Student Makes Over $105K Selling Restaurant Reservations

Universities have become known for student debt as much as they are known for education. Speaking from experience, a lot of students can barely afford weekly groceries. One who attends Brown University, however, has found a resourceful way to avoid the debt curse. Sophomore Alex Eisler is a programmer who developed a bot that automates the process of making reservations through services like Resy. 

After securing reservations, the bot resells them to people at a premium, or rather, marked up price. There’s been an increase in reservation bots recently, with restaurants and reservation apps both fighting fruitlessly to reduce it. Eisler joined Appointment Trader in November 2022, an online reservation resell marketplace that uses an auction model. His single largest sale was for a reservation to a Japanese omakase in Boston for a jaw dropping $1,358 — to date, he’s made more than $105,000.

According to Business Insider, Eisler first attempted to resell reservations on the app using Resy and by cold-calling. The results were mixed and inspired him to develop a bot that could automate the process for him. Eisler says that he is more attracted to the ways in which automation can bridge supply and demand, more than the money he makes. He revealed to Business Insider that he walked away with $70,000 last year.

Congress passed the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act in 2021 to help reduce the use of bots. While that relates to ticket buying, The Act does not directly reference reservations, so we’ll have to wait to see how Congress responds to situations like restaurant reservations.