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New York Shuts Down Pricey Restaurant Reservation Resales
No more scalping tables for thousands of dollars—authorities put an end to the lucrative loophole.
Scoring a reservation at one of New York's hippest restaurants used to be a question of both timing and – usually – money. On third-party platforms, guests were able to bid for tables that had previously been secured by others – sometimes for several hundred or even thousands of dollars. This is now a thing of the past: a new law prohibits the resale of restaurant reservations without the restaurants' consent.
While reselling reservations has always been an issue, modern technology have exacerbated the problem, with legislators reacting to what they consider a "predatory black market" driven by automated bots. While the skyrocketing cost of living is putting the pain on more and more New Yorkers, others spent up to 3,000 dollars for a coveted reservation on New Year's Eve.
Solution or Stopgap measure?
Not everyone is convinced that the new law will actually solve the problem. Jonas Frey, founder of a platform for reservation trading, argues that targeted measures against bots would have been more effective than a complete ban, pointing out that exclusive credit card programs or authorized service providers also make, then resell reservations – often at even more exorbitant prices.
For restaurants that prefer to reserve their tables for wealthy regulars, there are alternatives: Private dining clubs with high membership fees are booming, and even traditional reservations increasingly require high deposits to secure. Large corporations have long since discovered the business for themselves: American Express, for example, has secured a significant slice of the market with platforms such as Resy and Tock.
Consequences for gastronomy
While restaurateurs generally welcome the new law, it remains to be seen whether it will actually lead to more available tables or whether the reservations trade will simply shift to less visible channels. Critics warn of an increase in illicit trading – as the demand for exclusive restaurant reservations is unlikely to diminish. There are already signs of growing interest in such reservation models in Europe too.
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