FILIPINOS love to dine out, but they rarely book a reservation when they do. That’s the observation of German entrepreneur Michael Cluzel.
In fact, he said, we’re the same as our Southeast Asian neighbors. “In Southeast Asia, people love eating out with their family and friends—it’s very strong—but there is no existing reservation culture [in this region]. Thais don’t reserve, Malays don’t reserve, Singaporeans, to a degree,” averred Cluzel.
To encourage booking-averse restaurant customers to reserve a table, Cluzel and his team thought of offering them discount on their meals if they book for a specific time of the day.
Eatigo, co-founded by Cluzel, is an online reservation platform that offers time-based discounts of up to 50 percent everyday in all its partner restaurants. It has been launched in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, and, most recently, here.
It’s available through its online website and mobile application, available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store for free.
“I am glad that we have finally launched in the Philippines and I am proud to share that Metro Manila had one of the strongest launches in Eatigo’s history,” said the company CEO.
Eatigo users in Manila have access to over 2,000-curated restaurants, which the app developers chose based on “what people want.”
“We curate merchants from three different categories: hotels, chains, and independent restaurants. In each category, we size up the market and find out what do people like, where do they like to eat,” explained Cluzel.
Diners can book a table and get discounts at Eatigo’s partner merchants in Manila that include homey hole in the wall joints like Sweet Ecstacy, crowd favorites like CIBO and Ramen Nagi, and premium establishments such as Heat in Edsa Shangri-la Hotel.
Ready to dine out? After downloading the app, select a restaurant from different categories (location, top 50, featured, A-Z), select the schedule during which a specific discount applies (these are usually the establishment’s off-peak hours), indicate number of guests, and get your confirmed reservation, which you need to show to the restaurant for the discount to be applied automatically.
Cluzel said there’s no need for pre-payments, vouchers, or subscriptions.
“We try to provide the best of both worlds. We provide users with a solid selection, while the merchants can tell us exactly when do they want people to come (during off-peak hours) and we will shape the traffic.”
