[tptacek]

On the off chance we can cadge more of your time:

It seems like in retrospect that tickets were a really smart idea that panned out nicely for your group. Why do you think nobody had done it on your scale before?

How well do you think a ticket scheme would work out for a "non-destination" restaurant? For, say, Lula or Nightwood, instead of Alinea or Elizabeth?

In the process of getting this stuff working, was there ever a point late in the game where you were worried that it just wasn't going to come together in time to get tickets working for the launch of Next?

Thanks for taking the time to comment!

[nkokonas]

I think it would work for almost any restaurant -- or for that matter any business or service that has time slots... think dentist, hair cutter, spa, etc. If a restaurant is less in demand then they can use pricing as an incentive, never charging a premium but going under baseline for quiet times.

Aviary is the example that I use because we never go all night to full capacity. We've done 350+ covers, but we could do more. Most Wednesdays we do 125-150. So take a non destination place, add in a deposit for prime slots or other perks, and I believe the psychology is that you can move patrons to those times.

I think the entire industry was afraid to take the risk that patrons would hate tickets -- you spend $ 2 million building a restaurant and you want to minimize risk. I felt Next had so many people interested in the concept that I could afford to take that risk... indeed in some ways it was concepted FOR the tickets because I was so nutty about them for a year or two before.

And yes, I was very very worried. Up for several days in a row beforehand. Didn't shower or shave... ate pizza, drank cheap wine. Usual stuff.

[infinitone]

Funnily enough, we're working on scheduling for detailers and cleaning businesses (http://carwashy.com). We haven't look into ticketing because well, to be frank, most of our customers never really mention the problems you guys face. And looking at the data, no-shows account for less than 2% of bookings.