No Reservation, No Card, No Problem — NoWait Adds Mobile Payments

With the addition of new capabilities, a restaurant waitlisting service is aiming to save diners time, both before and after their meal.

TechCrunch reports that NoWait — which offers an app that allows users to virtually queue up for a table at casual dining restaurants (many of which don’t accept traditional reservations) in their vicinity — is adding mobile payments functionality.

So far, the outlet reports, NoWait has been testing the app-based payments capability in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (where the company is based), and is pleased with the results as users of the app — just as they are kept from having to wait for a table — now no longer have to wait, once they’re done eating, for their server to bring them the check.

“Restaurants are seeing faster table turns, servers are seeing substantially higher tips and consumers save five to 10 minutes at the end of the meal,” NoWait CEO Ware Sykes commented to TechCrunch.

The outlet shares that NoWait’s mobile payments service works with major point-of-sale (POS) systems, including three — Micros, NCR and POSitouch — that cover approximately 85 percent of the dining establishments that are in the company’s purview.

The merchant side of dining transactions is where NoWait generates its revenue from, adds the TechCrunch story, with restaurants — including chains like Chili’s and Buffalo Wild Wings — paying NoWait a subscription fee in exchange for a suite of services related to seating, server rotation, waitlists and reservations, among others.

NoWait intends to release the mobile payments service as a feature separate from that aforementioned package, which the company tells TechCrunch will allow it to offer the service in verticals adjacent to restaurants, such as bars, at some point in the future.

To date, adds the outlet, NoWait’s mobile application has been downloaded more than 3 million times and been used to seat 250 million diners. The company is expecting that 5 million consumers will make their way to a table via the app this year.