The art of convergence: Urban Restro splices disparate hospitality segments

Urban Restro is a multi-headed, ecommerce hydra that is simultaneously attacking India’s restaurant reservation, banquet booking, event management and deals markets.

It’s a bold play by the Mumbai-based startup. The segments seem somewhat disparate at first, but Urban Restro’s parent company, Urban Online Services has weaved an intriguing mesh which looks set to fill gaps in India’s hospitality industry.

Market research by Urban Restro’s founder and MD, Shriti Chhajed shows that there are over 200 up-scale restaurants in the city with an average occupancy rate of around 40% ranging from 10% to 20% during off-peak hours to 80% to 90% during peak hours. Following cues from the hotel and airline industries which, despite high fixed costs, manage to fill flights and rooms, Chhajed set out increase occupancy rates for restaurants. Urban Restro launched at the end of 2012 to allow patrons to book discount reservations from restaurants that wish to increase patron traffic during off-peak hours.

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