BlackboardEats Starts Charging for Restaurant Coupons

BBE was started by women from Yahoo. My problem with BBE is two-fold:one, their business plan had not included a method for the company to make moneyfrom either the public or the restaurants. Secondly, BBE does not back up the customer or the restaurant in any instance. If things go awry, to whom do you complain. The restaurant does not want to hear about anything, as the reservation is a one-time event. And the customer cannot complain about lost or no reservations, lousy food and other discrepancies such as I had on 2 occasions----Valentino and Campanile. This coupon-mania is working these days because the economy is tough. BBE, Groupon and the rest will be ancient memories in a year or two when things improve. In the meantime, I use OpenTable and am happy to pay for a meal, a reservation and do business with restaurants which welcome me, not reset the 50% they offered a day or two previous. That's why you are n longer receiving BBE deals for decent restaurants. Business ha improved.

It was definitely a mental block, but after thinking about it a while, BBE is the only one of these discount services I use and the only one I really want to use (I don't care for Groupon at all). It's definitely worth it for me as it really helps with deciding where to go when meeting friends for dinner and I'm not spreading thing with tons of these types of services, this is my only one.

I was just remarking a couple days ago to my boyfriend that I've been really disappointed in BBE's recent offerings. They used to to post discounts to good restaurants that I was rushing to use! Now every single one that pops into my email gets a shrug and a delete. The $1 surcharge, unless accompanied by discounts to Red O or Michael Voltaggio's upcoming Ink, is just one more step back for me.

Dear Elina Shatkin,

I assume that you read your comments and reply, so here it goes...As a long time veteran of the food world (60 years), an owner of restaurants and an avid diner, i'd like to weigh in with what I see, look at the landscape and hear your thoughts:

Here are the options:

1. "Groupon & clones" (including opentable, zagat, etc.) They all require a sizable upfront pay (if you don't go, you lose big big) feature subpar restaurants (all advertorial for the hurting/about to close spots) and finally, do NOT apply to the entire bill. It only applies to a small portion of it. This is a piece that never seems to be mentioned.

2.VillageVinescharges 10 DOLLARS (quite prohibitive) to get a pass into the restaurant for the discount---making the discount more like 20 or 15%. Where's the deal?

3. Scoutmobterrible spots and they take a huge cut from the restaurant, just like the "Groupons & clones" meaning they feature spots that need the traffic.

4. blackboardeatsseems to be the best option out there; the James Beard of the deal space. They don't charge restaurants or require a big upfront commitment, and they run the best restaurants. I just read their "about us" section and they didn't seem to skimp on quality hires. seems like they have all of Gourmet Magazine working for them And now they are charging a buck. Don't you think they need to pay their staff somehow? And they are clearly providing us with a great service, which we loved for over a year and making a tweak that will keep us honest and rich (1 dollar is nothing for what i have saved) about selecting ones we want to go to.

Thanks for reading my comment. I really look forwarding to hearing a comment back from you and in your expert opinion, what you think is the better option.

I'll go ahead and agree with you. While it makes no sense whatsoever, psychologically, it's a big hurdle to clear. While I'll drop more than a dollar on something really stupid, this just feels....different. For some reason I also couldn't put into words.

Hmm, "massages and dental services"? Think I'll stick with Grope-on.

Since when did foodies become cheapskates? Seriously, the nay-sayers are the same people demanding meal comps and not tipping their waiters. Bloggers should stop demanding and accepting comps (i'm a restaurant owner and trust me, it's a gross and very active habit)-- real food editors don't take comps. I'm wondering if the writer of this post isn't part of the problem (i.e. accepting comps and having an over-inflated sense of entitlement?). don't do the groupon clone method that hurts restaurants and makes you pay upfront stuff where you end up sometimes not using anyway. i'd rather pay a dollar for the freedom of choosing to use or not use it.

Yea, I kinda agree. When I first heard about the $1 charge yesterday, I was pretty angry. I even posted some nasty messages about it on Twitter. But, after giving it a little more thought, $1 really is more than worth the service that BBE provides -- especially when Village Vines charges $10 and ScoutMob only features crappy restos.

BBE is a change in lifestyle - affordable good restaurants, new neighborhoods- A years subscription is well worth it.

While I am really sad that the free days are over, and it will make me much pickier about clicking to get the code.... One dollar is pretty fair. I always wondered how they were making money!

And it is well worth it - I used the passcode to get 30% off a really nice dinner for two at Palate, and saved over $30.

Now if they'd only bring back the code for Malo in Silverlake!

Guest #2, Read a little more closely and you'll see that the writer says that Groupon offers "generally mediocre" choices whereas BBE's selections are "buzzworthy."

That said, I do think that a dollar is a bit of a psychological, if not physical hurdle. If you don't buy the year subscription, you'll have to pull out your wallet and type in your credit card info each time you want a coupon. I always liked that BBE was essentially a one-click service.

I probably won’t get the year subscription, as I use the service less than once a month, but I probably won’t get nearly as many of the deals as I usually do because of that little hurdle. I realize that spending a dollar to save several seems like a no-brainer, but for some reason it is a small road block.

Not to sound snooty, but did you really do your research? It seems to me that BBE offers deals at the very best restaurants (not necessarily ones that need the extra business). So, I don't think BBE even charges restaurants to be featured -- besides, BBE is a business that needs to make money, too. Right?

I've talked to tons of my friends and we think it's a little ridiculous that our fellow food-lovers are whining about $1 when BBE is clearly still the best deal around. I also subscribe to Gilt Groupe, and the like, where I pay upfront. But, when it comes to food, I want food editors to pick great restaurants for me. Honestly, at the end of the day, $1 is nothing for what you're getting.