“The kiosk allows that host to spend more time thinking about hospitality,” says Wright. At restaurants that already use hosts, like Shizen, Yelp says it doesn’t intend to replace them with kiosks. They’re especially useful for restaurants without hosts: Places with just a pen-and-paper or whiteboard sign-up list. Nowait kiosks are just another way to use - and draw attention to - Yelp’s online waitlist. But remote sign-ups could expand the number of potential diners overall: Through Yelp’s geographic data, Wright sees customers join the waitlist for restaurants from on the ferry or across the bridge from their eventual destination.Īmazon’s Cashierless Store Opens Today With Sushi, Burritos, and No Lines Of course, many SF diners are more than comfortable - even happy - waiting in line for ramen or cruffins. “When people know they can get in line remotely, and they know they’re driving from an hour anyway, it gives them some comfort,” says Devon Wright, Yelp’s GM of restaurant marketplaces. Over the last year, the number of diners seated through NoWait has doubled, Yelp says. Users scrolling though the Yelp app have probably seen an option to “join the waitlist” at restaurants with Nowait, an offering mostly at casual, no-reservations restaurants like Marufuku. Nowait kiosks are Yelp’s latest use of Nowait, a Pittsburgh-based startup the company acquired in 2017 for a reported $40 million. Customers can find them at Shizen Vegan Sushi, Raw Sugar Factory, Home Plate, and other wait-generating restaurants in San Francisco - or, they can join the list remotely through the Yelp app. The San Francisco-based reviews website has installed a fleet of new Nowait kiosks at restaurants around the country - tablets at the host stand on which diners can sign up for a restaurant’s wait list. There’s a new host taking party names and estimating wait times at Japantown’s busy Marufuku Ramen: Yelp.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |