Velocity Dining - 500 points per booking until 31st July, 300 after!

[drron]

Certainly not a lot of restaurants in QLD outside BNE and the Gold coast.
And as for Tassie just 3 in Hobart-none of which I would be interested in.

 

[carpenteria]

Certainly not a lot of restaurants in QLD outside BNE and the Gold coast.
And as for Tassie just 3 in Hobart-none of which I would be interested in.

1 in Townsville! Woo! -.-

I always liked the idea of these things but it is a fact that outside of major cities it's not really taken off. Also, I love how it lists Darwin (where I spend a bit of time these days) to search for retauraunts then helpfully returns 0 search results.

Still, next time I want to go to Jam Corner in TSV I'm there!

 

[Strongarm]

Have just made two bookings at the only Townsville restaurant, no problems, even got an email from the restaurant manager shortly after. Will let you know how long it takes for the points to appear, bookings are for Friday and Tuesday.

 

[Isochronous]

This is a good idea from Velocity - obviously they want to avoid the problems with the QFF programme of having to hassle restaurants into processing your card and giving you points. I wonder if the restaurants will be advertising their membership of Velocity on their windows etc too

 

[penegal]

I was going to use this for the first time for dinner tonight, but I can't select my own time... I need to select a "sitting" time, even though I know that I can show up to this restaurant without a reservation and get a table at ANY time.

So... Should I book either 1hr before or 1hr after my actual arrive time and see what happens? Or should I just forget it and be a walk-in?

 

[flyingfan]

I was going to use this for the first time for dinner tonight, but I can't select my own time... I need to select a "sitting" time, even though I know that I can show up to this restaurant without a reservation and get a table at ANY time.

So... Should I book either 1hr before or 1hr after my actual arrive time and see what happens? Or should I just forget it and be a walk-in?

You ought to book it for an hour after your arrival time because the alternative is they think you've done a no-show and give your table away before you walk in an hour later, however you indicate it's unlikely they'll run out of tables so it shouldn''t be a problem. For the same reason coming an hour early shouldn't throw them into chaos, unless you're planning to turn up with a party of 24.

So do the booking for the points.

 

[Virgin Bart]

Does anyone know how they communicate that we've dined back to the company/velocity?

I dined at The Deck at Flinders Hotel on Saturday and told the manager who took my payment to ensure that my visit is noted or reported to the guys I booked through... He had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

Any ideas?

 

[lovestotravel]

Does anyone know how they communicate that we've dined back to the company/velocity?

I dined at The Deck at Flinders Hotel on Saturday and told the manager who took my payment to ensure that my visit is noted or reported to the guys I booked through... He had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

Any ideas?

I also wonder this!

I use Dimmi for booking restaurants quite a bit and you get a $50 credit for meals at a few restaurants after 4 bookings and 4 reviews (from memory)

Once or twice I didn't turn up and I never received the points, but out of the 50+ reservations I have made all other points have credited correctly!

 

[penegal]

You ought to book it for an hour after your arrival time because the alternative is they think you've done a no-show and give your table away before you walk in an hour later, however you indicate it's unlikely they'll run out of tables so it shouldn''t be a problem. For the same reason coming an hour early shouldn't throw them into chaos, unless you're planning to turn up with a party of 24.

So do the booking for the points.

That's what I did... This particular "restaurant" is rather casual, so it was a non-issue. We had a $8 jug of house beer (which was surprisingly okay) while we "waited" for our table sitting at out table

Does anyone know how they communicate that we've dined back to the company/velocity?

I dined at The Deck at Flinders Hotel on Saturday and told the manager who took my payment to ensure that my visit is noted or reported to the guys I booked through... He had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

Any ideas?

I had the same sort of problem last night. I had a print out of the booking and gave it to them. The put it in the cash register, so hopefully I get the points.

If there are any issues I have the email booking confirmation and a copy of the bill paid on a credit card with the same name as the booking, so I could "prove" that I went if I had to.

---

However for the more casual establishments I really doubt that they would be able to accurately record an attendance vs a no show as they looked pretty disorganised.

