Lawmaker files bill to ban reservation trading apps from operating in Louisiana
Good, fuck scalpers. This is no different from people buying up 15 PS5s and then selling them on eBay for triple the cost. They are adding nothing of value to the world, only helping rich people be lazy.
The people that can afford these places deserve to lose money to arbitrage anyway, it’s not a priority for any legitimate government.
The problem is that this is screwing the restaurants too, either through reputation damage or through empty tables if the scalpers don’t manage to sell the reservation on time.
I wonder what the third-party app site’s policy is if the restaurant cancels the reservation. Does the “bidder” get their money back? If so, the restaurants themselves should buy up all the reservations on the third party site, then cancel them, then demand their money back (or do a chargeback through their credit card). Make their own restaurant toxic to the third party sites.
the restaurant should get a huge cut of that
No. Why do you think it shouldn’t be allowed? If it starts hurting the restaurant, they’ll change their policies.
The problem, as pointed out in the first paragraph, is that these are third party apps operating without the restaurant’s knowledge or consent. The proposed law would outlaw what these apps are doing if they do not have a contract with the restaurant. I’m all for it.
I don’t see how that’s a problem. The restaurant should easily be able to tell if reservations are changing parties often and how often they are being canceled last minute. The restaurant themselves could start charging a reservation fee, not let reservations switch parties, not accept reservations at all, etc.
IMO, such a law is classic government overreach. I’d much rather they go after other types of scalping, like event tickets, game consoles, GPUs.
This is very low in the world of government overreach. It doesn’t stop restaurants from having reservations, it doesn’t stop 3rd party companies from coordinating the reservations, it doesn’t even stop charging for reservations… all it does is stop 3rd party companies selling reservations from a restaurant without their consent.
These companies add nothing of value to consumers or restaurants and seek to harm both as they increase the cost of getting a reservation and cause people to have a certain disdain for the restaurant.
Sure the restaurants could make the process of getting reservations harder and more expensive with regular audits and authentications but this is literally what the government is for, nobody is harmed with these laws except scalpers
You’re so close to seeing the point. Yes indeed that the restaurant should be able to see if reservations are being changed around and be involved in those decisions, such as being able to restrict how they’re transferred and charging fees to do so. Your first paragraph is what is needed and what the law is trying to get these third parties to do.
No, we definitely differ on what the point is. If restaurants allow reservations to be transferred like this, they are implicitly allowing this type of transaction. The only thing I feel like is needed, is for restaurants to know this type of thing exists. They already have the ability to curtail it if they need to.
But then how is it not fraud and already illegal?
It’s not illegal to book a reservation and then turn around and give that reservation to someone else (scheduling conflicts, medical emergencies, etc) with the other person paying you for it. To me it’s a perfectly valid thing to do. The problem is that it’s being commercialized and creating confusion for both customers and restaurants who no longer know who’s booking their tables.
You specifically mentioned the case of the app not having the consent of the restaurant.
How is it not fraud if I sell you a reservation when I’m not in contract with the restaurant owner and simply sell: nothing.
Because then I have a bridge to sell ;)
