Actually, the most interesting part of Nick's post, to me, was the fact that he's asked them to remove Alinea from their system and the broader implications thereof.

I don't know if it's his intention, but that's a move that almost forces people to make their true intentions known. If the site refuses to comply with his request and continues to list Alinea reservations against his very specific, reasonable and well-articulated wishes, they lose the ability to paint themselves as a positive part of the industry, so to speak. If they do agree to remove Alinea, however, then that means any listings left on the site are with those restaurants' passive approval -- which I doubt is a signal a lot of restaurants want to send, regardless of how they might feel.

Formally declaring an adversarial role with the restaurants' wishes seems, from their business standpoint, to be a lesser evil than setting the precedent that anybody can simply opt out. As such, I sincerely doubt we'll see Alinea coming off the site.

But I'd love to be proven wrong.

Dmnkly wrote:Actually, the most interesting part of Nick's post, to me, was the fact that he's asked them to remove Alinea from their system and the broader implications thereof.

I don't know if it's his intention, but that's a move that almost forces people to make their true intentions known. If the site refuses to comply with his request and continues to list Alinea reservations against his very specific, reasonable and well-articulated wishes, they lose the ability to paint themselves as a positive part of the industry, so to speak. If they do agree to remove Alinea, however, then that means any listings left on the site are with those restaurants' passive approval -- which I doubt is a signal a lot of restaurants want to send, regardless of how they might feel.

Formally declaring an adversarial role with the restaurants' wishes seems, from their business standpoint, to be a lesser evil than setting the precedent that anybody can simply opt out. As such, I sincerely doubt we'll see Alinea coming off the site.

But I'd love to be proven wrong.

I agree Dom. It's not likely that Alinea will be removed from the site's roster. That would be contrary to the unilateral, parasitic nature of the reservation scalping venture. But I have faith that well-operated restaurants will opt for non-participation in whatever form is most convenient for them. I think this will fail to gain traction, run its course and fizzle but I've certainly been wrong before.

=R=

As of my check just now, there are no Alinea reservations listed. I'll feel a little better about this operation if the opt-out option is universally available to restaurants.