911 Reservations: Scalping Valentine’s Day [updated]
Yesterday saw a whirlwind of coordinated effort among area restaurateurs as they discovered that a Web site called 911 Reservations was selling hundreds of Valentine’s Day reservations online.
Administrators of the site had surreptitiously made the reservations under scores of different names several months ago and then began selling them online within the past two weeks, according to area restaurateurs. Though the Web site focused on the Atlanta area, it also sold reservations in Miami, New York, San Francisco and the California Wine Country.
The reservations — valued anywhere between $25 and $100 for top draws like Woodfire Grill and Quinones at Bacchanalia — could be purchased with a remittance to a PayPal account. The reservations cut a broad swath through the city’s top destinations, including Repast, Rathbun’s, Bacchanalia, Chops and Craft.
The initial Web site went down some time around 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, though a clone has surfaced under a related URL. This new address continues to offer reservations in all areas except Atlanta. A customer who placed an order on the site late Wednesday night received an order number in the low teens, suggesting this may be the total number of reservations sold for Atlanta.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Robby Kukler, an owner of the Fifth Group restaurants, which include Ecco and La Tavola Trattoria. “It’s a modern electronic form of scalping.”
“We have 14 reservations between all of our restaurants,” added Anne Quatrano, whose four restaurants include Quinones. “It wasn’t so much a problem at Abattoir, where we get a lot of walk ins. But we only have 10 tables at Quinones, and they made three reservations.”
Valentine’s Day is among the busiest and most profitable days of the year for restaurants. If these reservations are neither sold nor canceled, the empty tables could severely impact the businesses’ bottom line.
Though area chefs find this scheme reprehensible, it is not illegal according to Gwinnett County district attorney Danny Porter.
“If there’s no prior limitation on the restaurant’s review policy, then there’s no statutory authority to prevent someone from transferring a reservation,” Porter said.
However, if a restaurant cancels the reservation and the operator of the site sells it anyway, then he or she could be charged with the criminal violation of theft by deception. “Certainly, they would be subject to be sued as well,” said Porter, “because the breached the contract.”
The reservations were either made to a sequence of land lines registered to a private home in Douglasville or to an Atlanta mobile phone number.
Kevin Brown, the general manager at Chops, and Andres Loaiza, the general manager at Aria, were among the first to notice multiple reservations made to the same or similar numbers. Loaiza contacted Clifford Bramble, a partner in Rathbun’s who also runs The Restaurant Section, an online public relations and social media site for the foodservice industry who sent out an email burst to 35 local restaurants with the names and phone numbers attached to the reservations.
The local blog Foodie Buddha soon published a post with this list. On this blog, a commenter claiming to be the manager of a California restaurant stated that Wine Country restaurants were reporting multiple reservations with the same Georgia numbers.
Bramble also spoke to a male caller, who tried to reconfirm a reservation. When Bramble confronted him with his knowledge of the Web site, the man denied any connection and quickly exited the call. The initial Web site was disabled soon thereafter.
Thursday morning, there were some indications that the operators of 911 Reservations were cancelling unsold tables. “We had two of them cancel,” said Gina Hopkins, co-owner of Restaurant Eugene. “One of our phantom reservations was made in the name of ‘Renee Fantom.’”
Now restaurateurs are left trying to figure out what to do with these reservations. Joe Truex, chef/owner of Repast, will not honor them. “I will tell people we do not condone this.”
Quatrano will rebook the tables at Quinones, but keep them on the books in her other three places in case someone comes it.
“It’s a problem,” says Kukler, who will also monitor the situation carefully. “People may come in and say, ‘Hey. I paid for this. I want my table.’”
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55 comments Add your comment
RK
February 11th, 2010
10:50 am
Paying for reservations? It really is rookie night, isn’t it?
jbgoode
February 11th, 2010
11:06 am
I don’t see a problem. The restaurants get butts in their seats and people eating their slop. Why should they care if someone else goes to the trouble of handling the reservations? Whiners….
Paul
February 11th, 2010
11:13 am
The problem is if the scalpers don’t sell the reservations then no one will show up and the table will go empty, which will cause the restaurant to lose money when they could have booked the table if it hadn’t been falsely booked to begin with. The scalpers are betting, with someone else’s investment, that they can sell the seats in time.
