BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Would you ever consider paying for a reservation at your favorite restaurant? Think ticket scalping — but for restaurant reservations.
Websites where you can bid on these reservations include numerous Western New York favorites.
Appointment Trader offers what it calls verified reservations. One of the restaurants on Appointment Trader is Lucia's on The Lake in Hamburg. The site recommends that you bid upwards of $100 for a reservation. Anything below the recommended bid and it says it's less likely you will get a table when you want one.
Restaurant owners and lawmakers are trying to get rid of websites like these and have introduced the Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act which has bi-partisan support.
7 News spoke with one of the advocates for the new law and customers who said paying for a reservation, in some cases, is not worth it.
"I know that $150 before I even had a cup of water isn't too attractive to me," said John Cruz. He has his favorite restaurants in town but is shocked to see the recommended bids for some popular WNY restaurants.
"They're totally unnecessary," said Victoria Primavera. "I grew up in the 50s. We didn't have any of these technological marvels that are now necessities and I wonder what would happen if they suddenly stopped working?"
Senator George Borrello hopes some of those sites do stop working. He's pushing the Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act which would prohibit third-party restaurant reservation services from arranging unauthorized reservations.
"It's like a ticket scalper," said Borrello. "All those folks that you see at the Bills stadium that are buying and selling tickets to last-minute folks. If it's Valentine's Day in NYC and you are someone that's able to make reservations at popular restaurants around the city you're going to be able to sell those to the last-minute guy that didn't make the dinner reservation."
Borrello said paying hundreds of dollars to a third party not affiliated with the restaurant is risky.
"There's really no guarantee that when you get there you're actually going to have that reservation honored," he said.
Borello said it's a lucrative business but he hopes the governor signs the act to shut it down.
"The next steps will happen to ensure that these companies are held accountable should they be caught doing this," he said.
