Reservation scalping? TableXchange comes to Chicago, for better or worse

August 10, 10:56 AMChicago Dining ExaminerEmily Szopa

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Greasing the maitre'd's palm is a thing of the past

Just a little over a year after its NYC debut, TableXchange.com opened its virtual doors in Chicago this past week, calling itself "The online marketplace for restaurant reservations."  Think StubHub, not OpenTable.

Let's say your sweetie has been dropping hints about wanting to eat at Spring, and today you suddenly realize why: Friday is your anniversary, you totally forgot, and there's no chance in hell you're going to be able to get an 8pm reservation. But at TableXchange you can snag that reso, for a convenience charge (of sorts) of $15 to the current reso holder, and neither your sweetie nor the restaurant need know about your last-minute planning.

The site lists reservations for restaurants where, more often than not, you have to call several weeks (if not months) in advance to secure a table (Charlie Trotter's, Spiaggia, Graham Elliot, L20, etc.). In theory, the auctioned tables belong to folks who would otherwise have to cancel their reservations for whatever reason, but instead of calling the restaurant and simply cancelling, they put their reso up for sale. Both parties benefit from what would otherwise be a zero-sum situation. Click here to see how TableXchange describes "How it works."

I suppose that's one way to view the site's potential. But what about the restaurants? Does anyone have the right to auction off their tables? And what about folks who have nothing better to do than call hard-to-get-into restaurants, making fake reservations that they'll then turn around and sell on TableXchange? The site swears up and down that there are controls in place to prevent people for having more than 4 resos up for sale at a time, thereby reducing the possibility of abuse. But, eh...a quick $60 sounds like a pretty good deal for not doing anything other than acting as a broker for prime tables.

It's also pretty controversial among restauranteurs. Alinea has even gone so far as to contact the original reservation holders and demand that the auction be taken down or their reservation would be cancelled. After all, the restaurants don't see a dime of the money that their auctioned reservations bring in.

Then again, what's to stop the restaurants themselves from selling their last-minute resos online? Which leads me to the thought: How long before we have to pay a flat-out fee for making a reservation anywhere? At least then the money would go toward the hardworking folks putting the food on the table, but still...do we really want the restaurant industry to turn into what the airline industry is becoming? We now have to pay to have our luggage checked on American Airlines or if we want a blanket and pillow on JetBlue, next thing you know it'll cost extra for tap water and linens at Adobo.

Would they really do that? It's a scary thought.

What do you think? Is there something wrong with making a few bucks off of a table you have to give up at the last minute, or should snagging a day-of reso be a luck-of-the-draw reward for last-minute hopefuls? 

Check out what the Chicago Tribune, Menupages and UrbanDaddy have to say about it.

Photo credit: Brian Lary