How to get a hard-to-book reservation: five routes compared
Alerts, auto-booking, human concierges, memberships and resale marketplaces: what each costs, what it does, and what it does not.
- Five routes, compared
- Prices as of November 12, 2026
- The short answer
- Alerts tell you and you book. Bots and concierges book for you. Memberships sell access. Resale moves a held booking.
- What none of them does
- None creates a table; each route is a way to reach one first.
- In New York
- A 2024 Act bars third-party services from selling a restaurant's reservations without its written agreement.
- Where Table Alert fits
- The first route: we alert you and you book yourself. We never book, hold or resell.
The answer in one paragraph
The five routes are five ways to be first: someone tells you the moment one opens (alerts), software books it (bots), a person books it (concierges), you pay for standing access (memberships), or you buy a booking someone else holds (resale).
They differ in cost, in who holds your account, and in what the law says. The grid below sets them side by side.
The five routes side by side
Each price is the product's own page on November 12, 2026, and may have changed. Naming a product is not a ranking.
| Route | What it is | An example, with its own price | What it does | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alerts (you book) | A service watches booking pages and tells you when a table opens. You book on your own account. | Resy's Notify, a button on Resy restaurants. DinnerElite Premium: $10 a month, email alerts for New York restaurants on Resy and OpenTable. Table Alert: from $5 a month. | Tells you soon after a table opens. The booking stays in your own name. | Cannot book for you. A table can be gone before you tap; Resy says an alert is not a guarantee of a reservation. |
| Bots (software books) | Software, linked to your reservation account, books a matching table for you. | TablePass: $18 per single booking, plus tax, charged only when it gets your table. Its Gold plan is $348 billed yearly, with 3 bookings included. | Books a matching table for you. At this service a single booking is charged only on success; membership plans renew whether or not a table comes through. | Asks you to link your reservation account. Its own page says a watch does not guarantee a reservation. |
| Human concierges | A person watches and books for you. | DinnerElite Expert: $29 a month; its page says that on Expert "our team books the table for you." | Books for you and can be given requests in your own words. | Cannot book a date a restaurant has not released. For Tokyo concierge fees, see our Tokyo guide. |
| Memberships | You pay for standing access, often with a prepaid minimum spend. | Dorsia: $200 a year for Access (its page says the price is increasing soon), $5,200 (Premium) or $25,200 (Premium Plus). Members prepay a locked-in minimum spend to confirm. | Gives members access to its partner restaurants' tables; the top tier gets tables designated for it. | Covers the restaurants and cities it lists. At most restaurants, cancelling within 8 hours forfeits half the minimum spend; a no-show forfeits all of it. |
| Resale marketplaces | One person lists a booking they hold and another pays for it. | Appointment Trader: price set by reward and bidding; its page says payment is held in escrow until confirmed. | Moves an existing booking into a new name. | Creates no table: it depends on someone having one to list. See the law section for New York. |
How to choose
- You can book quickly and want control of your account: an alert.
- The barrier is speed at a fixed release hour and you accept linking your account: auto-booking.
- The barrier is language, a phone-only room or a deposit process: a concierge, as with many Tokyo restaurants.
- You want standing access to a list of restaurants and accept prepaying a minimum: a membership.
- A date is gone and you would pay another diner for theirs: a resale marketplace, after you read the law below.
Ask any of them four questions: what does it charge if it fails, whose name is on the booking, what access does it need to my account, and what happens if I must cancel.
What the New York law says
The Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act (Senate bill S9365-A, signed December 19, 2024) adds a section to the General Business Law. It says a third-party restaurant reservation service shall not list, advertise, promote, or sell reservations for a food service establishment without a written agreement with that establishment.
The bill defines such a service as a website, mobile application or other internet service that offers or arranges reservations at a restaurant and is owned by someone other than the restaurant's owner. It excludes distribution channels the restaurant has authorised by contract.
The civil penalty is up to $1,000 per violation, accruing daily for each establishment. The bill as printed does not use the words alert, bot, concierge or membership. Which services fall inside it is a legal question, and we do not judge any company. This is not legal advice; read the bill.
Our plain explanation is in a separate guide.
Where Table Alert fits
Table Alert is the first route. We watch restaurants' public booking pages around the clock and alert you, with a link, the moment a table opens. You book it yourself, on your own account. We never book, hold or resell a table.
We also measure when tables appear and how long they last, for New York, Tokyo, Seoul and more.
What we do not do: book for you, hold a table, translate, or guarantee one. A table can be taken by the time you tap, which is why our data pages show how fast each goes.
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Pricing
Costs less than a single drink.
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Pro
No limits. Every restaurant, everywhere.
Billed as $189/year
Standard
More restaurants. More control.
Billed as $84/year
Essential
For the restaurants you can't stop thinking about.
Billed as $48/year
No alert within 30 days? Full refund, no questions asked.
FAQ
How to get a hard-to-book reservation: five routes compared: questions people ask
A bot can book faster than a person once a table appears, but it cannot create one. One service's own page says a watch does not guarantee a reservation. Ask what access it needs and what it charges when it fails.
When language, a phone-only or introduction-only room, or a deposit process is the barrier, as at many Tokyo restaurants. Check whether the fee is refundable before you pay; some are not.
A paid membership with access to the tables its partner restaurants allocate to members. Dorsia lists $200 a year (its page says the price is increasing soon), $5,200 and $25,200, and members prepay a locked-in minimum spend to confirm a booking.
The 2024 Act bars a third-party service from listing or selling a restaurant's reservations without a written agreement with that restaurant. It is written about services. This is not legal advice; read the bill.
No. An alert tells you a table has opened. You still have to book it before someone else does. Resy says the same of its own Notify alerts: they are not a guarantee of a reservation.
On their own pages on November 12, 2026: DinnerElite Premium $10 a month and Expert $29, TablePass $18 per booking, Dorsia from $200 a year (increasing soon), Table Alert from $5 a month. Resale prices are set by bids.
No. Table Alert alerts you, with a link, when a table opens, and you book it yourself. We never book, hold or resell tables.
No alert within your first 30 days? Cancel and send us an email. We'll refund you in full — no questions asked.
Yes. Cancel from your account settings at any time. You'll keep access until your subscription expires.
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Sources and how this page is made
Written by Jacob, founder of Table Alert. Facts checked against the sources below on November 12, 2026. The monitoring numbers are Table Alert's own, refreshed every night. Out of date? Tell us.
- DinnerElite: reservation alerts and concierge for New York City
- TablePass: pricing
- TablePass: how it works
- Dorsia: FAQ (membership and booking)
- Appointment Trader: how it works
- Resy: how to snag hard-to-get tables with Notify
- New York State Senate: S9365-A, the Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act (bill text)
- Governor Hochul signs the legislation (December 19, 2024)
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