Reservations *are* annoying now
Four industry-proposed solutions to the bookings blues... and how we got here in the first place.
“When did making reservations get so annoying?” Eater asked earlier this month.
Finding the right table now includes one or more of the following: frustrating app interfaces, confusing credit card agreements, competition for the hottest spots and searching for a restaurant across multiple booking platforms, including an important new entrant.
In the piece, Eater journalist Bettina Makalintal actually calls reservation-making “user-experience hell.”
“When did the very act of making a reservation or finding one get so tedious, requiring all this cross-referencing and Google searching and the downloading of so many separate apps?” Makalintal asks.
Answer: Well, uh, how much time do you have?
Anecdotally, the rise in reservation frustration correlates with the decline of spontaneity and delight. This shift feels part social or even generational, ushered in by the so-called “whimsy killers in our pockets,” a fitting nickname for a smartphone coined by writer Ali Francis in a relatable Best Food Blog post.
We’re planning, we’re researching, we’re booking ahead to secure the best possible spot. This peaked in urgency during the pandemic, when advance bookings and vaccination screenings replaced walk-ins. Along the way, both diners and restaurants grew more and more dependent on the reservations services. Diners wanted access, restaurants needed operational support.
The apps promise restaurants a level of optimization that’s necessary to survive through tumultuous periods of record inflation and dwindling margins. Good software offers faster table turns and more engaged guests while removing much of the logistical guesswork for floor staff — the tablet at the host stand tells them where to seat you, and, increasingly, who you are and what you like.
At the same time, the apps’ promise to diners has gotten murkier.
What was once pitched as consumer-facing convenience — push button, book table — has evolved into a multi-layered, often multi-step experience that’s changed the way we find restaurants and plan our visits. The apps aggregate demand, and the more we use them, the stronger the sales pitch to restaurants as top solutions not only for the convenience of booking, but also for demand generation — putting butts in seats, the only booking metric that really matters.
Expect more change.
I don’t have inside information, but I do have related evidence.