Restaurants, even the hard-to-get-into trendy ones, will take any reservation for a table they can get. But increasingly, the reservations booked online may be no-shows, because of a growing number of third party black market reservations sites.
These reservation scalpers scoop up swaths of reservations at peak times through legitimate reservations sites, like OpenTable and Resy, and then resell those reservations to diners willing to pay a hefty fee to secure that date and time.
Those reservations are marketed through search engines and social media platforms, and diners who pay the fee generally do get the reservation, though those fees can steep, sometimes hundreds of dollars if it’s a particularly hot and trendy restaurant.
The big problem for restaurants is that these reservations scalpers often don’t sell all the reservations they are hoarding.
“Let’s say the third-party site goes in and scoops up all the reservations for 8 p.m. Perhaps they sell some, but don’t sell all of them. And then no-one comes in,” said Michael Whatley, vice president of state affairs and grassroots advocacy at the D.C.-based National Restaurant Association. “Those no-shows cost the restaurant, and they cost the employees who were hoping for tips.”
Black market reservations sites use multiple emails to make legitimate reservations. Restaurants often don’t know their tables are being reserved for resale.
“Restaurants don’t usually have giant marketing teams and IT professionals, so it has kind of become on the restaurants to identify when this is happening,” Whatley said. “That’s the real challenge. There are some restaurant operators that we’ve talked to who say they are totally unaware that they are on these sites.”
The National Restaurant Association is advocating for legislation that restricts black market reservations. Last year, New York became the first state to pass legislation that prohibits third parties from listing, selling or advertising reservations without permission of the restaurant. Similar legislation is being considered in several other states.
For consumers, aside from paying a hefty fee for a reservation that does not go to the restaurant, reservations scalpers also create confusion, and can ultimately drive diners away.
“Folks may go to that trendy restaurant’s website trying to get reservations, and they may do it repeatedly, and never see any reservations,” Whatley said. “So they may think it’s impossible and they can never get into that restaurant.”
A recent survey of diners by the National Restaurant Association showed most consumers believe third-party restaurant reservations sites are harmful to consumers.
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