Patrick Loomis
February 11th, 2010
11:14 am
jbgoode: Do you really think these guys are going to call and cancel these reservations if they are not sold? Out here in Napa Valley many restaurateurs depend on the Valentine’s Day weekend to pay the bills in an otherwise slow Winter season. And what of all the people who did it the right way and are on Wait Lists at these places, hoping for a callback, but won’t get one because these jerks have taken all the slots, sold or not?
common decency
February 11th, 2010
11:15 am
if jbgoode doesn’t see a problem, he’s an idiot. restaurants don’t need additional middle-men who get paid for messing up seatings. they provide no valuable service. if they don’t sell the reservations they made, then no one shows up, costing restaurants and their staffs empty seats on one of the busiest days of the year. especially in this economy, we do not need scumbags like these.
12-inch Sandwich
February 11th, 2010
11:17 am
I’m sure I’ll get bashed for this comment, but I don’t really see the problem with this. The guy/company planned way ahead, made these reservations, and is going to capitalize on all these other people who didn’t plan ahead. Good for him finding a way to make some extra cash in this economy.
No different than scalping tickets (which has become mainstream with all the online ticket brokering sites). There is a market for these reservations.
The fact that these restaurants won’t honor the reservations (which were made far in advance, it’s not as if the guy hacked into the restaurant reservation system to make these reservations when there isn’t space available) actually will make me less likely to become a patron of those restaurants.
John
February 11th, 2010
11:35 am
Q100 started all this some time ago by using a radio contest to award winners with V-Day reservations.
Another word
February 11th, 2010
11:36 am
Yes, 12-inch, it is different than scalping tickets. When someone scalps tickets…they actually pay for the ticket and reimburse themselves when sold. Not so for the restaurant owner and employees who could possibly get nothing other than an empty seat.
Lincoln
February 11th, 2010
11:42 am
It’s a big difference between scalping tickets. The ticket scalper actually has to purchase a product (the ticket) and therefore has an incentive to sell ticket, even if at a loss. In the end, the consumer wins because they either get a ticket at below market cost or get a ticket that they otherwise would not have been able to get.
In the restaurant reservation scheme, the “scalper” has no skin in the game. If the reservation does not sell, then only the restauranteur loses by not filling a table. If the “scalper” actually had to pay for the right to the reservation and/or was penalized by the restaurant if no one showed up, then I would agree that it is no different.
OZZFEST
February 11th, 2010
11:43 am
WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE?
IT IS NOT ILLEGAL.
WELCOME TO AMERICA.
GOD BLESS THE CAPITALIST WHO PULLED THIS OFF!
The Big Maru
February 11th, 2010
11:44 am
This is not the same as scalping tickets. With tickets, someone buys them, the original seller gets paid, and then the purchaser resells them.
With reservations, there is no guarantee that there will ever be a purchase, so the restaurant doesn’t get paid unless the reservation is sold.
It’s actually a great but sleazy business plan – gamble with someone else’s money.
Lincoln
February 11th, 2010
11:44 am
To further add, if this practice were to become prevelant then I guess restaurants will have to start taking down a credit card number upon making the reservation and telling someone they’ll be out like $100 if they don’t show.
The Big Maru
February 11th, 2010
11:45 am
Hah, Lincoln, you type faster than I do.
uberVU - social comments
February 11th, 2010
11:49 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by blissfulglutton: RT @MelissaL: blog post on the reservation scam http://bit.ly/cVqQPg…
Steve
February 11th, 2010
11:50 am
Restuarants could require a credit card to hold a reservation for certain special dates, such as Valentines. A charge is billed to the credit card at that time. The reservation “fee” could then be applied against the guests bill when they are paying for their dinner.
This would entice the scalper to either sell the reservation or release it prior to the reservation time.
Steve
February 11th, 2010
11:50 am
Than me too Lincoln.
Melody Kelley
February 11th, 2010
11:51 am
Proves, yet again, that having money does not necessarily mean that one has brains.
JRP
February 11th, 2010
11:51 am
Saying they are like scalpers is giving ticket hustlers a bad name..
Al
February 11th, 2010
11:55 am
This is why you don’t take reservations. You sit people when they come. No way for restaurants to get around this. They will use multiple phone numbers.
Jason
February 11th, 2010
11:59 am
OZZFEST, and it’s “capitalists” like these people who make regulation necessary. Randians and Reaganites love to say that greed is good and self interest and the free market fairy will make sure that people behave, but this is a perfect example of how those people are morons. This is how the economy crashed: betting with other people’s money because the people doing the betting are doing it with other people’s money and win no matter what happens.
