Online restaurant guide - business potential?

cubeb

Hi!

After designing an online marketing platform for restaurants and (hopefully) a valuable resource to finding the ideal dining venue ( www.check4table.ie ), I would appreciated any advice on revenue potential opportunities.

The three main sources appear to be banner advertising, commission on table bookings and subscriptions from premium members

Firstly, banner/adwords advertising works best where there are already many users to the site and a redesign would seem necessary.
Next, the commission based option is in the pipeline but the challenge is to complete a live bookings system that will be user-friendly to administer.
And finally, subscriptions from premium members is the preferred option and where members are offered
1) Priority listing and/or
2) Extra content that differentiates and promotes their restaurant

However, much of the extra content previously earmarked for premium members is now open to all restaurants so as to enhance the overall attractiveness and appeal of the website.
Now, I am seeking additional ideas on content/features that will be exclusive to premium members, e.g. online menus, detailed description etc.... or advice on any other area I should be looking at..

Thanks in advance,
TonyR

Chet Zar

cubeb wrote: »

Hi!

After designing an online marketing platform for restaurants and (hopefully) a valuable resource to finding the ideal dining venue ( www.check4table.ie ), I would appreciated any advice on revenue potential opportunities.

The three main sources appear to be banner advertising, commission on table bookings and subscriptions from premium members

Firstly, banner/adwords advertising works best where there are already many users to the site and a redesign would seem necessary.
Next, the commission based option is in the pipeline but the challenge is to complete a live bookings system that will be user-friendly to administer.
And finally, subscriptions from premium members is the preferred option and where members are offered
1) Priority listing and/or
2) Extra content that differentiates and promotes their restaurant

However, much of the extra content previously earmarked for premium members is now open to all restaurants so as to enhance the overall attractiveness and appeal of the website.
Now, I am seeking additional ideas on content/features that will be exclusive to premium members, e.g. online menus, detailed description etc.... or advice on any other area I should be looking at..

Thanks in advance,
TonyR

Looks like you'd be the Irish version of Open Table? Some good ideas on there to emulate I'd say...

Not sure how online menus could be exclusive to premium members seeing as restaurants put their menus on their websites these days anyway.

bigneacy

Restaurants.ie have been doing this for years.... They are free to join for both patrons and restaurants. You can see menu's, wine lists, opening hours, reviews, accreditations, payment options etc. without even having to sign in. (nothing to do with them, just an infrequent user)

Its a tough task to collect info on so many restaurants in Ireland and to be honest I can't see it making a fortune based on premium subscriptions for restaurants. Whats more, I can't see it making a single cent based on premium subscriptions for patrons.

I know you are only starting and probably have a lot of content to add, but a real niggle of mine is to see a website that is totally dubcentric or corkcentric. Yours being the latter. Just a thought. I'm most certainly not the only one that gets frustrated when they see this elsewhere.

EDIT

Looks like Opentable have started their Irish Campaign - They've only 6 so far but i'd say its only a matter of time...

A lot of money behind that. Unless you can match it i'd say get out before you get in. I hope this isn't news for you - 5 mins of research found this out for me...

jimmybeige

Seem to be quite a few of these sites already out there. Not discouraging you, but it definitely not something that hasn't been done in Ireland before:
http://www.menupages.ie
http://www.restaurants.ie
http://www.findarestaurant.ie/

Just a few that popped up instantly. I know there are definitely others out there too. Good luck if you decide to continue with it.

cubeb

Thanks for your feedback,

Chet Zar wrote: »

Looks like you'd be the Irish version of Open Table? Some good ideas on there to emulate I'd say...

Yes, Opentable is the world leader in the industry (mainly based in the US) and where they offer the ultimate service with their live bookings system. However, their business model requires very high investment and in return major control over each restaurant’s table management system. I would prefer to offer a bookings system that with today’s technological environment is much cheaper to setup and allow restaurants keep full control of their own table management.

bigneacy wrote: »

Restaurants.ie have been doing this for years....

Restaurants.ie have a nice website, and it’s free, so to compete one has to offer more for free (eg greater choice of restaurants) and still that bit extra for premium members

bigneacy wrote: »

Whats more, I can't see it making a single cent based on premium subscriptions for patrons.

