Nightclubs and entertainment venues generate difficulties for customers who want to book tables for groups, meetings, celebrations and impromptu gatherings of people who check-in with each other through social networks. NiteTables has changed the club dynamic in NYC by bringing transparency, convenience and sanity to the process of planning a night out for a single person, couple or group of friends.
Available in New York, Atlantic City, northern New Jersey and Hoboken, NiteTables plans to expand to other cities where it will offer its VIP reservation system for organizing nightlife activities. The company often uses the tag lines “Reserved to Served” or “Book Your Night Out” or to express its concept in simple terms, and the packages and deals and bookings go beyond what’s offered by other reservation systems.
Visitors to the greater New York and northern New Jersey and Hoboken metropolitan areas can use NiteTables as a revealing resource into the club and nightlife scene and booking system for arranging curated experiences. The hospitality industry continuously evolves, and marketing partners actively seek new business opportunities to provide better experiences, and club and nightlife amusements, diversions and entertainment promise to be the next booking vertical after air, hotel, rental car and dinner scheduling.
The benefits of any reservation system depend on providing customer and business benefits. NiteTables boosts reservations from late-night dinner crowds who often transition to partygoers after 11:00 p.m. Nightclubs get more kitchen business, inflate their food sales and make their dining rooms look full when the first early birds arrive to scope out the crowd. Customers get VIP treatment throughout the evening, happy hour packages, early evening specials before shows and concerts and after-dinner drinks in convivial settings.
NiteTables has carved a unique niche in the club scene that will be talked about far longer than the legendary clubs of the past like Studio 54. The service offers nightclubs and nightlife venues unique services that go beyond simple marketing or booking reservations — NiteTables has become a partner that not only promotes events and packages but also inspires staff to higher levels of service.
Background
NiteTables was founded in 2011 for the particular goal of booking tables at New York nightclubs where late-night reservations are difficult to arrange, especially for larger groups of celebrants, partygoers and corporate types in the city that never sleeps. The company has expanded to other East coast venues in the New York and New Jersey region. NiteTables works with other hospitality and marketing companies and travel-booking partners in the tourism and corporate travel industries, such as ArrivalGuides, Peek, Regal Card, Hanwei (China) and Plum Benefits, a corporate provider of entertainment and benefits for business travelers.
The company has expanded from facilitating reservations to curating amazing nightlife experiences for groups, providing high-profile events like karaoke, Fantasy Draft Parties, bowling, sports events at nightclubs, backstage access and other perks for its customers. People referred by corporate and tourism channels can find events and make reservations at the hottest clubs because they “know” some connected people guys who always come through to provide stellar club experiences.
How NiteTables Works
Nightclubs, bars and restaurants pay a commission for using NiteTables’ software. Consumers and groups confirm their reservations by paying a 10 percent deposit based on package or event charges when booking a nightlife package deal and pay the balance when they arrive at the venue. Nightclubs have fewer no-shows because the deposit encourages customers to show up as scheduled. Consumers aren’t really paying for their reservations because the 10 percent deposit is deducted from their bills when they arrive at their venues where they pay the balance, tax and gratuities.
Venues that partner with NiteTables to create unique curated experiences get revenue visibility and transparency without paying any fees for getting listed. The system is especially rewarding for venues and groups that get guaranteed prices, confirmed reservations and assurance that everybody in the party gets into the clubs. The deals help to prevent no-shows, help clubs plan their inventory and staffing needs and ensure that the venues honor the terms, which is especially important at crowded nightclubs. Unfortunately, NiteTables doesn’t accept listings from clubs that won’t guarantee admission to all members a group’s party.
NiteTables, unlike other reservation sites, understands the value of enlisting employees to ensure that people have great nightlife experiences. The company provides real-time tracking so that venues can reward employees for posting information on social media, providing special services and generally becoming more involved with promoting customer satisfaction.
Instead of restricting club entry or people from entering VIP areas, staff are rewarded for generating a better experience for customers. NiteTables’ Referral Marketing Program encourages staff to promote their venues, post about events on social media and provide extra effort to keep their venues rated highly by NiteTables and customers. The nightclubs can motivate their staffs by gamifying their efforts and rewarding the winners with prizes or providing direct compensation for service beyond the ordinary. The Referral Marketing Program boosts a venue’s marketing at little or no cost, except providing staff incentives.
Packages include all kinds of perks, activities and the Guest List features that allow additional members free admissions, reduced cover charges or express entries past the velvet ropes of popular clubs. NiteTables’ features include easy methods of finding bars, nightclubs and restaurants with specific crowd demographics or music through the Venue Finder and Vendor Search apps. Consumers and groups can book a single event or nightlife package.
