NoWait app lets you join restaurant wait lists from your smartphone

Mobile wait listing service for restaurants, NoWait, is now expanding the rollout of its consumer-facing mobile app to reach diners nationwide, the company says. The app shows you a list of nearby restaurants, wait times, and distances, and lets you join wait lists from your phone. It first arrived on the market last September serving NoWait’s hometown of Pittsburgh, where in three months’ time it grew from five restaurants to fifty. 

Americans spend roughly 37 billion hours a year waiting in line. NoWait can save you some of that time by letting you join restaurant wait lists from your phone. NoWait is rolling out its consumer app nationwide. The company has put 29 million diners into seats to date and claims that it reduces wait time from 90 minutes to 5 minutes. NoWait started out as an iPad app for restaurants to manage their wait lists. Hosts could create and store wait lists online and notify customers with a text message when their table is ready. The system accepts walk-in and call-ahead diners, and it provides estimated wait times and analytics. It also has a visual floor plan for hosts to use while figuring out where to put people.