects the kitchen, deposits and card guarantees against no-shows, guest profiles with allergies and visit history, a guest portal where guests can manage their own reservations, newsletters to the restaurant’s own guest database, statistics, events and packages, unlimited team members with their own permissions, a staff schedule, and a quoting module for groups and parties with invoices and run sheets. All in a single subscription of €25 per month excluding VAT, with no setup costs, no annual contract, cancellable monthly, and thirty days free. Standard systems typically charge €130 to €250 per month, or commission per guest.
Direct line to the builder, new features every week
Anyone who calls or emails reaches the maker himself, who stands in the kitchen and knows what a packed Saturday night feels like. Feedback from restaurants is processed weekly: what a customer misses on Monday is often live that same week. In recent months this has included the floor plan, peak-demand management, the guest portal and the quoting module — all added at the request of restaurants using the system daily.
Switchers
Requests are now coming mainly from restaurants looking to switch from a large platform, including businesses with multiple locations. BoekEerlijk imports their existing reservations for free and helps with setup. “A restaurateur would rather pay for staff and good products than software,” says Arrascaeta. “That’s what I’m building for.”
About BoekEerlijk and the system participation in the Horecava Awards 2027
BoekEerlijk has entered the Horecava Awards 2027 and is competing for the Innovation Award. Horecava, the largest hospitality trade fair in the Netherlands, takes place from 11 to 14 January 2027 at RAI Amsterdam.
BoekEerlijk is a Dutch reservation system for the hospitality industry, from small café to busy restaurant and restaurant group, built by chef Jeremy Arrascaeta. Arrascaeta (twenty years in hospitality) started in the kitchen at fourteen, trained in Belgium, and worked at Michelin-starred restaurants in France, resorts in Australia, and Bougainville in Amsterdam. He was a finalist for the Euro-Toques Young Chef Award 2018. BoekEerlijk is based in Amersfoort, has no outside investors, and runs on Dutch hosting.
Website: BoekEerlijk
