Could this last-minute reservation app help fix London hospitality’s no-show problem?
A new app which helps Londoners find last-minute reservations at bars and restaurants has received new funding from Phil Eales, the boss of the Honest Burgers chain, to help spur on development and help the hospitality industry deal with the rising levels of ‘no shows’.
Ambl, which was launched last year by former financial sales worker Aaron Solomon after he struggled to find a table to entertain clients, has been downloaded 60,000 times and now works with 400 restaurants in the capital.
Solomon told City PM: “People nowadays are using apps like Uber so frequently but there is nothing to just have as a tool in your pocket to find and quickly book a venue in any city.”
The businessman also believes that the app will help tackle the rising number of ‘no shows’ in the hospitality sector, which is eating away at restaurants’ pockets amid the cost of living crisis.
According to new research from consumer reporting group Zonal and CGA, the industry misses out on £17.59bn in lost revenues per year due to customers not showing up.
He added: “You look online and restaurants are fully booked. But when it gets to seven o’clock and five, six tables don’t show up, then they [restaurateurs ] lose our business.”
“We are there so [businesses] can quickly just flick on a button that says they’re free and anyone in the area will be able to see that and customers can broadcast themselves.”
Currently, Ambl is only available in London but the business has plans to provide the service in other cities across the UK and on a more global scale over the next few years.
Businesses using the platform are charged £1 per person on a booking.
Funding from Eales comes after a number of other successful funding rounds with total investment to date sitting at over £2.3m.
Phil Eales, founder of Honest Burger, said: “I’ve always felt the best experiences are often the ones that you don’t plan.
“That’s one of the reasons why I love what Ambl are trying to do – they’re going to make life so simple for those last-minute, spontaneous plans that get hatched! I get very excited thinking about the opportunity to change the way people plan their eating and drinking out.”
He added: “And as someone who’s made a living out of hospitality, the exposure and eyeballs on your brand that Ambl is going to generate with its on-demand marketplace of users is currently completely untapped.”