Sports venues often use NiteTables to offer special table packages for groups of fans for college games on Saturdays and Sundays and Monday and Thursday Night NFL games. Locally, these events enable venues to increase their profits with surge-pricing for popular sporting events, like Giants and Jets games or the playoffs.The company’s software provides participating nightspots with an intuitive back-end interface for managing events, reservations, seating configurations and menu customizations for groups. Examples of NiteTables packages and website resources include:
- Happy Hours
NiteTables happy hour incentives often target women. Other popular packages include happy hour bar crawls through the cities where NiteTables operates. - Early Dining Specials
Popular entertainment venues often require attendees to eat earlier than normal before attending a late-running play, musical, concert or other special event. - Late Dinners Become a Vibrant Bar Scene
NiteTables also works effectively for those lounges that transition from serving late meals to providing an active bar scene. Customers can enjoy after-dinner drinks, bar companionship and entertainment without leaving the lounge, which effectively upsells diners who usually leave to explore a different club after dinner. Venues can get a guarantee of bar business after the meal with the right package deal. - Brunch Deals
Ensuring reservations for high-profile brunches on holidays, Sundays and after nightclubbing is important for the total guest experience, and elegant brunch spreads include the traditional hair-of-the-dog choices like bloody marys, Bellinis and mimosas. - Getting Past the Velvet Ropes
One of the biggest clichés of modern clubbing rests on the premise of the velvet rope where bouncers choose who gets in and who doesn’t make the cut. Each member of a group gets in, period. - Free Marketing and Venue Promotion
NiteTables uses photos, videos and detailed floor plans to give event planners and customers one-stop convenience to search for clubs, provide details of what happens beyond the velvet ropes, help to plan where people want to go and recommend venues that visitors simply must see.
NiteTables Effectiveness
NiteTables delivers extraordinary value for urban nightlife venues, which have different needs than traditional restaurants. The company ranks venues, events and packages as to their relative popularity as determined by participating members. Travelers, business groups and regular nightcrawlers get the inside scoop and guaranteed reservations at the city’s hottest clubs while the clubs get satisfied customers, fewer no-shows, better service from their own staffs to improve their rankings and customers who commit to an entertainment package instead of having a quick drink and leaving to check out other nightlife venues.
Comparison of NiteTables to Competitors
NiteTables provided a unique service when the company started, but other organizations quickly recognized the benefits of targeting the nightlife crowd. Competitors include BiteHunter, SportsChaser and BoozeMenus. BiteHunter finds real-time dining deals from thousands of sources and helps diners find local restaurants that meet their culinary and budgetary standards. Although both BoozeMenus and SportsChaser are competitors, they also have a partner relationship with NiteTables for booking specialized packages and events. NiteTables’ booking capability provides structure and working partnerships with many content providers throughout the region.
BoozeMenus takes the guesswork out of finding particular music genres, bar crowds and nightspots that match people’s criteria for having a good time. SportsChaser offers venues, bars and restaurants where patrons can enjoy watching boxing matches, sports matches and local team favorites. An example of how the partnerships
Technology can easily empower companies to enter the nightclub market, but growth takes time, daily focus, building a h4 network of nightspots and attracting customers and groups for the service. NiteTables seems to be doing things right by leveraging partners in its expansion efforts, offering creative and fun nightlife packages and continually upgrading the guest experience. Unless you can find a similar company that’s already providing those services in your region at competitive costs, it’s hard to beat what NiteTables offers nightclubs, bars and trendy nightspot dining and entertainment venues.
BiteHunter is geared more toward saving time and money than guaranteeing a more satisfying experience. Consumers (and restaurants) can quickly get overwhelmed by all the offers and advertising venues available, but BiteHunter gathers information about real-time restaurants discounts and deals and simplifies searching for the best deal in a given area. The BiteHunter app tested in New York, San Francisco and Chicago and is now available across the country.The company receives commissions from participating restaurants when its recommendations lead to a sale or booking.
Cost-Benefit Analysis for NiteTables
Unlike many hospitality promotions, NiteTables guarantees reservations for larger groups, more expensive entertainment packages, corporate incentives and travel groups, so landing these accounts can be very profitable. Nightclub venues can be challenging to gain entry and difficult to manage for big groups that want to party together. Visitors often have no idea of where to find like-minded people who enjoy partying at clubs, or they worry about velvet-rope restrictions because they come from out-of-town and don’t know the score, dress code and other insider information.
NiteTables charges nothing for venues to list with the company, and the venues only pay when an event or package is purchased through the service. The cost-benefit picture for nightclubs and lounges is very favorable for any business looking to book dinner guests that NiteTables helps people plan successful and guaranteed nightlife experiences while giving clubs and bars worthwhile reasons and financial incentives to rush people past the restrictions that make planning group clubbing experiences challenging or impossible.
Concluding Thoughts
Curating the club experience is the logical progression of nightlife experiences in the world where instant communications and technology have taken the place of those velvet ropes that made nightclub venues like Studio 54 famous.
What We Like
We like that customers and groups can book more than reservations. Package deals and curated experiences at NiteTables offer the best that any city’s clubs can provide its residents, tourists and business travelers. We like the simple 10 percent deposit that applies to the package’s costs so that consumers don’t pay for the service. We like NiteTables’ policy of not doing business with venues who refuse to relax their admission standards.
What We Don’t Like
We have some concerns about promoting excessive drinking, partying and squandering a week’s income to impress a high-maintenance date. NiteTables customers should always make reliable transportation arrangements and emergency contacts in case a nightclub scene turns violent or threatening.
Final Assessment
NiteTables has created a unique service that’s sure to make waves in the club scene, and nightlife venues can get involved with the program to generate big profits, which more than makes up for losing some of the exclusivity vibe that clubs have tried to foster in the past with gatekeepers, bouncers and velvet ropes.