 

[Fruitcake]

So... who wants to start an AFF online cafe that takes reservations via bookarestaraunt?

As long as no-one mentions the b*s we should be fine.

 

[smit0847]

Does anyone know how they communicate that we've dined back to the company/velocity?

I dined at The Deck at Flinders Hotel on Saturday and told the manager who took my payment to ensure that my visit is noted or reported to the guys I booked through... He had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

Any ideas?

I can imagine all sorts of problems with people not getting their points because the restaurant has no idea of the offer.

Let's be honest here - it's not a huge amount of points (not enough to make me dine out when I wasn't planning to anyway - spending $50 - $100 on a meal to get 500 points is not a good deal at all IMO). This booking website seems like a bit of a joke - not releasing any table on weeknights in winter when you could easily just book direct or rock up unannounced and get a table. Apart from the meagre points offer, whats the point of it? Are they pretending they offer bookings you could not get any other way? It seems to be exactly the opposite of that. This booking website would be far more attractive to me if, by booking through it you got say, your first round of drinks free, or a free dessert, or 20% off your total bill etc.

If you contact Velocity to complain your points haven't been posted I imagine most times they will just give you the points - its only 500 and saves people running around chasing things up. If the restaurant doesn't register that the booking was honoured (i.e. you turn up) its a huge amount of running around by you, Velocity, the booking website and the restaurant just to give you 500 points. By the time you wait 6 - 8 weeks for the points to (not) show up, as if the restaurant is going to care/remember back to that point!

Here's an interesting question though - if you make a booking, turn up and the restaurant doesn't register your visit on the website, or, say acknowledge that you have turned up for your reservation (i.e. the restaurant is empty so you just take a seat when you get there) and you chase up where your points are, how would they know if you turned up or not? The restaurant is unlikely to go back an investigate the reservation - they get nothing out of it!

 

[Fruitcake]

If you look at their FAQs, the implication is that the restaurants report no shows, not bookings who turn up:
Help | bookarestaurant.com

What is your No Show policy?

We will advise you when a restaurant has marked your booking as a No Show. If you are recorded as a No Show on three (3) occasions we will suspend your account on bookarestaurant.com.
What if my booking was marked as a No Show in error?

If you believe your booking was marked as a No Show in error please contact bookarestaurant.com and provide as much information about your booking as possible (restaurant, date, time, number of people, name, and confirmation number). We may ask for you to provide proof of your visit to the restaurant, such as your payment receipt.

No shows are linked to your account on the site so any attempt by the restaurants to report fake no-shows would probably get noticed fairly quickly - either by the restaurant patrons when they saw their account or by simple statistical analysis on behalf of the site - if 10% of no-shows is normal but you report 60%, questions might get asked!

So my theory:
1. Reservation is made - restaurant pays a fee to bookarestaurant.
2a. Customer dines - no further interaction, points are awarded.
2b. Customer no shows, no show is reported to site, customer's account is flagged, points award is halted, possibly a refund/credit is made by bookarestaurant to the restaurant.

So the restaurant has an incentive to record no-shows. If they don't it is their loss and no-one else's.

Maybe there's a 2c. to cover genuine cancellations.

 

[smit0847]

If you look at their FAQs, the implication is that the restaurants report no shows, not bookings who turn up:
Help | bookarestaurant.com



No shows are linked to your account on the site so any attempt by the restaurants to report fake no-shows would probably get noticed fairly quickly - either by the restaurant patrons when they saw their account or by simple statistical analysis on behalf of the site - if 10% of no-shows is normal but you report 60%, questions might get asked!

So my theory:
1. Reservation is made - restaurant pays a fee to bookarestaurant.
2a. Customer dines - no further interaction, points are awarded.
2b. Customer no shows, no show is reported to site, customer's account is flagged, points award is halted, possibly a refund/credit is made by bookarestaurant to the restaurant.

So the restaurant has an incentive to record no-shows. If they don't it is their loss and no-one else's.

