Every other booking platform charges you. This one pays you.
First Table charges the diner £6 and sends you £0. Halfseat charges £5 and sends you all £5 as a founding venue. You keep 100% of the drinks margin either way. Free to list, no contract.
Prefer to talk it through? Text or ring Jack on 07805 144862. Need to show someone else? Download the one-pager.
- Keep the whole booking fee, forever (£5 to £14 a booking, Halfseat takes nothing)
- Named on the site, first on the app
- Direct line to Jack
Opens Brighton, Hove and Bristol in January. Elsewhere? Apply anyway: the first 10 venues in each new city get founding terms.
No contract. Pause any day. Free to list.
Set menu, tasting menu, tied tenant or group? Set your own conditions and tell us when you apply.
An empty seat earns £0. A table of two earns you about £27.
On a £60 bill, after food and drinks cost, as a founding venue. £25 on the standard split.
See the workings below →A table nobody books costs you nothing.
New guests only, if you want it.
A diner who has already booked you through Halfseat can't book again at half price.
You set the nights and the tables.
Default two tables a night. Nothing goes live you haven't approved.
How it works
You release tables
Diners claim them
You get paid
Is it for you?
Works best if
- A table of two spends £30 or more on food, so the diner saves more than the £5 fee.
- You have a quiet night or a gap you want to fill.
- You are happy to halve the food bill at the table and keep drinks at full price.
Probably not for you if
- Most of your sales are drinks, or a table of two spends under about £20 on food. The diner saves less than the fee.
- You never discount your food, even privately. The discount is fixed at half off.
- A pubco, head office or franchisor has to approve it. Tell us when you apply and we will talk it through, or download the one-pager to forward.
What you keep
The diner pays £5, £8 or £14 by party size. Founding venues keep all of it. Standard venues keep £3, £4 or £8.
| A table of two | First Table | Halfseat, founding | Halfseat, standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diner pays a booking fee | £6 | £5 | £5 |
| Goes to the venue | £0 | £5 | £3 |
| Kept by the platform | £6 | £0 | £2 |
First Table's £6 booking fee is as it publishes it. None of it reaches the venue.
See the workings: the fee table and a worked example+
| Party | Diner pays | Founding venue keeps | Standard venue keeps | Halfseat (standard) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | £5 | £5 | £3 | £2 |
| 3 to 4 | £8 | £8 | £4 | £4 |
| 5 to 6 (you opt in) | £14 | £14 | £8 | £6 |
One fee per table, never per head, and the same whether you pay us anything or not. If the diner doesn’t turn up, you keep your share anyway, which is more than a no-show pays you today.
Why would we take nothing from founding venues? The first 30 in Brighton & Hove and in Bristol, and the first 10 in each city after that, are how we open it. Venues after them are on the standard split, where Halfseat keeps £2, £4 or £6 a table. Founding terms last for as long as you stay listed.
Contribution after food and drinks cost, on a table that was going to stay empty. Two examples, because a table of two with a £60 bill and one with a £24 bill are different businesses. Both assume a 30% food cost, a 30% drinks cost and the half-off-the-food deal.
| One table of two | £60 bill £40 food, £20 drinks | £24 bill £14 food, £10 drinks |
|---|---|---|
| Food, after a half-off deal | £20.00 | £7.00 |
| Drinks, full price | £20.00 | £10.00 |
| Your cut of the booking fee, founding venue (per table, not per head) | £5.00 | £5.00 |
| Food cost you still carry (30% of the full plate) | −£12.00 | −£4.20 |
| Drinks cost you still carry (30% of drinks) | −£6.00 | −£3.00 |
| Contribution, founding venue | £27.00 | £14.80 |
| Contribution, standard venue (£3 cut) | £25.00 | £12.80 |
| If the seat stays empty | £0.00 | £0.00 |
Assumes drinks are a third of the £60 bill and about 40% of the £24 bill, all at full price. Change the drinks share or the cost and your number moves.
The comparison that matters is the empty seat, not another platform. For the record: First Table routes £0 of the booking fee to the venue. The discount is fixed at half off food; the conditions around it are yours, and they change these numbers. And a note worth having before your floor team hears it: on a £60 bill the diner saves £20 on food and pays a £5 fee, so pays £45, a quarter off.
From the venues
Our proof-run venues, from the operator group behind Halfseat (Coal & Co). In our own venues, the 4pm release fills quiet-night tables we would not otherwise have filled. We are proving it there first, before opening it up. The 30 founding slots are for independent venues.
"We'll only put a table on Halfseat if it was going to sit empty. That's the whole idea."
Dan · Ash & Honey
Built for my own quiet Tuesdays.
Jack Visick is the operator behind eight Sussex venues, including The Castle Inn and Tollgate. Halfseat is the tool he built to fill his own empty tables without giving away the bar. Founding venues get a direct line to him.
Common questions
Won't this attract bargain-hunters and cheapen the experience?+
The model is designed to prevent that. The list is short, we don't list every venue, and we never run discount-led advertising, because that is exactly what brings bargain-hunters. The booking fee, £5 to £14 by party size, is non-refundable, so a diner has paid to hold your table before they arrive. The seat was going empty anyway. This fills it with someone who chose your venue. One honest limit: on a low ticket (a £24 bill) the diner saves £7 and pays a £5 fee, so the saving is small. It reads best where the average bill is higher.
Will it cannibalise my full-price diners?+
You choose the shifts, the menu it applies to and a cap on tables per night. Most venues open it only on the shifts that would otherwise sit empty. Switch on New guests only and a diner who has already booked you through Halfseat can't book again at half price. Visits per diner are capped (default four a year). Drinks are always full price.
When do I get paid?+
Stripe pays your share the moment a diner books. Not on Stripe yet? We BACS you at month end until you are.
Do I have to offer it every night?+
No. You release tables when it suits you, quiet Tuesdays, slow Januaries, a private cancellation that came in at 2pm. If you're full, don't list. There's no contract, no minimum, no penalty for nights you don't participate.
More questions +
Does it work for my kind of venue?+
The discount is always half off the food, and the conditions are yours. Set a house rule that suits you: a minimum number of drinks, a set menu, a la carte only, specific nights, a cap on tables. If you are a tenant, a group or a hotel, tell us when you apply and we will talk it through before anything goes live.
How does the diner deal work at the table?+
The diner gets 50% off the food bill and pays full price on drinks: you halve the food total at the end. The discount itself is fixed, but the conditions are yours: the nights, the sittings, how many tables go out a night (default two), how many visits one diner can make a year (default four), and a house rule. Set one and we show it to the diner word for word before they book, so “two drinks per head minimum” or “a la carte only, not the tasting menu” is agreed before they arrive. The booking code in your portal links their name to the booking: no app, no voucher, no friction for your floor team.
Can I pause it?+
Yes, any day: Pause listing, under Your controls in your portal. Pausing hides your tables from diners immediately. Nothing is charged while you are paused, and you resume with one tap.
What does it cost me if nobody books?+
Nothing. Listing is free, there is no contract and no monthly fee on the standard plan. You only earn when a diner books.
We choose the venues,
not chase the discount-hunters.
Halfseat isn’t open to every venue. Any format is welcome, a pub, a bistro, a hotel restaurant, a tasting menu, as long as the food is worth eating. That means your seat is filled by someone who’d be proud to tell their friends where they ate, not by a coupon-clipper.