# How does restaurant.com work/make$$$



## davidvel (Aug 10, 2009)

I saw the post about 80% off gift certificates so I decided to try it out. We bought a $25 GC for $2 (usually $10)  to a local sports bar/ pizza place. Our bill was about $40, less the $25, plus $2 for GC =$17. We ordered: pizza, a few pitchers, salad bar, sodas for kids, wings, garlic bread all for $17. About what the beer would have cost. 

So I got to wondering, do these restaurants just take it as a loss leader to get you to come back (ala entertainment book)? If so it worked because we like the place. But, there is no limit to the number of certifictes you can use (just not more than 1 per month). At $2 a pop you can't lose.


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## GadgetRick (Aug 10, 2009)

Basically, yes. They are paid by the establishments which offer the certificates. Probably a monthly fee to participate. If they make a few bucks by us buying a certificate, that's gravy.


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## Kozman (Aug 10, 2009)

Probably a lot of the certificates go unused, but paid for.


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## JoeMid (Aug 10, 2009)

davidvel said:


> I saw the post about 80% off gift certificates so I decided to try it out. We bought a $25 GC for $2 (usually $10)  to a local sports bar/ pizza place. Our bill was about $40, less the $25, plus $2 for GC =$17. We ordered: pizza, a few pitchers, salad bar, sodas for kids, wings, garlic bread all for $17. About what the beer would have cost.
> 
> So I got to wondering, do these restaurants just take it as a loss leader to get you to come back (ala entertainment book)? If so it worked because we like the place. But, there is no limit to the number of certifictes you can use (just not more than 1 per month). At $2 a pop you can't lose.





GadgetRick said:


> Basically, yes. They are paid by the establishments which offer the certificates. Probably a monthly fee to participate. If they make a few bucks by us buying a certificate, that's gravy.





Kozman said:


> Probably a lot of the certificates go unused, but paid for.


I don't know the business model, maybe the posters above do, but I believe that the Restaurant agrees to be listed and honor the certificates with no change of money.  Restaurant.com keeps everything they get and the restaurant gets business they might not have had otherwise.  Just my take on this.

Restaurants often limit the number of certs that can be sold in any given calendar month.  The best restaurants disappear quickly at the beginning of the month.  The % off sales are usually in the latter half of the month!


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## pjrose (Aug 10, 2009)

The restaurant.com site's links for restaurant owners says there are "no out of pocket costs" and emphasizes the issue of empty tables, so JoeMid's explanation sounds good.

I'm not sure if there's also pay-per-click advertising on the site.


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## ace2000 (Aug 10, 2009)

Kozman said:


> Probably a lot of the certificates go unused, but paid for.


 
Guilty!  I probably only use about half the ones that I buy off of Restaurant.com.


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## Passepartout (Aug 10, 2009)

We've left a few unused, but most of those have been converted to gift certs to change into other discount coupons we can use. We've asked restauranteurs where we have cashed them in and each and every one has said they are most welcome.

We have a hard time buying the minimum without alcohol, so when using certs, we order more food (appetizers, desserts, higher priced items)  pay higher gratuity. Servers love 'em.

Bonus-Usually other diners are using them in the same place/time, and it's been a good ice-breaker when traveling. 

Jim Ricks


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## djs (Aug 10, 2009)

Passepartout said:


> We have a hard time buying the minimum without alcohol, so when using certs, we order more food (appetizers, desserts, higher priced items)  pay higher gratuity. Servers love 'em.
> 
> Jim Ricks



That's probably another way they make money off them.  Diners may look at the menu and decide to go with the filet instead of the strip steak.  Filet may cost more money (based on the menu price) but usually has a higher mark-up than the strip steak.  Probably plenty of other menu items one may buy that have a higher profit margin which would help to offset the certificate.


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## Glynda (Aug 10, 2009)

*Guilty...*

We're guilty of spending more to save as we would normally share an entree but these certificates often require two entrees.  Also guilty of not using some of them.


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## janej (Aug 10, 2009)

ace2000 said:


> Guilty!  I probably only use about half the ones that I buy off of Restaurant.com.



Me too.  Just checked my history on the web site and found I used less than half.  Quite of few restaurants went out of business also.  I never got the time to wrote.  With the sells, it is only $2 per certificate.  I did not think too much of not using them.

I am interested in finding out how to convert them to gift certificate in the future though.  Do you just buy the GC in the amount of required $ amount and get the restaurant certificate deducted?


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## KarenLK (Aug 10, 2009)

Funny to find this post just after I went through and threw out 2 or 3 certificates that expired the end of July. I wondered the same thing. I don't feel too bad since I did not pay more than 2-5 dollars for each certificate.


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## pjrose (Aug 10, 2009)

For those that are close to expiring and/or you aren't going to use them, consider posting them on your local freecycle or donating to some organization's silent auction or raffle prize collection.


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## Blues (Aug 10, 2009)

Hmmm, this thread caused me to check my account.  I bought 5 coupons in Dec, and I know that I used exactly 4 of them.  But the account lists them all as "Not used".  Curious.  I would never try to cheat the system, but apparently something has broken down that would let me try, if I were unethical.

-Bob


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## JoeMid (Aug 10, 2009)

Blues said:


> Hmmm, this thread caused me to check my account.  I bought 5 coupons in Dec, and I know that I used exactly 4 of them.  But the account lists them all as "Not used".  Curious.  I would never try to cheat the system, but apparently something has broken down that would let me try, if I were unethical.  -Bob


You can't cheat the system.... guess what, it's up to YOU to keep track of them and mark them as used or unused.  If you want, you can try to email or call restaurant.com and they can tell you but the online facility that you speak of is entirely up to YOU to keep updated.


