The essential change is that customers put down a nonrefundable deposit for their reservation.
It's hard to really assess this based on the experience of Alinea/Next/Aviary alone. This might work for the most in-demand, popular restaurants / high end bars like those but I'm skeptical it will work more broadly. Reason being it's a competitive disadvantage vs. places that don't require a deposit.
Super popular places already have so much demand and competitive advantage that it may not affect them, but the average (or even above-average) restaurant may actually risk a decline in bookings by requiring deposits. I believe OpenTable actually offers cancellation fees as an optional feature; few places use it. We'll see how it goes, I guess.
It's hard to really assess this based on the experience of Alinea/Next/Aviary alone. This might work for the most in-demand, popular restaurants / high end bars like those but I'm skeptical it will work more broadly. Reason being it's a competitive disadvantage vs. places that don't require a deposit.
Super popular places already have so much demand and competitive advantage that it may not affect them, but the average (or even above-average) restaurant may actually risk a decline in bookings by requiring deposits. I believe OpenTable actually offers cancellation fees as an optional feature; few places use it. We'll see how it goes, I guess.