Bookingrid.com Restaurant Reservations Website Eliminates Risk Of No Shows With Valentine's Day Promotion

Variable pricing to end table discounting

Diners able to sell on tables at a profit

Bookingrid.com, a new restaurant reservations service that promises to eradicate restaurant losses due to no shows, is launching with a special introductory promotion for Valentine’s Day day.bookingrid.com.  A  similar promotion will be announced for Mother’s Day.

With no sign up fees or recurring monthly charges, Bookingrid.com provides up front payment at the time of booking to give a significant boost to restaurateurs’ cash flow.

Rather than risking alienating customers by restaurants charging a non-refundable deposit, Bookingrid.com will ensure restaurateurs receive prepayment, whilst offering diners the flexibility to return their table or resell it – possibly at a profit.

Following successful trials in conjunction with Harden’s restaurant guide for leading London restaurants, many Michelin-starred, including The Cinnamon Club, Il Convivio, Benares, Rasoi, One Blenheim Terrace, Pied a Terre and L’Autre Pied, Bookingrid.com is to launch with a reduced fee for owners who sign up for its Valentine’s Day promotion.

When booking a table with a credit card through the website, diners commit to a minimum spend, and Bookingrid.com charges restaurant 8.5% of that minimum spend.  This figure is being reduced to 3.95% (less than half price) for restaurants who sign up for Valentine’s – a day when restaurants are almost invariably fully booked and no shows can cut deeply into an establishment’s profits. No commission is payable on expenditure over and above the minimum spend, encouraging staff to up sell. The percentage includes all credit card costs.

Whereas diners who fail to show up for their Valentine’s Day booking for which they have paid a non refundable deposit, risk forfeiting up to £150 at some exclusive venues – users of the website will have a money-back guarantee from Booking.com for Valentine’s Day, with to opportunity to offer their table to other diners – or even sell it at a profit. The service enables diners to cancel unwanted reservations with bookingrid.com repurchasing unwanted bookings. 

Bookingrid.com emails diners to remind customers of their reservation, with the option to release their table if they are unable to fulfil the booking. Bookingrid.com offers a buy back promise on all cancellations.

Despite initial scepticism, trials have shown that customers are more than happy to prepay for hard to get tables at peak times at leading venues.

“Most restaurants who are open on Christmas day easily sell out for Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, despite prepayment and premium pricing,” said Bookingrid.com founder Surgey Dugaev, adding “People expect to prepay for seats at the theatre, sporting events, concerts and on  airline flights  – why should a coveted restaurant table be any different?”

Because restaurants have to factor in the cost of no shows – it is loyal and reliable diners who currently pay the price. They also lose out when denied a table, which has been reserved by a “ghost customer”, who fails to materialise. Many unreliable diners are likely to be deterred by prepayment, but bookingrid.com views covers the remaining risk. Ultimately loyal customers should  be rewarded through lower pricing.

With restaurateurs becoming disillusioned with costly, unflxed discount promotions, Bookingrid.com hopes its initiative will herald a move toward “variable pricing” within the restaurant business, where levels of supply and demand determine the price diners pay.

Such a move will even out busy and quiet periods, whilst allowing customers on a restricted budget to eat in better restaurants at less sought after times and on less popular days. Restaurants will be able to “turn” more tables and increase covers.

With the Bookingrid.com model, diners are not asked to pay more for the same meal and different times, just to commit to a minimum spend at peak times. This avoids the scenario where you may get two people sharing a starter and drinking tap water taking a table, which could be occupied by a party ordering the tasting menu accompanied by fine wines.

Dugaev foresees the situation where in times of exceptional demand restaurateurs offer to buy back tables from diners in order to resell them, possibly to an out of town visitor, who have no flexibility over their choice of dining time, for a higher minimum spend.

Also there is nothing to stop speculators, buying up tables with a view to reselling them at a profit. 

“This is the way the market should operate – it’s a win-win situation,” said Dugaev.  “If someone is desperate for a late table at a full restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, maybe because the have forgotten their wedding anniversary, they will have the opportunity to bid for one.”

Such variable and flexible pricing should allow those currently unwilling, or unable, to pay top prices at leading restaurants, effectively to be “subsidised” when eating at certain times.

“Why should someone who wants a table in a half full restaurant at 12 noon a Monday have to pay the same as someone eating at 8.00pm on a Saturday night?”  asks Dugaev.  “If you want to catch a train in the rush hour, the ticket costs more than travelling off peak.”

In addition to the increased efficiencies that come from online bookings over paper based reservations, participating restaurants will benefit from a major marketing push from Bookingrid.com and the creation unique web promotions.