Last but not least: When apps create more problems than they solve
In the search for the next super business idea, the start-up scene on the American West Coast is becoming increasingly strange. Last week, Reservation Hop came onto the scene and immediately caused some irritation.
There, as here, it is difficult to reserve a table at the trendy restaurants, especially at short notice. The killer solution from Reservation HopThe company itself makes reservations at popular sites and sells them to the highest bidder. After payment, the buyer is informed of the name under which the reservation was made. If no buyer is found, the company itself cancels the reservation in good time so that the landlord suffers no loss.
As there was a lull in the news on the American national holiday on July 4, the launch of Reservation Hop was particularly noticeable - but the comments on Twitter and the web were mainly negative, sometimes even hostile. Start-ups need to be able to react quickly if the business idea doesn't take off. Whereas last week the motto was: "We make reservations in the hottest restaurants in advance so you don't have to", now it's: "Buy and sell reservations in the hottest restaurants" - it's no longer the company but the public that should be able to sell their no longer needed reservations via the site.
However, Reservation Hop is one of a number of similar apps that landlords use to fill vacancies at short notice. The climate for such business ideas has been particularly unfavorable in San Francisco since Paolo Dobrowolny from Rome founded the Monkeyparking app had launched. Anyone who vacates a parking space will be able to sell it to the next parker shortly beforehand for good money. And anyone urgently looking for a place to stay for their own four wheels can publish offers via the app. Geolocalization via the GPS receivers built into smartphones makes such gimmicks possible.
While initial tests in Rome were apparently unobtrusive, in San Francisco the app not only provoked the displeasure of the public, but also of politicians. The city set a deadline of July 11 for the app, which aims to make money from public goods, to disappear from the market. Both apps respond to problems that also exist here. So it will be interesting to see when copycat products will be launched here - and how they will be received by the local public.
Christoph J. Walther
