Reservation Bid Case Study

A maitre'd and dining connoisseur brought an idea to the table, and Shared Vision Group jumped at the opportunity. As a veteran of the restaurant industry, the maitre'd and CEO of ReservationBid.com felt that an on-line auction service made available to the finest restaurants in the world, would give restaurants more control over their reservation system. The current system allows for generous patrons to slip into a restaurant on a busy night, and by tipping the maitre'd, they're seated before the night's over. An auction system would allow a restaurant to set aside a certain amount of tables to be auctioned to diners who need last minute reservations and are willing to pay extra to get them. The restaurant wins in bypassing the maitre'd as well as securing reservations against 'no shows', since anyone who has bid for a reservation would most likely take advantage of it. Guests win by having a guaranteed way to secure a reservation - at a given time - at any of the hottest restaurants in town.

The auction is being created with OpenSite, a flexible and scalable auction software which will handle the complexity of ReservationBid.com's table auctioning. At the outset, ReservationBid.com plans to hold auctions of approximately 5 tables for both lunch and dinner seatings at each of the 10-15 restaurants in 17 major cities in the United States and Canada. The site allows for both the restaurateur and patron to register at ReservationBid.com. The patron is asked to enter his or her contact and billing information, in order to easily log in and bid on tables in the future. Once they have successfully bid on a reservation, an email is sent to confirm: "a table for two at 7:30 PM. at New York's Mandolin's on Broadway and 42nd". A confirmation is sent to the restaurant as well, so they anticipate the guest's arrival at the given time. The restaurateurs have a separate "owner registration" page, where they are able to log in and check or update the number of tables, times, days of the week, etc. Restaurants are also encouraged to donate a percentage of the auction proceeds to food-related charities.