Restaurant Reservation Apps May Soon Include COVID-19-Related Questions During The Booking Process
The COVID-19 pandemic caused many reservation apps to become obsolete while restaurants closed down on-location dining. Now, as some areas begin to reopen under certain guidelines, reservation apps are looking to add a feature that requires diners to fill out a health-related questionnaire when reserving a table.
Apps like Resy, OpenTable, and Tock allow people to reserve tables at local restaurants. In response to the novel coronavirus, these apps have found new ways to serve their users. OpenTable, for example, made it possible for people in certain areas to reserve a time to grocery shop to ensure that stores were not overcrowded and shoppers could practice safe social distancing.
Now, some cities are beginning to reopen their restaurants, either at less-than-full capacity or with outdoor seating only. With these adjustments, reservation apps hope to help both customers and restaurant workers stay safe by installing in-app surveys that potential diners will have to fill out in regards to their health, Eater reported. In areas like Chicago, reopening guidelines encourage surveys such as these, and apps would make doing so even easier.
Reservation apps have included questions in the past for diners about dietary restrictions and accessibility needs, and they now plan to include more illness-focused questions. Information regarding a customer's health history, like if they've been around someone who has been ill or if they have experienced fever-level temperatures, will be included.
Implementing these questionnaires is not meant to invade anyone's privacy, but is rather an additional step to keep everyone safe. By answering these questions, if either an employee or patron does end up getting sick, contract tracing will be even easier since apps keep track of which servers work with which table. That way, everyone who had been potentially exposed can be notified properly.
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