Dineout

Dineout
Restaurant Booking
Founded 2012
Founder Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Nikhil Bakshi and Sahil Jain
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Parent The Times Group
Website https://www.dineout.co.in/

Dineout is a restaurant table reservation service company founded in 2012 by Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Nikhil Bakshi and Sahil Jain based in New Delhi, India.

Since its acquisition by Times Internet Ltd in 2014 (then TimesCity), Dineout claims to have grown over 200%. According to the company, it provides online reservations for about 6,000 restaurants around the country and serves over 1 Million diners a month (as of 20 September 2018) across 8 cities. Reservations can be made online through its website, the Android and iOS Application, or their concierge desk.[1]

Dineout also launched a product division called Dineout Plus primarily targeting the Premium Dining Section. It entitles annual subscribers to a 25% discount at over 250 five-star restaurants.[1]

History

The company was founded by Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Nikhil Bakshi and Sahil Jain in 2012.[2]

In April 2014, Dineout was acquired by Times Internet Limited, a subsidiary of Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited. The deal value was not disclosed, but according to some sources, it was valued at $10 million.[3]

In September 2015, the company acquired inResto, a plug-and-play restaurant management suite for restaurants based in Bengaluru, India, for an undisclosed value. At the time of acquisition, inResto’s services were operational at over 50 restaurants in Bengaluru, India, including Toit, Absolute Barbecue, and Social, and also in other countries like Singapore and the Middle East.[4] According to the company, inResto then became Dineout's business-to-business arm to help restaurants manage table reservations, wait-lists, feedback management, home delivery, take-away, mobile payments and loyalty programs.[3][5]

Features

  • inResto: This is an open platform that can aggregate delivery orders from multiple providers in one interface. Similarly, inResto can aggregate feedback and reviews from various sources. The service also claims to help restaurants manage their loyalty programs with features like guest timelines and engage with customers using targeted marketing campaigns.[4]
  • Dineout App: Available across multiple platforms (Android, iOS and Web), the Dineout app is meant to bring together all the services they offer. Through it, one can discover restaurants, go through their menus and details, make reservations, make restaurant bill payments through smartPay and redeem Earnings. Users can also buy event tickets, upload bills for cashbacks, and read and write reviews for the restaurants they visit.[6]
  • Dineout Pay: Dineout also launched a feature called Dineout Pay, which allows users to pay their restaurant bills through the app. This provides another avenue to give extra benefits over and above the given discount.[1]
  • Concierge Desk: A concierge desk is also available to manage reservations for customers by booking tables on their behalf.
  • Dineout Gift Cards: Dineout Gift Cards are also available on Amazon.in, Woohoo.com and GiftXOXO.com in a variety of denominations. These can be added in the form of Dineout Earnings by entering the code and PIN on the card into the app. These can then be redeemed at Dineout Pay enabled restaurants.
  • Dineout Plus: This is an annual membership-based luxury dining product of Dineout, offering customers a discount of 25% at restaurants in 5-star hotels.[7]

Corporate social responsibility

In November 2016, Dineout launched the #FeedASmile initiative to help hungry children in New Delhi, the capital city of India. Celebrity Chef Kunal Kapur endorsed the activity, which had a philosophy of "No one should have to wait for food". The initiative was an alliance with India Food Banking Network (IFBN) where Dineout would donate Rs.30 for every table reserved through Dineout for the duration of the campaign. Notably, the initiative was undertaken around the festival of Diwali.[8][9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Startup-Wiz - Blog - "We were solid, stable and confident in our friendship and the strength of our idea."- Dineout". startupwiz.in. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  2. ↑ "[Interview] Ankit Mehrotra, CEO of Restaurant Reservation Startup Dineout and The Pitch 3.0 Finalist - Inc42 Media". inc42.com. 22 December 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Dineout Acquires inResto, Adds Restaurant Management Features". ndtv.com. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  4. 1 2 www.ETtech.com. "Dineout acquires inResto to launch an open restaurant management platform - ETtech". ETtech.com. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Article". medianama.com.
  6. ↑ "Experiencing Shiro through the Dineout App". wordpress.com. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "Article" (PDF). eventimages.insider.in.
  8. ↑ "#FeedASmile at schools for underprivileged with dineout and Chef Kunal Kapur - India FoodBanking Network". www.indiafoodbanking.org. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  9. ↑ "#FeedASmile Initiative by Dineout Aims to Make India a Hunger Free Country". ebusinessgroup.in. 3 November 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
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