I agree, it would be a non runner to charge restaurant customers.

bigneacy wrote: »

I know you are only starting and probably have a lot of content to add, but a real niggle of mine is to see a website that is totally dubcentric or corkcentric. Yours being the latter. Just a thought. I'm most certainly not the only one that gets frustrated when they see this elsewhere.

Apologies for not mentioning that Cork is just a starting point, I would hope to make it to Dundalk eventually

bigneacy

cubeb wrote: »

Yes, Opentable is the world leader in the industry (mainly based in the US) and where they offer the ultimate service with their live bookings system. However, their business model requires very high investment and in return major control over each restaurant’s table management system. I would prefer to offer a bookings system that with today’s technological environment is much cheaper to setup and allow restaurants keep full control of their own table management.

Seems to me, a less investment heavy version of opentable might do the trick. If you could offer a solution that is just as, if not more, reliable as opentable, but for half or less of the initial investment, you could be on to something.

Justeat.ie have devised a system of taking delivery/collection orders online - could you adapt their system to suit your needs?

cubeb wrote: »

Apologies for not mentioning that Cork is just a starting point, I would hope to make it to Dundalk eventually

Good. :pac:

lion_bar

a few quick thoughts...

you need to sort out how you format phone numbers. skype usually highlights phone numbers and allows me to click on them to ring through. Your site just displays them as text so i need to go and type them in somewhere else.

Also, can you track calls/emails from your site to the restaurant so that you can show value to them?

If i'm a restaurant paying you for ad space and some writes a nasty review will you delete it?

You're basically offering a directory service, i think you should check out whatclinic.com which does something similar for health professionals and clinics.

This is a slide show by their CEO on pricing you might find it helpful
http://www.slideshare.net/caelen/getting-your-pricing-right-for-web-and-software-businessess

cubeb

jimmybeige wrote: »

Seem to be quite a few of these sites already out there. Not discouraging you, but it definitely not something that hasn't been done in Ireland before:
http://www.menupages.ie
http://www.restaurants.ie
http://www.findarestaurant.ie/

menupages.ie is the main player here in Ireland (good site, often use it) Where their main strength is in the area of restaurant reviews.
Here, they are too far ahead to compete with, and also with this business model there is the problem (conflict of interest) in having premium members and an impartial review site.
So, check4table.ie will focus more on providing table availability information.

findarestaurant.ie. Probably the best designed website around for restaurant members. But where Content is King, relying on subscriptions for main content will always limit the value & choice of that content.
This is partly my own dilemma, providing the public with useful information on the widest choice of restaurants but also to get a return.

cubeb

Thanks lion_bar for food for thought.

Also,

lion_bar wrote: »

a few quick thoughts...
If i'm a restaurant paying you for ad space and some writes a nasty review will you delete it?

There is a conflict of interest, but customer feedback is to important to ignore these days.
That is why I have opted for ratings instead of reviews as been less contentious even though not as popular.

tricky D

lion_bar wrote: »

You're basically offering a directory service, i think you should check out whatclinic.com which does something similar for health professionals and clinics.

This is a slide show by their CEO on pricing you might find it helpful
http://www.slideshare.net/caelen/getting-your-pricing-right-for-web-and-software-businessess

Whatclinic/revahealth have the almost perfect classifieds listings site business model. (They're good to work for too) Free basic, then tiered with extra features according to price. They do a huge amount of tweaking for conversion and SEO and you're going to need to do this too as you are quite late-to-market.

The Cork only is confusing wrt the map and dropdowns and there's almost no info to communicate this.

Herbalist

jimmybeige wrote: »

Seem to be quite a few of these sites already out there. Not discouraging you, but it definitely not something that hasn't been done in Ireland before:
http://www.menupages.ie
http://www.restaurants.ie
http://www.findarestaurant.ie/

Just a few that popped up instantly. I know there are definitely others out there too. Good luck if you decide to continue with it.

I was just thinking this. When I read your post I thought of www.menupages.ie as it is a website I would use it if I was going out anywhere for food and it is well laid out and easy to use. They seem to have the restaurant side of things and the likes of www.justeat.ie are all about the take away side, again it is a website I would use quite a bit.

Menupages do not offer anything along the lines of table bookings so I think the OP's website could be a success if people can see and appreciate the added benefits it would provide.