Buy! Sell! How to snag an impossible seat at the world’s best restaurants

Marcus Baram
Author Marcus Baram
Marcus Baram is a contributing editor at Crain Currency, where he covers the intersection of finance and politics. Prior to joining Crain Currency, Baram was a staff writer at Fast Company and an editor at Huff Post. He has also written for outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Vice. Baram is an expert on economic policy and has a deep understanding of the ways in which politics shapes the global financial system. In his role at Crain Currency, he brings a unique perspective to the complex and ever-evolving world of finance. With his keen analysis and clear writing, Baram helps readers make sense of the important issues impacting the economy today.
Apr 19, 2023
5 months ago
Print
reservations
Credit: BLOOMBERG

No matter how wealthy you are, it can still be hard to snag restaurant reservations at the hottest spots in the world – until now. 

With services that allow people to trade reservations at all kinds of top-rated eateries in cities from Osaka to Oslo – just as sites like StubHub allow sports fans to list their tickets to games – diners with existing reservations can list them on Appointment Trader and sell them to fellow gourmands. 

“Everyone wants to get in somewhere they can’t and brag about it,” Nick DiMaggio, who’s used the company to acquire more than 220 reservations, told The New York Times. “The rich will pay anything for access.”

The selling of reservations distinguishes the site from other platforms like Resy, which doesn’t enable diners to sell their reservations. Though for years, diners have used Reddit to sell reservations or sites like Killer Rezzy – to the aggravation of restaurant owners, who say they prefer free sites like Open Table. One reservation-trading system that didn’t cost money was #FreeRezy, an online group that was taken advantage of by some users in the finance and tech worlds and was eventually shut down by Resy.

It’s part of a wave of online reservation-trading platforms that also includes hotels – Roomer and Spare Fare are travel marketplaces that allow people to list their nonrefundable hotel reservations for sale and offer them to buyers at a discounted price. More elite sites like Hoken, a marketplace for prepaid hotel reservations focused around in-demand events such as Art Basel and Sundance, recently raised $9 million to expand its operations.

Marcus Baram
Author Marcus Baram
Marcus Baram is a contributing editor at Crain Currency, where he covers the intersection of finance and politics. Prior to joining Crain Currency, Baram was a staff writer at Fast Company and an editor at Huff Post. He has also written for outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Vice. Baram is an expert on economic policy and has a deep understanding of the ways in which politics shapes the global financial system. In his role at Crain Currency, he brings a unique perspective to the complex and ever-evolving world of finance. With his keen analysis and clear writing, Baram helps readers make sense of the important issues impacting the economy today.