- Alex Eisler, a dark-skinned sophomore, has a lucrative side job selling restaurant reservations.
- He sells them on the early platform Appointment Trader.
- Eisler told BI that the most expensive sale was for an Omakase reservation in Boston for $1,358.
Need more evidence that the scalper and bot-powered restaurant reservations ecosystem is ramping up to new heights?
Brown University student Alex Eisler has generated $105,000 in reservation sales since November 2022, when he joined Appointment Trader, an online marketplace where users can buy and sell restaurant reservations using an auction model. Ta.
Eisler, a sophomore studying applied mathematics and computer science, is a lifelong foodie and told Business Insider that she first discovered Appointment Trader while purchasing her reservation at New York steakhouse 4 Charles Prime Rib. .
He then attempted to sell some reservations on a platform procured through Resy, which is owned by American Express, and by personally calling restaurants. He said he then started tinkering with the code, with mixed success, and developed a bot to automate the process.
Eisler told Business Insider that the most expensive reservation he ever sold was for $1,358 at an Omakase restaurant in Boston. Business Insider saw the approved bid in a screenshot he provided. In New York City, he recently banked $850 for a lunch table at Maison Close and $1,050 for a seat at Carbone, The New Yorker reported.
“For me, money has never been an issue,” Eisler told BI. “We just wanted to match supply and demand.”
It's worth noting that the $105,000 figure raised is before appointment traders collect fees (20% to 30%). The New Yorker first covered Eisler's side hustle and the increasingly elusive vocation of dining out. He told the outlet he pocketed $70,000 last year.
Appointment Trader is just one platform that helps turn reservation sales into a cottage industry of sorts.
Membership platform Dorsia is another, but operates with a completely different business model, working with top restaurants to offer reservations in exchange for a guaranteed minimum spend.
Business Insider's Linette Lopez previously reported that the rise of apps like Resy, which gamifies the reservation experience, is pitting elite diners against tech-savvy diners who are hacking the system with bots. I reported on the dining scene of .
That said, some restaurant owners are upset about how the space is evolving.
In October, Bloomberg reported that sites like Resy and Tock, and the restaurants they serve, were trying to crack down on bots by disabling reseller accounts and creating teams dedicated to fraud.
The New Yorker pointed out that bots and resellers are preventing restaurants from collecting valuable customer data.
“It's bad for business,” Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin, a famous French seafood restaurant, told The New Yorker. “We spend hours every day chasing down bots and fake reservations. If you have a no-show table, your profit for the night is over.”