This Uber Founder Wants to Change How You Make Dinner Reservations
Let’s be real: The restaurant search is getting old. As calendars become crammed with to-dos, less of us want to spend time researching and scanning restaurants for open tables. That’s where the Reserve app comes in. Launched with advisory help from Uber co-founder and Reserve board member, Garrett Camp, Reserve solves the angst of finding and making reservations in busy cities with in-demand tables and copious options. Already stationed in New York, Boston and LA, with plans to soon launch in San Francisco, Reserve hopes to change the dining game forever by making every user feel like an elite diner.
While several other apps — like Zurvu, KillerRezzy, and Resy — want to become part of your reservation-making experience, Reserve takes many of its competitors’ features and wraps them into one handy app. Here’s how it works: Reserve provides options for (mostly) high-end eateries in your city. You select the time, date and number of people you want a reservation for, choose where you’d like to dine (you can even give them several options instead of just one) and Reserve does the rest of the work. With integrated technology connected to top restaurants’ reservation systems, Reserve contacts your desired establishment, books the table and you’re all set.
When you arrive at the restaurant, the staff will have your name and profile picture on hand. And best of all, the tab is documented, so no bill comes to your table. Yes, that means no pens, no paper and no waiting for the check (hallelujah!). The only snag is a $5 concierge fee and steep charges if you don’t show up to your reservation (a $25 slap on the wrist).
“We started Reserve to help make dining better, both for restaurants and for their guests,” Greg Hong, Reserve’s co-founder and CEO says. “It was important to us to focus on both sides and create a product that would help connect them and bring them together. Although we’re a tech company, we understand that connections between people, not devices, are at the core of hospitality.”
The glossy and gilded layout of Reserve makes you feel like Kim Kardashian or a 1 percent Wall Streeter with a personal concierge. Think of it as an assistant that lives in your iPhone who knows all the best restaurants and can help any time. Pretty stellar.
So be a dining star for the night, download Reserve, and let us know what you think.