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## DanR (Aug 10, 2009)

*Restaurant Certicicate*



Blues said:


> Hmmm, this thread caused me to check my account.  I bought 5 coupons in Dec, and I know that I used exactly 4 of them.  But the account lists them all as "Not used".  Curious.  I would never try to cheat the system, but apparently something has broken down that would let me try, if I were unethical.
> 
> -Bob



The web site says that you have to go and change the status from unused once the certificate  is used.
One of mine was still listed as unused and I'm sure I used it.

I think the restaurant calls to see if the carticicate is valid.


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## UWSurfer (Aug 10, 2009)

pjrose said:


> The restaurant.com site's links for restaurant owners says there are "no out of pocket costs" and emphasizes the issue of empty tables, so JoeMid's explanation sounds good.
> 
> I'm not sure if there's also pay-per-click advertising on the site.



I've often wondered what the arrangement is, and what makes the most sense to me is this is strictly a trade out arrangement.   The website acts as a consolidator/restaurant finder for those businesses who choose to participate. 

Most of the certificates with these places generally equate to a "buy one, get one free" type of arrrangement when you boil down the dollar amounts involved and often the discount is less than that.

So when you buy a discounted cert, I'm assuming Restaurant.com keeps 100% $$ collected which pays for the website and administration of the business.  Restaurants gets new leads and ends up discounting business they might otherwise not see, but not giving away business and add their terms to the website listings as they see fit. (no weekends, alcohol, requirements of entree purchases....)

This is all pure speculation on my part, but I'm betting this is pretty close to how they operate the program.


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## stevedmatt (Aug 10, 2009)

I just allocated 3 certificates that I bought 1 year ago today. Now, I still have another year to use them.

Another that was to expire today was given to a friend who used it this weekend, saved $50, and had a great dinner. I hate to see anything like this go to waste. I always try to give them to someone who will use them.


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## Timeshare Von (Aug 10, 2009)

I asked a local restaurant that we frequent regularly via Restaurant.com and he said they consider it a great way to get sampling of customer service for a relatively inexpensive price.  I didn't ask him specifically how much they pay or if cash changes hands, etc.  The conversation was more like "you're the most popular restaurant in West Allis - and only cajun one at that - so why do you advertise with Restaurant.ecom?"


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## wegottago (Aug 11, 2009)

I believe I saw it here on Tug via another thread that if you buy a dollar amount of a GC then you draw down on that to buy a GC for a restaurant when you choose to go.  The only risk is that the restaurant you want to go to is sold out.  But check back at the beginning of the month when it's restocked and buy it then.  That way if you print as you go vs getting the individual ones upfront for a restaurant it won't expire so soon.

Good point about checking off when you use one.  I just looked at my account and I know I used one that says unused.

I just bought a GC for $2 to a nice restaurant for a bday present.  This is at 80%.  Keep your eyes open so when it goes to 90%.


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## travel bug (Aug 11, 2009)

*Gifting a certificate?*

Does it matter who purchased the certificates if you want to give them away?  I purchased some extra and would like to leave them with my son when I am done my visit - do they only require the paper certificate which I printed off - or does it matter that my name is on the account?  Thanks.


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## stevedmatt (Aug 11, 2009)

travel bug said:


> Does it matter who purchased the certificates if you want to give them away?  I purchased some extra and would like to leave them with my son when I am done my visit - do they only require the paper certificate which I printed off - or does it matter that my name is on the account?  Thanks.



Just print the certificate and give it to whomever you want. The never check to see if it is the account holder.


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## bigrick (Aug 14, 2009)

Blues said:


> Hmmm, this thread caused me to check my account.  I bought 5 coupons in Dec, and I know that I used exactly 4 of them.  But the account lists them all as "Not used".  Curious.  I would never try to cheat the system, but apparently something has broken down that would let me try, if I were unethical.
> 
> -Bob



Bob, you have an advantage.  Certificates for CA restaurants NEVER expire!  I've often used CA certificates that were over a year old with no problem.

When I find a place I like I usually get 6 or so, and then use them whenever I'm in that area.  The only catch to this is that you can only use 1 cert per month per restaurant.

When we travel at the end of the month and into the next month ... well that's 2 months so we can repeat some places twice.


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## Timeshare Von (Aug 14, 2009)

bigrick said:


> <<snipped>>
> 
> When we travel at the end of the month and into the next month ... well that's 2 months so we can repeat some places twice.



A little secret - they do not care if you repeat a place in a month.  I know the G/C says something like "one per month" but we've never had an issue using them twice in a week at the same place (purchasing two G/C and going twice - - the G/C are only good once.)


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## bigrick (Aug 17, 2009)

Timeshare Von said:


> A little secret - they do not care if you repeat a place in a month.  I know the G/C says something like "one per month" but we've never had an issue using them twice in a week at the same place (purchasing two G/C and going twice - - the G/C are only good once.)



Interesting.  I'll have to try this!


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## momeason (Aug 17, 2009)

*Great deal*



bigrick said:


> Interesting.  I'll have to try this!



We have been using these certs for years. I love the area we recently moved to, but there are no restaurants participating. You can only eat at any one restaurant once a month. We had a favorite upscle restaurant that we would go to 5-6 times a year. ..always with a certificate. Made it affordable..no problem spending the minimum there.

Sherry:whoopie:


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