(Bloomberg) -- New Yorkers looking to score a hard-to-get reservation at Carbone, Tatiana or any other hot restaurant through the unauthorized secondary market are now out of luck.
Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday signed into law the Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act, which requires third-party services to gain permission from restaurants to offer reservations.
The law aims to curb bots, which are used by scalpers to scoop up spots for sale to diners willing to pay as much as $1,000 for entry into establishments — not including the cost of the meal. The practice has been blamed for exacerbating a frenzy in New York City over reservations and skewing the playing field toward the wealthy.
The measure, passed by the legislature in June, won’t affect platforms like Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable, which partner with restaurants directly by charging a monthly fee.
“We’re putting an end to the predatory black market for restaurant reservations,” Hochul said in a statement. The law will give “everyone a chance to get a seat at the dinner table.”
While it might not help diners score reservations at exclusive hotspots more easily, it’s likely to be appreciated by restaurant owners who say it will help cut down on cancellations because bots grab reservations but don’t always sell them.
Battling Bots
“It’s definitely been the Wild West for reservations since the [the bots] have shown up,” said chef Andrew Carmellini, who estimates he loses 10% of tables per night to bots at his restaurants like the new Locanda Verde in the BlackRock Inc. headquarters in Hudson Yards. “This ban will help reduce no shows and in the end be better for customers making reservations.”
COTE - billed as America’s only Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse - was losing more than a quarter of its reservations to bots that nabbed them but didn’t sell them, forcing the restaurant to remove tables from online booking sites, said Amy Zhou, executive director of operations at Gracious Hospitality Management, which owns COTE and Coqodaq.
“We have had to offer the majority of our reservations through the ‘traditional’ channels of phone and direct email inquiries to our reservationists,” Zhou said. “We hope with the passing of this legislation we can again offer our diners the full convenience and options of booking online or by calling or emailing.”
Jonas Frey, founder of Appointment Trader, one of the websites affected the law, said it will only make things worse. He said his site charges an average of $100 for a reservation, while diners seeking tables at the most exclusive spots need to either know a concierge or go through authorized prepay sellers who charge more than he does.
“If Appointment Trader were to shut down tomorrow in New York City, no one that doesn’t have a relationship or doesn’t want to prepay $1,000 would be able to go to Carbone or 4 Charles Prime Rib or Tatiana for that matter,” he said.
(Updates with comment from restaurant executives starting in sixth paragraph.)
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