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You're missing half of the equation - It's not just the act of performing the reservation, it allows customers to search for to see if which restaurants have av

You're missing half of the equation - It's not just the act of performing the reservation, it allows customers to search for to see if which restaurants have availability (and at what time). You can't do that unless you have access to all of their seating data, including walk-ins.

stevenwei 16y ago
Yup, and accessing table availability requires integrating with the restaurant's point of sale system so you can track when tables are getting seated and cleared. Innovating technology wise in the restaurant space is pretty tough cause sooner or later you're going to hit the wall of having to integrate with a dozen or more point of sale providers, no matter what you're trying to do (mobile/online ordering, reservation/waitlist systems, reporting systems, etc). Oh, and because of their incredibly low profit margins, most restaurants can't afford to buy this type of tech. And the ones that do typically keep it for 5+ years between upgrades.
- jamiequint 16y ago
  How bad is the barrier to entry though on the software side really? It's my understanding that Micros/Aloha (Radiant Systems) own 50-80% of the restaurant industry. If you hit that percentage with just two integrations it's really not that bad right?
  - stevenwei 16y ago
    Micros and Aloha are definitely the biggest two, and it makes the most sense to start there. But you also have to keep in mind that they both have multiple product lines (plus legacy systems), each with different capabilities and SDKs. The worst part is dealing across vendors though. The APIs are incredibly inconsistent between them, and some are frankly, crippled.
oddboy 16y ago
who is going to disrupt the restaurant business by offering both the web-based POS AND reservation system bundled into a single product/service? solves the problem of having access to seating data and provides a compelling upgrade option compared to alternatives. hardware just needs to be a "dumb" Internet terminal (likely with a touch screen and print capabilities).

stevenwei 16y ago

Yup, and accessing table availability requires integrating with the restaurant's point of sale system so you can track when tables are getting seated and cleared. Innovating technology wise in the restaurant space is pretty tough cause sooner or later you're going to hit the wall of having to integrate with a dozen or more point of sale providers, no matter what you're trying to do (mobile/online ordering, reservation/waitlist systems, reporting systems, etc). Oh, and because of their incredibly low profit margins, most restaurants can't afford to buy this type of tech. And the ones that do typically keep it for 5+ years between upgrades.

jamiequint 16y ago
How bad is the barrier to entry though on the software side really? It's my understanding that Micros/Aloha (Radiant Systems) own 50-80% of the restaurant industry. If you hit that percentage with just two integrations it's really not that bad right?
- stevenwei 16y ago
  Micros and Aloha are definitely the biggest two, and it makes the most sense to start there. But you also have to keep in mind that they both have multiple product lines (plus legacy systems), each with different capabilities and SDKs. The worst part is dealing across vendors though. The APIs are incredibly inconsistent between them, and some are frankly, crippled.

oddboy 16y ago

who is going to disrupt the restaurant business by offering both the web-based POS AND reservation system bundled into a single product/service? solves the problem of having access to seating data and provides a compelling upgrade option compared to alternatives. hardware just needs to be a "dumb" Internet terminal (likely with a touch screen and print capabilities).