Halfseat vs
TheFork.
TheFork is the closest thing to a like-for-like comparison we have: both put discounted seats in front of diners. The difference is who pays for the discount, and which tables are eligible in the first place.
| TheFork | Halfseat | |
|---|---|---|
| How the venue pays | Commission per cover booked through the platform | Nothing. The diner pays a booking fee |
| Venue's share per booking | Negative. Commission comes off the cover | £3 to £8 per booking by party size, same on every tier |
| Who funds the discount | The venue, via the discounted à la carte offer | The venue discounts food, and is paid a fee for the booking that would not have existed |
| Booking window | Offers bookable days or weeks ahead | Tonight only, released each afternoon at 4pm |
| Risk of discounting a table you'd have sold | Real. An offer live for next Saturday discounts a table that may well fill anyway | None by design. The venue releases seats the same afternoon, knowing the book |
| Drinks | Depends on the offer | Always full price. The venue keeps 100% of drinks margin |
| Diner loyalty scheme | Yes, points across bookings | No points, no gamification. The list is the product |
| Contract / exclusivity | Platform agreement | None. List when you choose |
| Curation | Broad. Most restaurants that sign up | Selective. Only rooms we would pay full price to eat in |
| Scale | Europe-wide, strongest in France, Spain and Italy | Brighton and Sussex. Bristol and Bath next |
Commission versus a booking fee
A commission model takes a cut of the cover. That means the better the night goes, the more it costs you, and it costs you on top of the discount you have already given the diner. Two deductions on the same table.
Halfseat charges the diner instead. The fee is £5 for one or two guests, and from £3 of it goes to the venue. The venue gives half off the food and receives a payment. One deduction, one credit, and the credit does not scale against you when the table spends well.
The advance-booking problem
This is the part that costs venues the most and gets discussed the least. When a discounted table is bookable next Saturday, you are betting that the table would not have sold. On a Saturday, in a good room, that is a bad bet. You have discounted a cover you were going to get anyway.
Same-day release removes the bet entirely. At 4pm a venue can see the book, see the weather, see the walk-in trade, and decide. If tonight is full, nothing goes on Halfseat. The only seats we ever list are seats that were genuinely going to leave empty, which is the only honest version of this model.
Try it on your quiet nights
Free to list, no contract, no exclusivity. Release two tables on a Tuesday and see what lands.