Mobile Tech Increases Crowds, Bottle Service Revenue for San Francisco Hot Spot

Mayes Oyster House is a restaurant by day and dance club by night. Located on Polk Street in San Francisco, Calif., the restaurant uses VenueLytics to draw in guests and increase its bottle service revenue.  VenueLytics' ItzFun! mobile app helps businesses in the hospitality and entertainment industries engage each guest/customer in real-time to provide a memorable experience by automating integrated services and processes that enable customers to find, order, and manage a venue’s services on their mobile device. Features included an automated concierge service (reservation, booking, VIP services, deals, promotions, ticketing, and more), advanced  analytics and digital marketing platform  (find out who is attending, their habits, customer social media profiles, foot traffic, and enable targeted deals and offers based on user profile), rewards and loyalty programs, Wi-Fi/BLE, path finding, in-venue drink and food ordering services, contests, internal communications, predictive recommendations, and more.

“Prior to VenueLytics, we took down reservations manually on slips of paper or through text messages, which would get lost,” noted Mayes Oyster House assistant manager and bar aficionado, Sabrina Vera.  “It was very sloppy.”

To improve revenue, Mayes began by listing their venue on the “ItzFun!” mobile app. The ItzFun! app is an entertainment application for consumers who want to know what nearby venues are popular at that very moment! Users can find out the current vibe of bars, clubs, lounges, casinos, and more nearest to them. They can see real-time information about venues, like crowd population, gender ratio, specials, crowdsourced information, dress codes, and more. They can even see if there’s a line to get in and if the venue is a premium member, they can pay to skip the line.

When a user finds what they like, in this case Mayes Oyster House, they will notice that as a premium member, services like VIP bottle and table reservations, and even private event booking, are available right from the app on their iPhone. The customer can click on the table they want and select a bottle to have waiting on ice upon arrival.

“To say we use VenueLytics is a bit of a misnomer. It implies that we do something to interact with the platform,” added Vera. “We don’t actually 'use' anything as the bottle and table requests are automatically sent to us.  It’s effortless.”

When requests come in, both Vera and Matt Corvi, the bar general manager and owner, are “pinged” by the app.  Corvi is usually very busy and often can’t get to these requests, but Vera, who is off site in the bar office, can more easily respond, which means customers get answers quickly and requests don’t fall through the cracks.

“For example, when we open our VenueLytics app, the ORDERS icon is highlighted, indicating there are new requests and when opened, it automatically populates and shows the list of these requests.  For example: Jackie’s bottle service request will pop up with total guests, notes on special requests, the event type, a contact number, and email address. From there, we take this information, book the reservation, and send confirmation. If for some reason we can’t meet the request, we’ll suggest alternatives.  By knowing the event type (in this case a birthday party), we can provide a special touch like a cake, a gift, or a simple birthday greeting,” added Vera.

When customers use the app, they have the opportunity to choose the table and bottles they want to reserve. The app opens a floorplan, providing pictures so they can see where they will be seated and what they are getting. When they make a reservation, they can also choose to be added to the venue’s mailing list. 

“We continue to build the list to provide loyal customers with specials and first dibs on popular items. We also have a few VIP tables that are very popular here, so those tend to go first,” said Vera.

Vera says at first, she was a bit reluctant to use the technology, knowing it would be challenging to implement a modern solution at an establishment that has worked the same way for years, but in the end, the restaurant is thrilled they moved forward with the solution as they are already seeing the fruits of their labor.