Yelp Launches New, Mostly-Free Online Reservation Service for Businesses

Yelp already lets restaurants take reservations from their Yelp listing page using third party booking apps such as Open Table, and last year, the crowdsourced review giant acquired its own reservation tool in the form of SeatMe.

Starting today, however, Yelp is making moves to better monopolize the whole restaurant dining experience. Yelp Seat Me is the new, proprietary reservation system from that allows restaurants and bars to reserve tables, manage guest and wait lists, provide text updates to customers, and more, all in one app.

Most significant to the update is the new, low overhead. Unlike Open Table, Seat Me users do not have to pay a percentage cover fee per reservation, nor do they have to pay the $650 set up fee, or $75 a month website fee. There is a $99 monthly subscription, though, because, you know, #newworldorder #capitalism #illuminati, #etc.

The purpose, reads the official blog announcement, is to provide “a great option for businesses that aren’t big or busy enough yet to need the robust functionality of Yelp Seat Me.” Three cheers for the little guy, huzzah!

H/T Tech Crunch + PicThx Yelp