TableTurn NYC: $50/Month SaaS for Restaurant Booking — A $1.7M MRR Opportunity

Getting a table at New York City's hottest restaurants has become a real nightmare. Long wait times and fully booked schedules make it nearly impossible for an average diner to secure a spot. High-end restaurants like 4 Charles Prime Rib and Carbone see their reservations vanish within minutes of being released. And thanks to social media hype, everyone's rushing to try the latest trendy spots.

Restaurant reservations have changed over the years. In the past, people called ahead and spoke with a maître d’. Regulars were recognized, and VIPs had their names underlined twice in the reservation book. Now everything's online through systems like Resy and OpenTable. While this should make things easier, it's actually created a whole new problem: people treating restaurant reservations like concert tickets, buying and selling them for profit.

Sneaky Tactics in Reservation Reselling

Some clever (but sneaky) people have turned this into a serious business. They create fake accounts with made-up names and email addresses to grab all the good tables. Some even use computer programs to automatically snatch reservations the moment they become available. Take Alex Eisler, a college student studying math and computer science – he's made $70,000 in just 1 year by selling reservations under a fake username.

SaaS Platforms That Enable Reservation Resales

There are now websites dedicated to this practice. On Appointment Trader, people sell their reservations like they're selling sneakers – a lunch reservation at Maison Close went for $855! Another app called Dorsia makes you commit to spending a certain amount before you even sit down – like $1,000 for a table at Carbone.

The most successful resellers use special software to help them grab reservations. One popular SaaS tool called TableTurn.nyc (which used to be called Resy Sniper) charges $50 a month to help people automatically book hard-to-get tables.

One person made $80,000 in a year using this kind of automation.

This is giving restaurants major headaches. When people make fake reservations and can't sell them, tables sit empty. Eric Ripert, who runs Le Bernardin (a super fancy restaurant), caught 8 fake reservations in just 1 week. Restaurant staff now have to spend time playing detective, calling and emailing to make sure reservations are real.

How Restaurants Use Data and Algorithms to Prioritize Customers

To fight back, restaurants are getting stricter. Some now require credit card deposits or ask to see ID when you arrive. They're also using data to reward their best customers – if you visit often, order expensive wine, or tip well, you're more likely to get the good tables. They even have special codes for different types of customers: "W.W." means "wine whale" ,i.e, you love wine (and spend a lot on it), while “O-O” means "wears glasses" and "D.N.S." means "do not serve" if you are an annoying customer who gives no tips.

High-Tier Credit Cards and Concierge Influence

Credit card companies are getting in on the action too. If you have a fancy American Express or Chase card, you might get special access to reservations. The super-exclusive Amex Centurion card (which costs $10,000 just to get, plus $5,000 every year) gives you first dibs on waiting lists through Resy.

Some new companies are trying to fix this mess in a fairer way. For example, Blackbird rewards loyal customers instead of letting people resell reservations. But other places, like Dorsia, are making things even more exclusive by requiring big spenders only. The days of just walking into a restaurant and getting a table are becoming rare.

The $1.7M MRR Opportunity

The most fascinating part of this whole situation is how a super specific business like TableTurn NYC can be so successful. Think about it – New York City (HCOL area) is full of people with money to spend, and there are around 350,000 millionaires living there. When you're targeting a wealthy city like NYC, even reaching a small percentage of these people can be incredibly profitable. You could use targeted Facebook ads (like Gary Vee famously did to help his dad's business) or even old-school flyers to reach potential customers.

The beauty of focusing on just one city is that hardly anyone else will try to compete with you. Most developers want to make apps that work everywhere, not just in one specific place. But that's exactly what creates a protective barrier around your business. If even 10% of NYC's millionaires paid $50 monthly for easy restaurant bookings, you'd be looking at $1.7 million in monthly revenue. Or you could offer 1-day passes for $25 like GummySearch for people who just need to book that one special reservation. When you're solving a specific problem for people with money to spend, they're usually happy to pay for the convenience. It's a perfect example of how sometimes thinking smaller – focusing on one city instead of the whole world – can actually lead to bigger success.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

Love this story. Value creation & value extraction are 2 different skills.

One example would be Stable Diffusion and all the multi-million SaaS built on top of Stable Diffusion.

Stable Diffusion made very little money whereas the people that built on top of Stable Diffusion like Lensa, PhotoAI, HeadShotPro, Aragon, etc... made multi-million dollars.

Inventors invent. Businessmen monetize. Ideally, you want to do both like Midjourney.

2/

Do not mention other platforms name or link to it when the algorithm is deranking said platform.

It is akin to praising your boss’ enemy in front of your boss.

3/

Great way to get initial seed users for your SaaS. You can give them a service and then tell them that you used your SaaS for it.

With AI Agents, expect this to be more common.

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