Appointment Trader: new dining tool helps you skip the queue

A US booking platform has arrived in Australia to help diners secure bookings at our most popular restaurants. But the exclusive access comes at a controversial price.

Booking a table at a popular restaurant on a Saturday night requires patience, persistence and a healthy dose of luck.

Even if you go online or call them at the right time, just as new reservations open up, there is no guarantee you’ll beat out everyone else who is hungry to eat at the same place.

But there is a very American solution to this very First World problem. It’s a website called Appointment Trader that is, for better or worse, turning the restrictive world of restaurant reservations into a free market for anyone willing to pay. And it has arrived in Australia.

What the Appointment Trader website looks like. Picture: Supplied

The concept is radical but straightforward. Say you want to dine at Melbourne’s Vue de monde, Brisbane’s Agnes or Sydney’s Saint Peter – three of our best restaurants – and they have no bookings that suit your schedule. Log on to Appointment Trader and you will find a series of reservations that are available for purchase having been booked by someone else.

Tables at those three restaurants have recently sold for $225, $200 and $60 respectively, the transactions ranking among Appointment Trader’s first in Australia, having turned over more than $US6.1m ($A9.1m) in reservation sales overseas over the past 12 months.

This upfront charge doesn’t prepay your meal, mind you. It is essentially a finder’s fee, with the platform taking a 30 per cent cut from the user who posted the reservation.

It’s not easy getting a table at Vue de monde restaurant. Picture: Jason Loucas

According to Jonas Frey, the founder of Appointment Trader, this is democratising exclusive establishments and fulfilling his vision of a world where “you don’t have to wait for anything”.

“Wherever you are in the world, you can always get a table – that’s the idea,” he said.

Critics, however, argue the platform is locking out ordinary diners from high-end eateries by creating a form of scalping for reservations. Restaurateurs have also issued legal threats to Frey to stop people profiting off their popularity during perilous times for the industry.

Appointment Trader founder Jonas Frey. Picture: Supplied

And people are certainly profiting. Alex Eisler, a 19-year-old student at Brown University, has sold about 750 reservations since late 2022 for a whopping $US110,000 ($A164,000).

What started as “a bit of fun on weekends” has morphed into a detailed strategy to secure bookings at the best restaurants. For those made available online, Eisler has set up multiple email addresses and automated bots to hoover up reservations. For those that require a phone call, he uses fake numbers and even occasionally puts on accents.

Appointment Trader user Alex Eisler. Supplied

Among Eisler’s top sales is a $US1050 ($A1567) table at New York City’s Carbone, an Italian spot beloved by celebrities. Soccer legend David Beckham, Super Bowl winner Russell Wilson and actors Kate Hudson and Leonardo DiCaprio were once all spotted there separately on the same night – and it was a Wednesday.

“Funnily enough, the person didn’t show up, so I sold it to someone else for $US400 ($A597),” Eisler said of his booking.

“And it was for a Tuesday lunch which is actually one of the easiest times to get a table.”

The teenager is one of Appointment Trader’s super users. But Frey says there is also an active market among people selling bookings they no longer want or need, and then using the money they make to secure a reservation somewhere else.

The site’s founder says there are “checks and balances” in place to prevent users uploading tables that will never be sold, leading to no-shows at restaurants. Frey, who came up with the idea for Appointment Trader while queuing at a government office, also shares data on the platform to guide sellers to make bookings at places that are in demand.

“If you build a bot to scalp 1000 listings with the hope of selling five, we hate you,” he said.

He is dismissive of criticism from top restaurants, arguing many “pretend to be sold out”.

“The reason that they do that is to appear in demand … Appointment Trader takes that mystique away,” Frey said.

“The reality is that if somebody pays for a table, they’re more likely not going to be a no-show than somebody who got a free table. And they’re probably going to be a better customer too, because they’re invested in going.”

Restaurants like Carbone in NY are frequented by celebrities like Kim Kardashian, pictured here with former husband Kanye ‘Ye’ West leaving Carbone in 2017. Picture: Pierre Suu/GC Images

As reservations begin to appear in Australia, Frey says the platform “always starts like this” in new countries, having recently grown strongly in Europe.

“There are a few listings … and then it kind of takes off from there,” he says.

But few Australian industry leaders had heard of it when contacted, and most declined to comment. Restaurant & Catering Industry Association boss Suresh Manickam said he wanted more information “about what that system means for both the diner and the restaurant” before Appointment Trader became entrenched in Australia.

Chris Lucas says the Appointment Trader does not “support our community principles”. Picture Andrew Tauber

Lucas Restaurants boss Chris Lucas – the deputy chair of the new Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association – was more definitive upon learning that Kisumé, his Japanese restaurant in Melbourne, was listed on Appointment Trader.

“We are not a party to the site in any way and in fact we don’t support or allow third parties to make reservations. It does not support our community principles,” Lucas said.

“I would warn consumers that they run the risk of their bookings not being honoured if we find out it’s made by a third party.”

But Frey is undeterred.

“Waiting for something is such a waste of time … I wanted to change that,” he said.

Originally published as Appointment Trader: new dining tool helps you skip the queue