Just my view
February 11th, 2010
12:02 pm
I don’t see it as the same as scalping tickets. The venue for those tickets get the price of the ticket rather the scalper sells the ticket or not. The venue is not taking a hit for the gamble that someone will pay more than face value. If it is free to make the reservations then, if they do not sell the scalper is really only out his time and effort( and maybe cost of website and phone numbers). These resturaunts will be out a lot more. Not only the fact that there seatings could be down due to the reservations not being sold, but they also have to stock food and staff for these reservations. Scalper -win win in this situation. Restuarants are in a no win situation.
common sense
February 11th, 2010
12:07 pm
Here is how resturants can solve the problem. 1. Require a credit card number to book a reservation. 2. Charge a fee if the reservation goes unused and there was not a cancellation within 24-48 hours of said reservation. Problem solved.
mamiefone
February 11th, 2010
12:23 pm
or just dont take reservations!
atown
February 11th, 2010
12:24 pm
This practice has been going on for years in NYC where sites broker restaurant reservations. The dining scene in Atlanta is certainly much different, but these type of sites offer people with the opportunity of getting a table at restaurants where securing a reservation can be difficult. Try getting a reservation at Babbo on your own.
Restaurants could start using the Momofuku practice where you have to reserve a table with a credit card and present the card to the hostess upon arrival. Again, there’s a big difference b/w NYC and Atlanta. I can’t think of many restaurants in Atlanta where you need to book beyond 2 weeks to secure a table.
Greg
February 11th, 2010
12:25 pm
Peopel like jbgoode, 12-inch and OZZFEST make me realize, once again, just how many unintelligent, uncaring, selfish people there are out there.
Patrick Loomis
February 11th, 2010
12:39 pm
OZZFEST: Yes, and God bless all the slumlords renting substandard housing to the disadvantaged; and the clever Capitalists who sell water and plywood at 200% mark-up during hurricanes.
EJ
February 11th, 2010
12:39 pm
I just wish I had thought of the idea first. Nice way to make a few bucks. Nothing illegal of even underhanded about it.
As for all of you who say the resturants are going to lose so much money, I bet there will be people who walk up to these places on Valentines Day and ask for a table. Or even more people who will call on Sunday just to see if anyone canceled so they can get in at the last minute. These tables will be filled.
jonnymack
February 11th, 2010
12:41 pm
Anyone who can’t see this is a problem is a fool. As stated by many others, if the reservation goes unused, the restaurant loses, not this joker. The simple fix of a credit card is the correct route to finish this business idea off. It’s not illegal but it’s certainly not ethical either.
AreYouSerious
February 11th, 2010
1:13 pm
This is wrong on so many levels and everyone loses. The restaurants (loss of revenue), the cities (fine restaurants closing) and the patrons (fewer choices). It’s a lose, lose situation….period, except for the Con Artists who were involved.
OZZFEST
February 11th, 2010
2:41 pm
By the way, I have an MBA from Duke.
Selah!
Josh
February 11th, 2010
4:09 pm
To jbgoode , common sense , 12-inch, and OZZFEST –
1. They used FRAUDULENT credit card numbers.
2. They registered the domain(s) illegally (911reservations.com = 68.178.232.100). GoDaddy.com & DomainsByProxy.com are the closest that people can get to Chinese or Russian registrars.
OZZFEST – Maybe you didn’t learn about “business ethics” in your Duke MBA. Can you even spell Fuqua you anonymous Internet troll?
Noah
February 11th, 2010
4:09 pm
MBAs have ruined capitalism. They just sit around and say dumb things like “branding”. Go make something. And I do not mean a power point presentation.
SW
February 11th, 2010
5:54 pm
JPGoode doesn’t see the problem because I’m willing to bet he IS the problem. Let’s all hope we put JP out of business… plenty of servers are hoping to pay their rent.
Muffin
February 11th, 2010
6:11 pm
It’s just one more reason to dislike Valentine’s Day if you ask me. And yes, I realize no one did.
Valentine’s Day Reservations Scalpers Try To Scam Beyond Atlanta | Atlanta Restaurant Reviews | Atlanta Food Blogs | Dining in Atlanta
February 11th, 2010
7:07 pm
[...] call (that’s the id shot to the right). Last but not least, AJC super blogger John Kessler threw up a great post early this morning. He has taken the time to update it as [...]
ozzfest
February 11th, 2010
11:19 pm
No worried…RIBS, ETC does not take reservations.
