An Ivy league soph has a new side hustle worth $70k/yr: selling reservations to high-end restaurants in big cities. He has a bot make reservations on-line, and then advertises them and collects big bucks when someone wants a reservation and can't get it because the restaurant is sold out. I had no idea this even existed. His highest take from one reservation: $1,358. He says it's not about the money for him--he just wants to bring supply and demand together (by hoarding the supply and extracting money from the demand). It must be hard to say that with a straight face. An Ivy League sophomore says he found a $105,000 side hustle: selling coveted restaurant reservations
That sounds like the same argument HFT traders use to defend the way they skim money off the market no matter which way it is moving.
Kind of related.. For the first time ever I was charged a deposit to make a reservation. Hampton Social in Nashville. Guess that's a thing now because people aren't reliable anymore.
Yes, that is becoming more normal the last few years that I was in New Orleans. They were dealing with this problem. This is absolutely related. Resy's service allows them to just charge a no-show fee and hold a deposit. Easy way to solve this.
I'm not sure this would solve it if he's hoarding reservations at restaurants at are booked out of months and are in high demand. I mean, it's a bot with no labor expenses, and he's pretty much guaranteed to sell at a profit -- if nothing else, he could sell the reservation for 1 cent at the last minute to avoid the charges.
Also reminds me that back during covid when Insta-Cart was bigger, I remember reading someone made a bot that would accept every order as soon as it was posted, then sell it back to the workers on the secondary market ... another example of skimming money and providing no value. Not sure if Insta-Cart was able to stop it.
This will get figured out if it becomes an issue. I see a significant non refundable deposit if you don’t show being required for upscale restaurants.
It is a ton of risk. So, for example, Patois, one of the restaurants that I know does this in New Orleans will charge you $75 per seat that doesn't arrive. Let's say they have about 100 seats (which is about right) and about 4 seatings. Each night, you risk $30,000. Your demand model had better be very accurate or else you can wreck your profit margin from that restaurant very quickly.
Already there.....was in NYC couple of months ago and all the upscale restaurants required a credit card and deposit for a reservation.
I'd gladly pay a no-show fee than be texted, emailed and called multiple times to "confirm you're still joining us."