Maybe there's a 2c. to cover genuine cancellations.

So you are guaranteed the points with a confirmed booking unless the restaurant reports you as a no-show? I can't imagine every restaurant doing this!

Is there then a 2d) - the restaurant doesn't report your no-show because they; don't know they have to, forget, can't be bothered etc and you get the points even if you didn't turn up.

Does anyone know if there is a 'my reservation history' type thing on the website that will show your previous bookings and if that restaurant reported you as a no-show?

 

[penegal]

Or 2d) - the restaurant doesn't report your no-show because they; don't know they have to, forget, can't be bothered etc and you get the points even if you didn't turn up.

Does anyone know if there is a 'my reservation history' type thing on the website that will show your previous bookings and if that restaurant reported you as a no-show?

The place I "dined" at last night looked suitably disorganised, so I suspect every booking would be regarded as being honoured (especially on busier nights Thur/Fri/Sat).

Obviously this wouldn't work for fine dining where a no-show is a much bigger deal.

 

[smit0847]

The place I "dined" at last night looked suitably disorganised, so I suspect every booking would be regarded as being honoured (especially on busier nights Thur/Fri/Sat).

Obviously this wouldn't work for fine dining where a no-show is a much bigger deal.

I just had another look on the website - there is no 'account' you create that they can suspend - you can't even change a booking once it's made - they suggest you cancel your booking and then make a new one.

Hmmmm.................................... I've made a booking at a local cheap Asian restaurant for tonight. Let's see what happens if Im unable to make it........

 

[Fruitcake]

So you are guaranteed the points with a confirmed booking unless the restaurant reports you as a no-show? I can't imagine every restaurant doing this!

Is there then a 2d) - the restaurant doesn't report your no-show because they; don't know they have to, forget, can't be bothered etc and you get the points even if you didn't turn up.

Obviously enough I can't guarantee anything - after all, on the internet nobody knows you're a dog! I'm willing to guarantee I'm not a dog but I don't have inside knowledge of bookarestaurant or its exact business model. However, I can infer details from their FAQ.

If the restaurant owner wants to keep paying for reservations that are never honoured, then they're free to do so. I'm sure within a few weeks of that happening, someone will post on here that "Billy Bob's Brasserie in Boggabilla awards points for no-shows". At that point the restaurant might be incentivised to start tracking no-shows properly.

Does anyone know if there is a 'my reservation history' type thing on the website that will show your previous bookings and if that restaurant reported you as a no-show?

Their FAQ says that no-shows are tracked, but that you can challenge them. So I assume it's possible to view your history.

EDIT: It seems that the 'account' feature is only offered if you visit the vanilla bookarestaurant.com, rather than the 'Velocity Dining' branded site.

Presumably this means your bookings are linked directly to your Velocity profile. Perhaps that means viewing history isn't possible.

 

[Strongarm]

I've had 4 bookings over the last few days at Jam Corner in Townsville. I failed to turn up for the first booking, but have completed the remaining three with the last booking this morning (business meetings). The manager verbally acknowledged my bookings made through the Velocity site this morning, so will see how long it takes for my points to be credited, interested to see if I am credited for the no-show.

 

[Major]

Booked and dined at Raj's East Brisbane on Tues. When I queried how the points system worked, the owner said she received confirmation email from bookarestaurant and as I turned up she did nothing more.
Also asked me to keep the receipt and if points were not allocated to contact her and she would follow up.

Not sure how long to wait but it will be an intersting exercise.

And the food was great

 

[Demented Freak]

Booked and dined at Etch in Sydney last Friday, no issues with finding times on the site. Will be interesting to see how long before the points hit the account.

 

[penegal]

When I queried how the points system worked, the owner said she received confirmation email from bookarestaurant and as I turned up she did nothing more.
Also asked me to keep the receipt and if points were not allocated to contact her and she would follow up.

Not sure how long to wait but it will be an intersting exercise.

That's what I suspected it would be. If the restaurant says nothing the points are credited... No-Shows must be reported, which then goes on your "profile", you get no points, etc...