Fred
February 11th, 2010
11:32 pm
Some of the comments have me laughing my ass off, like “plenty of servers are hoping to pay their rent.” Come on now, we are talking about high dollar places here, not Denny’s. Those servers probably make more cash than many of the folks posting here. The 5 course chef’s tasting at Woodfire is 65 bucks. Add a drinks for two and a bottle of wine, and the tab jumps to 200 bucks for two people really quick. Let’s not even talk about the cost if you let Mr. Quinones pick a glass of wine to go with each course (well worht the price BTW). Twenty percent of that is 40 bucks, but come on now, your server was AWESOME so you’re going to throw in at least another 10 spot. So we are talking 50 bucks per table. How many tables does the server have and how many times do they turn those tables a night? They make more per hour than a plumber and everyone knows plumbers make more than brain surgeons lol.
PUH-LEASE leave the crocodile tears for those poor down trodden servers out of the so-called argument, not everyone is a far left wing idiot, (besides you forgot the obligitory “it’s for the children” part or the “sacred-cow single mom” whine.) And if someone wants to write pretending they ARE one of those servers that won’t be able to make rent because of an empty table? One: I don’t believe you and Two: Call me, I’ll work Sunday night for you lol.
NBD
February 11th, 2010
11:36 pm
I don’t see what the huge tizzy is about. As long as the “scalper” abides by the restaurant’s cancellation policy and has the courtesy to call in time if it doesn’t sell, how is this any different than any old Joe making a reservation? People make and cancel reservations all the time. Furthermore, wouldn’t you think that a person who is willing to pay up of 50 or 100 bucks to secure a table is probably not too frugal with his money and will probably also spend the big bucks when he gets to the restaurant. And any restaurant worth their salt can either fill a cancelled reservation with their wait list or a walk-in. Seems like a win-win-win situation for all 3 parties!
Fred
February 11th, 2010
11:40 pm
Dang, I forgot the rest of what I was going to say about the evils of reservation scalping: I could be mistaken, but I believe that the main concern the owners of these places have is truly for their customers. No one wants to tell folks they don’t have a table for them on any night, especially on V-Day. Yet these folks have made reservations in good faith to sleazeballs posing as customers and then had to tell REAL customers that there isn’t room at the inn. It has to leave a bad taste in their (the owners) mouths to be duped like this when they are operating with trust and good intentions. It also has made me understand why some places DO have a policy of taking a credit card number at the time the reservation is made.
John Doe
February 11th, 2010
11:57 pm
How is this any different from a guy who makes a reservation at 3 or 4 restaurants for the same night so that he and his date can have a choice of where to go? I know people who do that all the time because they’re not sure a month ahead of time whether they’ll be in the mood for sushi or Italian that night. Selling highly-coveted reservations is the beauty of wonderful capitalist country.
Our country became so successful because we allowed for individuals to capitalize where they saw a demand for something, not by considering “fairness.” Life isn’t fair. Everyone who is so against this brilliant concept needs to get off their bitter whiney liberal ass, get into their dinged-up Prius, and go make something great of themselves. You’re just jealous you didn’t think of the idea first, so you did what any typical liberal would do: demonize the enemy. Sorry folks, it’s just the truth.
John Doe
February 12th, 2010
1:39 am
And furthermore, if I were a restaurant owner I would stop wasting my time causing an uproar about this and start trying to contact the people behind these websites to try to cut a deal with them on a share of the profits. Maybe charge them a portion of the selling price upfront to make the reservation, so they have greater incentive to sell it. We all would like to make more money. If you really are as good of a place as you say you are, none of this will harm your relationship with your customers.
Danny
February 12th, 2010
2:17 am
Its funny!!! You have all the asking what’s wrong with this?? One, how would you feel if there was a person charging your friends or vistors a fee to come see you and they don’t they don’t get to see you. The problem is that they are doing it without the restaurants knowledge and approval because there is a possibility that it could harm their business, if I am restaurant owner I want to ensure that I keep getting a good flow of traffic and not have it tainted that you have to pay for a reservation when it suppose to be free, eventually people may go somewhere else and it could decrease business, worst case scenerio the restaurant could go out of business. It is ethically wrong! I wonder if those are the same people that are upset that the airlines charge now for seat assignments, luggage, etc. You want more security but at the same time you don’t to foot the bill. These are some of the practices that have us Americans without a job
John Doe
February 12th, 2010
2:53 am
Danny- Your scattered argument misses the point here. These “scalpers” only book restaurants in high demand. They won’t just go elsewhere if they know there’s a way they can eat at the restaurant they actually desire. If I owned a restaurant I would be honored to be on their list. People who decide at the last minute that they want to dine at a certain popular restaurant can either pay a small fee or take their chances and walk-in with no guarantees. What’s so wrong with a service that helps people when spur-of-the-moment plans pop up to get a great table they would otherwise not be seated at? You can’t always know what you are going to be doing weeks or months from now (if you do, great, you can secure a table for free, if not, pay up a bit)
Corey
February 12th, 2010
5:46 am
To anyone who thinks these places make money hand over fist: you’re nuts. Those places aren’t using the same $.50/lb beef you get at McDonalds, or even the $2.50/lb stuff you feed your kids. They’ve got a ton of overhead, and in this economy, they’re not getting the customers they used to, because people can’t afford to spend $60-$100+ on a meal, no matter how good it is.
