Resy Booking Experience

With the expanded use of table time limits, take-out and auxiliary seating, restaurants are constantly dealing with unpredictability and resource limitations. The result has been increasingly transactional and less transparent restaurant - diner relationships that are more about efficiency, and less about hospitality.

I wanted to explore a few features that would enhance transparency, predictability and flexibility for both restaurants and diners.

Most restaurants are designed to handle either reservations scheduled far in advance or walk-ins, leaving diners that need a reservation one week in advance out of luck. This experience would allow restaurants to release batches of reservations bit by bit, enabling them to control the flow of reservations, reduce cancellations and offer a product for diners that need a reservation only slightly in advance.

Allowing diners to select their table would allow transparency into the experience restaurants will be providing, reducing the number of last-minute table changes and enabling restaurants to more predictably staff sections.

Lastly, notifying a restaurant that a diner is on they way, and allowing the restaurant to track the location of the diner en-route, enables the restaurant to better prepare for diners' arrival, and eliminate wasted time a diner may be waiting for a table once at the restaurant.