Yelp Waitlist Lets You Plan Life Better with New Predictive Wait Time and Notify Me Features

Gone are the days of idly standing around with a restaurant buzzer, or feeling like you’re missing out on a great meal because a restaurant doesn’t accept reservations. Yelp Waitlist, our online restaurant waitlist experience, is rolling out two new ways to help you plan life better: Predictive Wait Time and Notify Me. These new features help diners to pick the right time to eat for themselves and grab a spot on the waitlist at the right time. Now, you can focus on having a good time rather than wait times. Restaurants will also benefit from these new features because it’ll increase operational efficiencies and attract diners during less popular meal times.

Yelp Waitlist makes going out to eat more convenient by letting you join a restaurant’s waitlist from the comfort of your own home. After joining the waitlist, you’ll receive a designated time to arrive at the restaurant, as well as real-time updates on your place in line right from the Yelp app. 

Starting this fall, people will find the following new features on their Yelp app at participating restaurants.

Predictive Wait Time 

Yelp’s in a unique position to deliver accurate wait times for diners because restaurants across the U.S. are using Yelp Waitlist to manage their front-of-house. By using actual wait time data from the restaurant, not your location data, Yelp Waitlist will show you the best times to dine at a restaurant. Diners are shown more predictive restaurant wait times through an easy to understand bar chart. This helps spread out the influx of people that would normally arrive at peak and popular dining times. You can now better anticipate or avoid longer wait times, making the most of your time with loved ones rather than using that time to wait outside.

Notify Me 

This handy tool allows diners to schedule a reminder to join the Yelp Waitlist later. After indicating the size of your party and when you’d like to eat, a push notification from the Yelp app will appear when it’s the best time to hop on the online waitlist. 

Trying to go to brunch on Sunday at 11am? With Notify Me you can easily let Yelp know when and where you would like to eat and we’ll send you a push notification when it’s time to hop on the waitlist, so you don’t have to keep checking back Sunday morning. This lets you enjoy your day rather than worrying about when a restaurant’s wait time may suddenly spike.

At Yelp, we’re focused on making it easier for you to connect with great local businesses, as well as helping restaurants foster more meaningful connections with you. 

Are you a restaurant owner interested in learning more about Yelp Waitlist? According to Yelp data, diners seated through the Yelp app return to the same restaurant twice as often as other diners, Yelp’s wait time algorithm is approximately twice as accurate as host estimates, and 81% of diners say they’re more likely to come back to a restaurant with Yelp Waitlist. This front-of-house restaurant management system is available to restaurants through a subscription, starting at $249 a month. Sign up today through the Yelp Waitlist site. And learn more about how Yelp Waitlist helped Eats General Manager, Ixchel Acosta, in San Francisco — who saw an increase in their business by 17%.