SmartDiner shakes up discount model

A new restaurant discount scheme promises an improvement on existing voucher and loyalty card deals.

SmartDiner enables restaurants to offer their customers the incentive to eat at less popular times via a variable discount model.

The restaurant can alter the size of this discount for every half hour slot, which can be adapted to suit busier days or periods of individual venues.

The company has no connection to a restaurant discount scheme with a similar name which operates in the US.

Explaining the advantage of this system over other initiatives, Stanley Wootliff, chief executive of SmartDiner, observed: “Vouchers are cumbersome and Groupon is a nightmare – people buy deals and then don’t use them. All these options have restrictions so the customer is not in control.”

Emphasising the flexibility of SmartDiner not just for restaurants but customers as well, Wootliff remarked: “With us you choose the restaurant, the time and the discount.” Customers can view deals and book tables via the company’s consumer website, www.booksmartdiner.co.uk.

Launched two weeks ago, SmartDiner is currently being tested in Harrogate, Yorkshire, a town described by Wootliff as “an ideal test location.” He explained: “it’s a small, well-defined area with lots of restaurants and a major conference centre which has a fundamental effect on the flow of business to restaurants.”

Wootliff aims to have 15 Harrogate restaurants signed up by the end of August, with further additions anticipated before SmartDiner launches across the UK at the Restaurant Show in London on 10-11 October.