The restaurant industry in America is going through change. Getting a table in the posh restaurants here has no longer become a game of ‘luck’ but of ‘subscription’. That is, now the war is not for taste, but to get that table. This is being called ‘Restaurant Reservation War’. Amidst the big deals worth about ₹ 11,293 crore and membership fees worth lakhs, for restaurant owners like Mona Panjwani, it is not just a question of booking, it is about that ‘customer’. It’s a battle for control of where and how your next dinner date will be. When Mona opened her luxurious restaurant ‘One40 Rooftop’ in Lower Manhattan, she had a big dilemma, which platform to take the booking from? Panjwani told CNN: Can bring it into the public eye. In today’s times, this decision is not a trivial one. On one hand, Yegav’s survey says that about 40% people are reducing eating out to save money, while on the other hand, there is a competition among booking apps to see who will get the most ‘exclusive’ table. For almost a decade, this market was ruled by Open Table (1998), which today has a network of 60,000 restaurants. Then in 2014 came Rezi, which focused on a premium experience. Panjwani chose ‘Reji’ because it is associated with American Express, which delivers high-end clients directly to him. But now there has been a twist in the story with the entry of Dorsia. This app has been named after the fictional restaurant in the famous 2000 film ‘American Psycho’ where it was impossible to get a booking. To get a table here, people pay a yearly membership fee, which ranges from Rs 18,822 to Rs 23,52,750. Its founder Mark Lautenberg says, “There is really a war for reservations going on.” Dorsia today is generating a daily revenue of around Rs 94.11 lakh to Rs 1.88 crore. Restaurants will no longer be a place of comfort and will become a ‘ticketing system’. Giants like Uber Eats and DoorDash have also jumped in to wash their hands in this flowing Ganga. DoorDash even bought the booking platform ‘SevenRooms’ for about Rs 11,293 crore. ‘Capturing a reservation means capturing the entire customer experience and data,’ says expert Marco Schalma. But Lautenberg takes a dig at this, ‘People don’t want to book a luxury dinner table on the same app from which they order a McDonald’s burger.’ Says Shalma, ‘When every seat becomes ‘digital inventory’, the restaurant becomes not a relaxing place but a ‘ticketing system’.’
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Now ‘Reservation War’ in New York restaurants: If you want a favorite table, you have to pay a fee of up to Rs 23 lakh as membership.
