By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 07.10.2010 (The Sydney Morning Herald): When it comes to booking flights, hotels, car hire or concerts, increasing numbers of us jump on to the internet. But booking restaurants is another matter, with most people still picking up the phone or emailing, waiting for the restaurant to open and respond.

However an online booking engine developed last year, Dimmi, is helping to change the face of Australian restaurant reservations.

Dimmi was launched in September last year by Stevan Premutico, who was frustrated by the lack of cost-effective marketing channels available to restaurants to fill tables while marketing the Hilton’s ‘Glass Brasserie’ in 2005. He went on to work with Hilton International in London, winning the 2007 UK Hospitality Young Marketeer of the Year Award.

He realised that third party partners such as Wotif and Lastminute were the fastest growing and most successful mediums for driving customers to hotels, and began considering applying this model to Australia’s restaurant industry.

After spending a year undertaking extensive research, he returned to Australia at the peak of the global financial crisis to raise venture capital and launched Dimmi. In the past 13 months, about half a million diners have used the services to book tables at 1500 restaurants.

Premutico says Dimmi is the largest instant restaurant booking engine in Australia, and that it is helping restaurants operate more efficiently.

“Six out of 10 calls to restaurants go unanswered as 66 per cent of all calls are made when they are least able to handle,” he says.

“By generating more bookings online, Dimmi is helping restaurants raise more revenue and at the same time freeing up human resources to attend to other areas of work.”

Dimmi allows restaurants to take multiple bookings at any one time, as well as being able to see at a glance the flow of guests during the evening. Restaurants are also able to develop a master database with specific information on customers.

Judy McMahon, owner of Sydney harbourside Catalina, says using Dimmi has helped streamline booking procedures and reduce errors.

“Earlier, we spent about 90 minutes a day listening to bookings on the answer machine, checking emails and following up requests,” she says. “It has also opened up our restaurant to clients from other places and to a new audience.”

Dimmi, in Italian means “tell me”. Premutico says: “Dimmi is not just a booking engine, but the beginning of a conversation between restaurants and their customers through this user-generated concept. We are also helping restaurants become more successful with social media by providing Facebook, iPhone and other web-based applications”.

Dimmi attracts about five million restaurant searches each month. Premutico estimates that within five years about 50 per cent of Australian restaurants will be booked online, up from one per cent now. Only a year ago, all restaurant bookings were made by phone or email.

“We are seeing a new consumer who likes to book the entire leisure lifecycle online – flight, car, hotel and the natural progression is dining”, says Premutico. Besides corporate, personal and interstate bookings, Dimmi also receives traffic from international travellers hailing from four key overseas markets – the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Premutico says thanks to TV phenomenon MasterChef, consumers are increasingly informed while making dining decisions. “The show has also led to a surge in bookings and we are noticing this as a long-term effect.

The company, which has a national staff of 20, has just launched a loyalty program for restaurants. The next step for diners would be to be able to book the table of their choice – but that’s not on the drawing board just yet says Premutico, as restaurants still like to maintain control over seating.

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