News

Livebookings launches the next generation dining deal

12 August 2011

Online reservations specialist launches new deals marketing platform aimed purely at helping diners and restaurants click

(We Promise: No spas, Teeth whitening or Fish nibbling your feet. Just great Dining Deals!)

Livebookings, Europe’s leader in real-time reservations, guest management and online marketing services for restaurants, is today set to transform the restaurant deals market with the launch of a new dining deals platform under its consumer restaurant reservations brand, Bookatable. Aimed at delivering predictable and recurring long term profits for restaurants, together with tailored and relevant dining offers for consumers, the platform overcomes the many issues currently being experienced by the customers of first generation deal providers.

Branded Bookatable Dining Deals, the platform has been developed specifically with restaurants and diners in mind, delivering a number of unique advantages over existing generalist deal sites and business models. A key criterion in developing the platform was recognising the slow creep of daily deal fatigue being experienced by consumers, who are bombarded with irrelevant offers on a daily basis, while on the other hand restaurants are left dissatisfied with the lack of long term benefits that result from a low margin marketing offer.

Bookatable Dining Deals exclusively targets dining enthusiasts who have been pre-matched with a range of well crafted and exclusively sourced dining experiences, rather than bargain hunters simply looking for a cheap eat. Dining Deals customers are far more likely to spend money, and are far more likely to return.

In addition, with data capture fully incorporated into the solution, restaurants that run a Dining Deal are able to capture diners’ data, and communicate with their new customers on an ongoing basis in order to drive customer loyalty and repeat business.

The platform also removes many of the current administrative overheads and costs associated with the current generation of paper based voucher systems. By being entirely electronic and fully integrated into the Livebookings reservations system, customers who book a Dining Deal are able to instantly search in real-time for available time slots and book online, and will not be required to take any printed vouchers with them to the restaurant.

A further major benefit to restaurants is financial; with restaurants receiving some payment within 7 days, while costs are only incurred after the customer has dined. This presents a number of cash flow advantages and reduces the risk attached to running deals that are over-subscribed. And, as restaurants can manage the available time slots when the deals can be redeemed, there is no trade off between high demand periods when a higher yield can be obtained versus filling their restaurant.

Colin Tenwick, CEO of Livebookings says: “Despite its rapid adoption, the current deals market is a bit like drinking from a fire hose - some of what you get is good but the majority is not! It has created unpredictable costs, reduced profit margins and presented significant operational difficulties for restaurants. Being the largest provider of online booking services for restaurants, with over 9,000 restaurants now using our services and more than a million restaurant bookings a month, we want our customers to be drinking from a champagne glass not a fire hose.

We were the first to offer restaurants a platform that managed the vast number of deals coupons brandished by consumers.

The new Bookatable Dining Deals platform builds on our unique experience, helping the restaurant industry regain control of their tables, their bookings and their business to increase profit predictably; while providing consumers with a new best of breed dining deals experience, offering tailored dining experiences based on their preferences and requirements. We believe that Bookatable Dining Deals represents a balance between being good for the restaurant and good for the consumer; and is the first of a new generation of deal platforms.”

For more information on the Bookatable Dining Deals platform, please visit: diningdeals.bookatable.com