3 ms·

IMHO, it's unethical to the extent that there's no value add over the customer directly reserving a table through the restaurant rather than through you. Otherw

IMHO, it's unethical to the extent that there's no value add over the customer directly reserving a table through the restaurant rather than through you. Otherwise, you're just engaging in a form of arbitrage. And arbitrage is only useful to the extent that it informs the supplier that there is excess demand (in this case, the restaurants are well aware there's excess demand if there's a line for seats). That said, having customers have "skin in the game" does add value. But the ethical way to implement this would be to get the restaurants to consent to your system (and maybe get a cut). The value of a paid reservation varies by restaurant, and it should be up to them to decide if it's worth the risk of pissing off customers, not you.

teej 12y ago
Are you kidding? Of course it's useful to the customer! Do you know how annoying it is to get a reservation at some of these restaurants? For example - ReservationHop has a 7:45pm reservation next Friday night to Zero Zero for 4 people. If I try to book the same date/time/party through Open Table, I only have 6pm and 8:15pm available. If I wanted to book that time I would have had to call weeks in advance. I am getting convenience for money. That's a fair trade. And let's not act like this market didn't exist before. People have been doing this on craigslist and other sites for years.
- andrewfong 12y ago
  There's no net win for customers overall. Your win is someone else's loss in that case. In fact, it's a net loss from an overall perspective since you had to pay ReservationHop. The fact that people have been doing it for years does not make it ethical.
- Mikeb85 12y ago
  If they didn't have that 7:45 reservation for 4 people, it might still be open... They're artificially reducing supply, then selling it back and pocketing the difference.
- davorak 12y ago
  > Are you kidding? Of course it's useful to the customer! It is not clear to me that the benefit gained by the reservationhop user out weighs the negative externality[1] paid by the rest of the restaurant goers. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality#Negative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality#Negative

teej 12y ago

Are you kidding? Of course it's useful to the customer! Do you know how annoying it is to get a reservation at some of these restaurants? For example - ReservationHop has a 7:45pm reservation next Friday night to Zero Zero for 4 people. If I try to book the same date/time/party through Open Table, I only have 6pm and 8:15pm available. If I wanted to book that time I would have had to call weeks in advance. I am getting convenience for money. That's a fair trade. And let's not act like this market didn't exist before. People have been doing this on craigslist and other sites for years.

andrewfong 12y ago
There's no net win for customers overall. Your win is someone else's loss in that case. In fact, it's a net loss from an overall perspective since you had to pay ReservationHop. The fact that people have been doing it for years does not make it ethical.
Mikeb85 12y ago
If they didn't have that 7:45 reservation for 4 people, it might still be open... They're artificially reducing supply, then selling it back and pocketing the difference.
davorak 12y ago
> Are you kidding? Of course it's useful to the customer! It is not clear to me that the benefit gained by the reservationhop user out weighs the negative externality[1] paid by the rest of the restaurant goers. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality#Negative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality#Negative