Waiting in line at popular restaurants is the worst. Some people just give up their queue because they wouldn’t want to waste that much time especially when they’re hungry. Some wait it out because they don’t want to miss out on the dining experience but of course the mood is ruined with the long wait. Review service Yelp is now partnering with mobile platform Nowait in order to make the waiting process a little easier by enabling users to skip lines at the restaurants and wait from wherever they want to.

The partnership means that within the Yelp app itself, users can actually check what’s the actual waiting time at the restaurant they’re eyeing, and then virtually fall in line through the app as well. Nowait was doing just that on their mobile app, as users could put themselves in the waiting list of restaurants that do not accept reservations. You’ll receive a text when your table is ready (so you better be nearby of course) and if you are going to be a little late, you text back and ask them to hold it for you. It’s the restaurant’s decision whether or not to accept your request.

Now that Yelp is making an $8 million strategic investment with NoWait, the service will be integrated into their app directly “in the coming months”. Nowait CEO Ware Sykes said that their priority now is to open up the Yelp network to the restaurants that are availing of their mobile platform where they pay a monthly fee. This will lead to expansion of their restaurant and customer database of course.

There is no time frame yet for the integration of the service as they don’t have a specific deadline, said Sykes. But you can bet the Yelp users are eagerly awaiting this development, as apparently 18% of the reviews posted on the service are about restaurants.

VIA: Tech Crunch

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