,
7 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
Cautionary tale for restaurants - Google appears to be testing a new reservation system called "Reserve with Google." Here's what happened when I went to make a reservation at Birds of a Feather in Williamsburg:
On mobile, I landed on the Birds of a Feather maps/place page and was given the choice to "Reserve a Table." When I clicked that, I went through the Reserve with Google flow and essentially opened a reservation request. Seems cool, right? Here's the email conf I got: 
"The Assistant will the call the restaurant now" - what sorcery is this?? But hey, a few minutes later I got an email saying the reservation was confirmed. Magic!
Last night, I showed up at Birds of a Feather with my entire family for dinner, and they had no record of our reservation. They also had no idea Google was making reservations at their restaurant and did not sign up for this service.
The restaurant was packed (the food is great, you gotta go if you haven't been!). The staff felt as confused as us, and fortunately were able to open up a private event space for us so that we could still have dinner as planned.
What's likely a phased "test" for Google can have serious implications for restaurants whose livelihood is based on delivering an excellent experience. Imagine having some faceless technology double- or triple- book your restaurant without your knowledge.
If you're a restaurant owner, do a quick search of your restaurant to see if you've unwittingly been rolled up into the Reserve with Google system. If you're Google, please work with restaurants to ensure their customer experience isn't casually obliterated.
