What are the best restaurant pagers for 2024? (updated in 2026)
posted on: October 23rd, 2024
There is an incredible choice of restaurant pagers available and with a number of different uses in any restaurant or hospitality establishment. Budget can play a large role in the choice of restaurant pagers, but so can other and often critical aspects of paging systems, like the building and range, operating frequency, warranty, and the overall quality of the system as well as if local service is available if something fails.
Breaking the operational uses down for pagers in a restaurant creates two categories, firstly for customers and secondly for staff use.
If you need customer or guest pagers then if the budget is very tight, then the cheapest solutions available might be the only option available. But while the 'cheapest' paging system may work for you (or not), often the failure rates and repair ability can be much higher than more premium equipment makers. And cheap paging equipment often includes cheap less reliable batteries.
For the more professional restaurant then the premium paging systems certainly, although costing more, will offer warranty, and usually a service facility for repairs.
Most paging systems on the market offer generally similar features, whether calling customers or staff, the simplicity of recalling either is literally the press of a button. But of more recent times, there is the introduction of the 'watch pager' - a device that looks like a watch for the wrist, can receive messages and can also be recharged over night. These have become more prevalent for restaurants and hospitality as a choice and when worn become almost unnoticeable by customers.
In the
customer or guest paging area of business, most devices
will often beep, buzz or flash. Often that is settable as the 'beep'
gets turned off through annoying customers. Most important features
include how robust the customer pager is, what warranty is available
and overall quality along with that enhanced battery quality and
sometimes over specified (which is a good thing). More recent innovation by one company LRS has
resulted in a 'traffic light' method of notifying guests or
customers when the service or table will be ready. Red means still
waiting, amber means 'it won't be long' and green means the table or
food is
ready. This sort of system alleviates customer walkaways in busy
times and keeps customers up to speed about wait times.
Other articles include:
What are the Buzzers Called at Restaurants?
How Does a Buzzer Work in a Restaurant?
This article has been created by A B McKenzie, MD of LRS UK. Anthony has long experience in the hospitality sector and experience of over 25 years with review experience in vertical sector products. (c) LRS UK 2024-2026.