Yelp is trying to change the way users visit restaurants — or the way in which they wait for a table with the $40 million purchase of Nowait, a startup that uses technology to streamline the seating process at restaurants around the country. [More]
reservations
Faraday Future Unveils Latest Electric Vehicle, FF91
By 1.4.17
It looks like Tesla has some competition in the high-end electric vehicle field: startup automaker Faraday Future unveiled its first commercial electric vehicle targeted for production prior to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday. [More]
Multiple Airlines Experience Issues With Reservations After Sabre Systems Glitch
By 11.11.16 — Updated: 11.13.16
If you’ve been having issues booking flights today, you’re not alone: multiple carriers have confirmed they were affected by a glitch in the Sabre reservation system. [More]
Would You Pay For A Restaurant Meal When You Make The Reservation?
By 12.2.14
It’s one thing to make a reservation at a restaurant and get charged for failing to show up, but would you be willing to prepay for your meal at the same time you make your reservation? Some businesses are betting that devoted diners will be willing to pay for their meals before they ever arrive at the restaurant. [More]
Want A Dinner Reservation At A Popular Restaurant? Pay Up
By 10.21.14
Earlier this month, we shared with you the news that a delivery-only restaurant in San Francisco added dynamic pricing to its business model: that is, instead of shutting down orders when there is high demand, they simply charge customers more. Similar models are becoming an extra revenue stream for restaurants, removing the risk from reservations and earning them more money when their products are more in demand. [More]
Groupon Now Offering Time-Based Restaurant Deals That Require A Reservation
By 9.3.14
Part of the hassle Groupon customers traditionally have faced is presenting that printed or mobile deal voucher to redeem it when the time comes. And that time wasn’t always ideal for businesses, either, with owners complaining of floods of customers wielding vouchers and overwhelming them. In an attempt to allay both stressful situations, Groupon’s new foray into the deal world for restaurants that take reservations comes with a time limit, with no voucher presentation involved. [More]
Sick Of Losing Dinner Reservations To Bots, Engineer Creates A Better Bot Of His Own
By 7.26.13
Like tickets to a Justin Bieber concert, dinner reservations at some restaurants are so desirable that people will go out of their way to insure they get a table. But while many of us just wait until the hype dies down and dine out at eateries where you don’t need a reservation, there is a war waging online to see who can create the better reservation bot to game the system and score seats as they pop up. [More]
Restaurant Uses Twitter To Shame People Who Blew Off Reservations
By 3.26.13
Allowing diners to reserve tables can be a risky proposition for restaurant-owners, as the business may have to turn away walk-in customers based solely on the reservation-holders’ say-so that they are going to show up. When the diners fail to materialize, it can mean lost business to the eatery, which is why one L.A. restaurant recently decided to start naming names of no-shows on Twitter. [More]
Caught In The Middle Of A Game Of ‘Blame The Other Company’
By 10.2.12 — Updated: 10.8.12
Aldo learned something interesting this week: airlines will sell two tickets issued to the same person on the same flight from different vendors. It’s one thing to buy two adjacent seats at the same time if you’re a person with an above-average rear end, but Aldo and his wife each bought him a ticket for his flight. He went directly through United, and she used Expedia. This turned out to be a terrible mistake, since it meant that United and Expedia could play the always-exciting game of “blame the company, then pawn the customer off on them.” [More]
Virgin America Is Pleased With Their New Reservation System
By 11.2.11
Despite experiencing some of the inevitable hiccups from transferring a legacy system to a new one, Virgin America tells me that they’re overall “pleased” with how the reservation system transition they started on Saturday is going. [More]
Virgin America's Brand New Sabre Reservation System Hits Turbulence
By 11.2.11
Virgin America has hit some extreme turbulence ever since they switched to a new Sabre Airline Solutions reservation system on Saturday. Travelers are lighting up the inter-boards with complaints that they can’t make or change their reservations, and call centers are swamped, with customers having to wait over four hours on hold. [More]
Getting The Hotel Bed You Ask For Is Only For The Elite At Hyatt
By 8.23.11
When Rosalie and her husband reserved a room at a Hyatt Place hotel, they thought that by requesting two queen-size beds, they were reserving two queen-size beds. This is not so: they were requesting two queen-size beds, and the couple learned this the hard way. This wasn’t just a case of travel preferences and first world problems: Rosalie suffers from severe back problems, and needs a nice, immobile bed to herself in order to prevent Even More Pain. [More]
How It Took 15 Hours To Use My $309 Virgin America Credit Through Expedia
By 8.22.11
It’s wonderfully easy to book a flight using travel mega-sites like Expedia, but even easier for the buck to be passed and companies to refuse to communicate when things go wrong. That’s what happened to Sara when she had to cancel and rebook a flight reservation originally made on Virgin America via Expedia. [More]
Hotel Gives Away My Room, Hotels.com Won't Give Me My Money Back
By 8.22.11
For all the confirmation e-mails and reservation numbers you receive when booking a room through Hotels.com — and most third-party discount reservation sites — there is still a slim chance that you’ll arrive at your destination only to find out your room has been sold off to someone willing to pay more. [More]
I Lost Priceline Hotel Reservation Because My Card Was Maxed Out
By 4.13.11
Josh doesn’t have a lot of money. When he and his girlfriend went to check in to the Crowne Plaza hotel room they reserved on Priceline, he handed over his credit card to confirm the reservation, and his card was declined. They wouldn’t accept his girlfriend’s card to put on file for incidentals, and they were ultimately turned away, losing the reservation…and the money they paid Priceline for the room. [More]
Restaurant Seats Us, Then Kicks Us Out For Being Late
By 2.16.11
When you’re late for your restaurant reservation, it’s well within the establishment’s rights not to seat you at all, or to make you wait until after customers who actually showed up on time are settled at their tables. Steven writes that he showed up late for his reservation on Valentine’s Day, but restaurant staff initially seated him and his companion. When they were about to order, a restaurant employee came and asked them to leave the table, since they had really forfeited their reservation and the restaurant had seated them by mistake. Steven didn’t just leave the table, he left the restaurant and dined elsewhere–and now isn’t sure how to follow up on the experience. [More]
White Castle Offers Test To See If She Really Loves You
By 1.19.11
If your love is true — I’m talking love as deep as what you’ll find in Before Sunset or the hearts of Buffalo Bills fans — it can survive absolutely anything, including the complete forgetting of Valentine’s Day or its utter degradation, which would encompass dinner reservations at White Castle. [More]
How Do Airlines Compare On Fees?
By 9.27.10
It’s hard to keep track of all the extra fees airlines have invented to pad a ticket purchase, especially since they keep introducing new ones; USA TODAY says revenue from added fees have jumped nearly 16% from a year ago. The newspaper reviewed fees from 13 airlines in the U.S. and compiled this handy reference chart of current fee schedules, to make comparison shopping a little bit easier. As expected, Southwest continues to be one of the best values. [More]
