March 22, 2005

Easter brunch reservations on sale for $40

WithoutReservations.biz is back for Easter brunch, this time selling reservations at usually hard-to-book restaurants for $40. The Los Angeles-based company popped up online just before Valentine's Day, selling date-night dinner reservations in Manhattan, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Their Easter brunch bookings in New York are at places such as Balthazar, Blue Ribbon Bakery and Mesa Grill. The $40 fee buys you the reservation only - you still have to pay for the meal.

Although their New York offerings did indeed sell out in February, the Post noted that some of the restaurants listed still had reservations available days ahead of Valentine's Day; all you had to do was pick up the phone and call.

After the Valentine's Day crush, WithoutReservation's Doug James -- who co-founded the company with Jennifer Young -- answered some questions for NewYorkology via e-mail.

Q. When – and why -- did you start operations?
A. We started thinking about this business a year ago, but we really didn't start operations until the beginning of January. The site went live on February 4th. The main reason we started the site was because it's a great idea: For one, it gives discriminating procrastinators a last-minute chance to get a great table at sold-out restaurants during special dining-out occasions. And it also provides restaurants with a diner who's already committed to the reservation, safeguarding restaurateurs from one of their biggest problems: no-shows. (No-shows on big-nights are actually a bigger problem than you'd think ... restaurants stand to lose more money than on typical nights because of special menus and pricing, and diners who think that far ahead often book tables at multiple restaurants only to cancel their back-ups late or forget about canceling them at all.)

Q. What do you do if a restaurant requires a credit card to hold the
reservation? Do you give them a fake one?
A. Are you serious? This is not a scam, it's a business. Every restaurant that requires a credit card to hold a reservation is given a completely valid, legitimate credit card number. Our success relies on the trust of both the restaurants and our customers, so the financial obligation of everyone involved is taken very seriously.

Q. Do you think restaurants like this?
A. Once they see that we're accountable, that we don't book multiple tables per restaurant, and that we help ensure on-time diners and prevent no-shows, there's not much to dislike. And even the best restaurants don't mind the free press touting them as one of the most sought-after places in the city.

Q. Aren’t you basically making it harder for the rest of us to get a table?
A. There is one person who it's harder for, and that's the first person to call after the restaurant is booked, and they are the first person on the waitlist. If our reservation goes unsold, that person gets the table. And they're probably on the ball enough to have made back-up reservations, unlike "the rest of (you)", for whom we are basically making it easier to get a table. Just go to withoutreservations.biz.

March 22, 2005 07:48 AM in Foodology

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