Offbeat: Scalping Big City Restaurant Reservations

That sounds like the same argument HFT traders use to defend the way they skim money off the market no matter which way it is moving.

 

America’s Ivy League, home of craven assholes.

 

Kind of related.. For the first time ever I was charged a deposit to make a reservation. Hampton Social in Nashville. Guess that's a thing now because people aren't reliable anymore.

 

I hate people.

 

Great comparison

 

Yes, that is becoming more normal the last few years that I was in New Orleans. They were dealing with this problem. This is absolutely related. Resy's service allows them to just charge a no-show fee and hold a deposit. Easy way to solve this.

 

Gotta hand it to him, this is smart. Good job thinking outside the box.

 

Purchasing a reservation...

 

I'm not sure this would solve it if he's hoarding reservations at restaurants at are booked out of months and are in high demand. I mean, it's a bot with no labor expenses, and he's pretty much guaranteed to sell at a profit -- if nothing else, he could sell the reservation for 1 cent at the last minute to avoid the charges.

 

Also reminds me that back during covid when Insta-Cart was bigger, I remember reading someone made a bot that would accept every order as soon as it was posted, then sell it back to the workers on the secondary market ... another example of skimming money and providing no value. Not sure if Insta-Cart was able to stop it.

 

What happens when the reservations they don’t sell go unused?

 

What he did is awful.

 

Probably nothing, which sucks for the restaurant.

 

This will get figured out if it becomes an issue. I see a significant non refundable deposit if you don’t show being required for upscale restaurants.

 

Same crap with concert tickets.

 

It is a ton of risk. So, for example, Patois, one of the restaurants that I know does this in New Orleans will charge you $75 per seat that doesn't arrive. Let's say they have about 100 seats (which is about right) and about 4 seatings. Each night, you risk $30,000. Your demand model had better be very accurate or else you can wreck your profit margin from that restaurant very quickly.

 

Already there.....was in NYC couple of months ago and all the upscale restaurants required a credit card and deposit for a reservation.

 

putting in my waffle house reservation now

 

I'd gladly pay a no-show fee than be texted, emailed and called multiple times to "confirm you're still joining us."