How Long is the Wait?
There's an APP for That
In Portland’s burgeoning restaurant scene, customers have a wealth of fantastic dining choices. But finding a restaurant with available tables now or one with a wait time that fits a diner’s schedule can be a challenge. A new company, TablesUp, makes it easy for walk-in diners to find a place to eat and for restaurants to attract them.
A diner uses TablesUp as a commuter would use an online traffic map to plan their route. Using any iPhone® or Android® smartphone, users ope 2000 n the app to view the city's most popular restaurants via pins on a map. A simple tap on a pin opens the restaurant profile. With a push of a button, they may request a restaurant’s current wait time, triggering the TablesUp automated phone service to call the restaurant and prompt the answerer to punch in the wait time: 1 for less than 10 minutes (green), 2 for fewer than 30 minutes (yellow), or 3 for over 30 minutes (red). The diner receives a text message with the “fresh” wait time, and the restaurant’s pin on the TablesUp map turns from blue to green, yellow, or red accordingly. Likewise, anyone viewing the TablesUp app can see the updated wait times without making a phone call or requesting it again. Armed with this information, customers can now make more informed choices about where to go, depending on their schedule and the restaurant’s availability.
The TablesUp app is free for diners, and free for restaurants to respond to wait time requests. Restaurants can upgrade to a paid plan for $39.99 per month and enable a number of additional features to better attract and serve diners. Participating businesses use a dedicated restaurant app on any iPhone or Droid to broadcast fresh wait times as often as they like, or they can opt to have the system call in every 30 minutes for an update. Paying restaurants can also show their wait times on their own website. Got seats to fill? TablesUp lets participating owners create instant promotions to push to customers in real-time. Running a longer wait? Restaurants can also relay the wait times at the bar.
• Restaurant profiles include location, hours, phone number, and description.
• Diners can update a restaurant’s wait time within a 500-foot radius of the property.
• A wait time history shows the updates for the last four hours, from both customers and
the restaurant.
• Diners can filter lists by cuisine, location, wait times, and their favorites.
• Restaurants with a TablesUp account are pushed to the top of the “Featured” section
of the restaurant list.
• TablesUp restaurants also get an enhanced listing, more wait time options, the ability
to broadcast specials, links to its website, Facebook and Twitter pages.
TablesUp CEO Bob Greenberg is a high-tech executive and Portland restaurant lover. Mr. Greenberg, who co-founded chip company Pixelworks, brainstormed TablesUp after one too many evenings calling around to his favorite spots asking how long the wait was. “I thought, we use our phones to get all sorts of real-time information – weather, traffic, stocks, sports – why not restaurant wait times? For diners, TablesUp means no more wandering around looking for a place to eat, or making five phone calls to find a restaurant that fits their plans,” he says. “Whether restaurants use a reservation system, accept walk-ins, or both, TablesUp helps attract spontaneous customers when they have open tables.”
TablesUp is available now on the App StoreSM and on Google Play™. More cities are planned for launch in 2013.
About TablesUp
TablesUp serves up fresh restaurant wait times instantaneously to any smartphone. The company is headquartered in Portland, Ore. Find TablesUp on the App Store, Google Play, Facebook, Twitter, and at TablesUp.com.
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