Australia's 1st Real-time Online Restaurant Booking Service Big Hit With Diners

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18th February 2010, 06:41pm - Views: 1199





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AUSTRALIA’S FIRST REAL-TIME ONLINE RESTAURANT BOOKING

SERVICE PROVING TO BE A BIG HIT WITH AUSSIE DINERS 

International experience suggests usage will be high with almost one in two

restaurant reservations in San Francisco booked online

Dimmi, Australia’s first real-time online restaurant reservations service has proven to be a big hit

amongst Aussie diners with over 50,000 diners using its service  to make their restaurant

reservations online, since it was launched late last year.  Dimmi allows diners to make an instantly

confirmed reservation at almost 1,000 of the country’s leading restaurants across Sydney,

Melbourne and Brisbane. Diners can book via one of Dimmi’s booking partners or a restaurant’s own


Research conducted amongst Australian consumers in December 2009 found that while three

million** people in Australia search for restaurants online every month, only 24 percent* have ever

tried to make a restaurant reservation online.  By contrast, in San Francisco, 43 percent *** of

restaurant bookings are made online every day.   The research also found that 62 percent * of

Australian consumers had become frustrated when trying to book restaurants by phone because

they don’t answer or are often engaged. 

According to Luke Mangan, the celebrity chef now running a culinary empire of restaurants in

Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo and associations with Virgin Airlines and P&O Cruises, Dimmi’s online

restaurant booking service is long overdue in Australia and it is what Australian diners have been

crying out for. 

“We use real-time reservations in our other restaurants across the world and the feedback from our

diners is great. Consumers are getting more adventurous with their restaurant choices and many are

investigating their dining options on the web.  Being able to search and compare restaurants on-line

and then make the reservation on-line at the click of a button makes a lot of sense and is often a lot

easier than trying to contact restaurants by phone or email,” said Luke Mangan.  

Dimmi, which means “tell me” in Italian, has built the largest restaurant booking network in Australia

and hundreds of new restaurants are joining the program every month. Restaurants already

accepting real-time bookings through Dimmi include Sydney’s Quay, Bilson’s, Wildfire, Catalina,

Flying Fish, Pier and Melbourne’s Flower Drum, The Italian, Oyster Little Bourke, The Deanery,

Sapore,  Balzari, Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen & Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant Maze and Brisbane’s

Restaurant Two, C’est Bon & Restaurant Rapide. Dimmi will be launching in Canberra later this year

and Adelaide and Perth next year.   

“We book most of our travel online, we book most of our accommodation online and diners can now

book their favourite restaurants online with that same level of convenience. We are very excited to

have launched in the Australian market at a time when there is a renewed interest in food and

dining out,” said Stevan Premutico, Managing Director, Dimmi.

Diners can avoid the traditional hassles of trying to make a phone reservation when a restaurant is

busy or closed by using the Dimmi real-time booking service online 24/7 which is found on

Culture Food Beverage Dimmi 2 image

restaurants’ own websites or at any of Dimmi’s booking partners, including Best Restaurants -

www.bestrestaurants.com.au ; Eatability - www.eatability.com.au ; Australian Good Food & Travel

Guide - www.agfg.com.au, Food Wine Sleep - www.foodwinesleep.com.au and many more. 

“We’ve all experienced being kept on hold for long periods, the constant unanswered telephone

calls, the voice-messages and emails that are seldom returned and the manager who appears to be

doing you a favour by accepting your booking. Dimmi eliminates these all too common frustrations

by making restaurant reservations, simple, convenient and hassle free 24/7,” said Stevan Premutico.

“Dimmi offers diners, tourists and business people hassle-free restaurant reservations allowing

them to book 24/7, instantly, discreetly and with absolute confidence that their booking is

confirmed,” he said. 

Diners Share Their Thoughts on Dimmi 

“What a fantastic experience, being able to book a restaurant, hassle free and in real time. I needed

to book a restaurant for my husband as a surprise, in the past this has been quite difficult to do,

especially when playing telephone tag or waiting for confirmation emails from restaurants, which my

husband might see. This time, I have been able to totally keep him in the dark as to our plans, thank

you so much, for coming up with such an excellent idea and making it work," said Louise Cairns of

Rosebery in Sydney.

"I recently made a reservation through Dimmi and was most impressed at how quick and easy the

process was. I have dealt with online reservations before, the ordeal is confusing and the reservation

confirmation takes days to come through. Dimmi was quick and easy to use and gave an instant

response to my request. Great work Dimmi," said Tatianna Stephan of Mint Solutions, a training

consultancy in Randwick.

Consumers can be 100 per cent confident in Dimmi’s real-time reservations service as table

availability is synchronised with the restaurant's Electronic Reservation System; the same one the

restaurant uses to manage its reservations; so diners can be sure that the booking they make is

instantly entered into the restaurant’s own diary and is immediately confirmed. There’s no more

waiting hours or days for a response by phone or email.

ENDS

*Research conducted independently by Dimmi in Australia during December 2009 using

SurveyMonkey with a cross section of ages and socio-economic groups

**Google Analytics – February 2009

***Zagat Survey 2008






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