Yelp Has Upgraded The Waitlist Tool for Restaurants

In a blog post Yelp has announced new features to their Waitlist tool for users that could benefit restaurants that enable them. One upgrade allows users to enter their party size when they start their search on Yelp for Waitlist enabled restaurants that can accommodate large parties. This helps speed up the process and should see more users finding the tool useful, which means if your restaurant can hold large parties this might end up bringing you more business.

A new feature is that in restaurants that enable it, users can now select where in the restaurant they want to sit with options such as indoor, outdoor, bar, or whatever is first available. This new feature has another part that restaurants can opt-in to which allows users to enable ‘table sharing’, basically stating they are willing to share a table with a stranger, which might come in handy for more cramped restaurants with limited seating where one customer might take up a 4 top table on their own.

Finally Yelp has also released their “Notify Me” feature for Android devices and the Web. Previously this was only available on iOS devices. In today’s world consumers are seeking out convenience via their smartphones. The Notify Me feature allows users to get onto a virtual waiting list for your restaurant and be notified on their phones or desktop computer when their space in line is coming up.

For restaurant owners, Waitlist is a paid feature of Yelp Restaurants and will run you $249 per month. The good news is that Yelp Restaurants is a month to month subscription without any long-term commitments, definitely worth giving a shot to see if it brings value to your restaurant.