But Mr. Bastianich was furious: someone was offering that table at TableXchange, a Web site on which diners can buy and sell reservations, hot commodities in a town where getting a table at the most popular restaurants has become an extreme sport.
The price was $25. The table was gone within an hour.
“We’re selling dinner; we don’t sell the opportunity to have dinner,” Mr. Bastianich said. “It goes against the grain of everything we do.”
Restaurateurs in the city say they are flummoxed and incensed by a growing marketplace for online reservations. It has been about two years since another service, PrimeTime Tables, began selling access to the most sought reservations in New York.
Restaurant owners fumed then, saying PrimeTime Tables threw a wrench into their carefully guarded reservation systems and lent to their culture of hospitality the odor of street corner ticket scalping.
But PrimeTime Tables is essentially a concierge service, confirming and canceling reservations as needed. It started out selling tables for as little as $35, and now charges an annual membership fee of $500 and $45 per reservation.
TableXchange is more irksome, Mr. Bastianich and other restaurateurs said. Its reservations are $15 to $40, and the service is similar to eBay, without the bidding.
Some restaurant owners say the service has caused more no-shows, problems in confirming reservations and mix-ups on times and sizes of parties.
See
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/dining/12reserve.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=business