Having worked in the restaurant industry, I can tell you there are two things you never do: you never ever ever overbook, but you never want to turn people away when you have open tables. This is like Black Friday for them, but in order for it to work out, they have to plan everything right. I’m fairly certain this could be considered fraud in court, since these guys are entering into a verbal agreement with the restaurant that they’re going to be there for their reservation, with no intention of ever actually going to the place. The restaurant has no clue what’s going on, they assume they’re going to be there, filling the table, and making them money. And even if they did ask for a CC number, as someone above said, they could use a fraudulent card, or a prepaid card with $50 on it. This year, maybe it’s just one bad seed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes as popular as 4-1-9 scams, and next year every restaurant is questioning every single reservation they get, wondering if it’s real or if it’s just going to be scalped off to someone else.
IMO, the best thing for restaurant’s to do is ID their customers, and if the ID doesn’t match the name on the reservation, to turn them away, cut their losses, and send a strong message that this crap won’t be tolerated.
Meat lover
February 12th, 2010
7:45 am
I am with Danny & NBD….I personally dont see a problem with it as long as the company that books the reservation releases them at an agreed time (say 24hrs before) …I used to be in ticket sales for a major venue and this is how we would handle our restaurant partner group blocks-we werent getting any guarenteed $ for those until a week out…
and someone said there was no one in town that had a longer than 2 week wait list? Try WOODFIRE GRILL!
Foodgeek
February 12th, 2010
9:07 am
What makes you think that someone who makes a reservation using a fake name would bother to call and cancel the reservation?
Restaurants are just going to have to move toward requiring credit cards for reservations, especially if it’s for a special event. With so many high end restaurants taking such a huge hit during this recession, and many of them even closing because of it, this is just another example of kicking a man when he’s already on the ground, gasping for breath.
Westside Resident
February 12th, 2010
10:03 am
I tend to agree with the credit card requirement for a reservation and its actually pretty easy to get around fraudulent cards. Just charge a $10 reservation fee, and then either credit it towards the meal, or if the reservation is cancelled within some pre-determined period you refund it less a processing fee (say, $1). Not only does it help solve this issue, but it creates an additional source of cash flow for restaurants by bringing in the $10 in advance of the actual meal (and yes, I realize this isn’t additional revenue – other than the processing fee which would mostly get taken by the credit card company – but it is a way to smooth out cash flow). Scalpers could still get in the game, but they would have to front the $10 for the reservation. If that price wasn’t high enough, restaurants could always increase it. Not only would it help with the scalping/lost table issue, but could actually become an qualitative measure of the restaurant.
rebelliousrose
February 12th, 2010
10:15 am
I can vouch for the inconvenience for the restaurant that I work for; we are solidly booked for both Sat and Sunday, and having weeded out the phony resos gave us four more slots to call the (very) grateful people on the waitlist and offer them a table at a premium time.
Personally, as someone in the industry? I’d NEVER go out on V-Day or near it.
Oh, and John? Whoever was the person running the scam, they are pretty geeky; two of the names on the fake name list, Diana Prince and Bruce Banner? Usually they are known as Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk. ;}
Oscar
February 12th, 2010
10:57 am
As an employee in the fine dining industry, I would find it very difficult to demand a CC number and ID from a guest when they arrived for their reservation. While it is many companies policy to require a CC for a large party, I can tell you from first hand experience that it can offend and upset people, but it seems a necessary evil in the whole equation. And while it might not be considered illegal in the state of Georgia, someone is selling something that is free. As to “Fred”’s comments, I can understand your point, one table lost? But our industry has been hit very hard over the past year and a half and many people have seen their yearly income cut 35-50%, so yeah Fred, every table does count. All this for a silly Hallmark Holiday with the initials “VD”, seems appropriate.
Josh
February 12th, 2010
3:30 pm
All of this credit card / deposit requirement nonsense can be alleviated if people were able to validate their identities (and honest intentions).
Figure that one out, and we’ll be all set.
To Fred’s comment above (”… you let Mr. Quinones pick a glass of wine…”). James Quinones PASSED AWAY 5-6 years ago. Anne Quatrano and Clifford Harrison named the restaurant in his memory. Stupid.