Frequently asked questions

What does moonies do, and why would I use it?

moonies is your venue's memory: all the knowledge you need to keep running, in one place. Recipes, ways of working, agreements, suppliers, changes and the end-of-shift handover, instead of scattered across heads, notebooks, loose documents and the group chat.

The point isn't the storing, it's the finding. Working in the kitchen? You find the recipe and how to plate it. Working the floor? You find the agreements and changes. And the knowledge stays with the venue, even when someone drops out or leaves.

Who is moonies for?

For hospitality's small and mid-sized businesses, in the broad sense. Restaurants, cafés, lunchrooms, a caterer, a coffee bar, a small hotel with a kitchen, a food concept with a few branches. Whether you're in the kitchen yourself or running the place.

What most of our users have in common: they do a lot themselves, want a grip on their margin and their knowledge, and have no patience for expensive, complicated software built for the big chains. If you run a place where knowledge now lives in heads, notebooks and the group chat, moonies is for you.

Why would I pay for this when I already have everything in documents and notebooks?

You can, and for a while it works. Until you go looking for something and it's in the wrong version of a Word file. Or in a notebook someone took home. Or in the head of someone who just has the day off.

Documents and notebooks store things, but they don't make anything findable. And they walk out the door when people leave. moonies keeps the knowledge in one place, searchable, the venue's, not a person's or a folder's.

I have a small venue, is this actually useful for me?

Especially then. Even with a small venue you want your info in one place and to simply know where everything is, instead of searching through notebooks, chats and heads. You see your margin per dish at a glance, so you know what something earns without complicated admin. And if you often do everything yourself, that overview gives you calm and time.

Can I start with one part, or do I have to take everything?

You can start small. Take just the kitchen, just the memory or just your HACCP, and expand later whenever you want. That way you only pay for what you really use right now, and you grow at your own pace.

What's the point of a recipe bank in an app?

Everything in one place, including your old recipes, and easy to scale without any maths. You add photos and capture how you plate something, so everyone understands and executes it the same way.

And because your recipes are captured, your MEP list rolls out automatically. No more separate calculating or copying over, it's just there. That saves you time and margin, the two things it really comes down to in hospitality.

Hospitality is already getting so impersonal. Doesn't this add to that?

Exactly the opposite. moonies sits behind the scenes, never between you and your guest. No tablets on the table, no chatbot. It takes the hassle away from your team, the searching, the messaging, the endless re-explaining, so they're there for the people in front of them. The guest notices nothing, except that everything runs more smoothly.

Does it work for multiple locations?

Yes. moonies is built for multiple branches: each location has its own recipes, menu and agreements, and you switch between them in a tap. Pricing is per location, so you only pay for the venues you actually use.

Does it work on phone and tablet?

Yes. moonies just works in your browser, on phone, tablet and computer. The kitchen view is made for exactly that, a phone or tablet on the bench, so you don't need anything extra. And you can simply print the recipes if you like.

I don't have time to set all this up. How much time does it really take?

Less than you think, because we do most of the work. You just take photos of everything you have, like all the info in notebooks or your printed recipes, and hand over documents. That can be a Google Doc, a PDF, or even straight from another app you already use for your recipes. We make sure it all ends up in moonies.

Sometimes we have a few questions left, but beyond that you don't have to do anything complicated. No training on Monday morning, no painful onboarding. You just start with what you need most often, and the rest grows along as you work.

What if I get stuck or need help?

Then we help you. We set up the first venues personally anyway, so be quick, and if you have a question you always get a real person on the line, no chatbot. We build moonies together with people from hospitality, so we understand what you run into.

Can I try it out first?

You don't start with a button, but with a conversation. We get in touch personally, set moonies up together with you, and you take your time to see whether it fits your venue. You only pay once you really get going.

What does it cost?

You'll find that on the pricing page. The price you choose when you sign up stays your price forever. The most we'd ever raise it is a small annual inflation adjustment, if that's needed.

Whose data is it, and is it safe?

Yours. What you capture belongs to your venue, and you can always export it. Stopping? Then you take it all with you.

moonies runs in a European data center that's on green power and working towards being climate neutral. They're not there yet, but hard at work on it. Your data stays in Europe and is well secured.

What happens when someone leaves?

Then you remove their access with one click. After that they see nothing anymore. No old menus, recipes or agreements left floating around. The knowledge is the venue's, not the person's.

That's exactly why we're building this. Sanne herself still has access to the data of a venue where she worked seven years ago, menus and all. A bit odd, right? That's not how it should be. With moonies you decide who can get in, and when someone leaves everything stays, your recipes, agreements and knowledge, with the venue.

How does moonies use AI?

Sparingly, and only where it really helps. Looking something up or reading it back costs no AI, that's just part of the app. We use AI for heavy manual work you'd otherwise do yourself: changing one ingredient across 8 recipes at once, say, or searching a list intelligently. You choose when you use it. And contact with us is always a real person, never a chatbot.

Doesn't all that AI use a huge amount of energy?

It's not too bad. Most of moonies, like looking something up, reading it back or passing it to your team, uses no AI at all. You only use AI for the big jobs, and not all day long, only when it genuinely takes work off your hands. That's also why there's a monthly limit, and you can top up if you need more for once. Right now we know that importing 5 to 10 recipes costs about as much as boiling water for 1 cup of tea. Thomas will measure the real usage once we've been around a bit longer and have more data, and as soon as we do you'll find an accurate figure here.

Why this product?

We don't need to tell you hospitality is under pressure. Margins are thin, staff turns over fast, and as an owner you're basically always on. The big chains have expensive software that gives them a grip on their costs and their knowledge. The place around the corner (often) doesn't, because those tools aren't made for them and certainly aren't priced for them. We don't think that's right.

Small businesses deserve that grip just as much. It's the places with a face of their own that keep hospitality colourful, the ones you don't want to lose to a streetscape of nothing but chains. That's why we build moonies: affordable and simple, made for hospitality's small businesses.

• Time and margin. Your recipes, foodcost and knowledge in one place, easy to find. So you know what a dish earns without complicated admin, and you keep time over for the parts that are actually fun.
• A day off that's actually off. A venue that runs on people being constantly reachable wears people out. moonies catches a large part of those questions, so you're no longer called for every little thing.
• Your data stays yours. No more chefs or colleagues carrying recipes and knowledge in their heads or on their own phones and taking it with them when they leave. What you capture is the venue's.
• Less waste. Less food going in the bin, and less knowledge disappearing when someone leaves. This is something we're developing further right now.

Why are you building this?