Dineplan bags first accolade at 2019 Cape Town Experiences Magazine Awards

Restaurant booking app Dineplan has won the Most Innovative Tech Solution in the Food and Beverage Industry category at this year’s Cape Town Experiences Magazine Awards.

The reservation app was founded in 2011 by Martin Rose and Greg Whitfield. In an email today (4 March), Whitfield said the award, which the startup received at a ceremony at Cape Town restaurant Nomad Bistro last month, is the company’s first major accolade.

“It is always fantastic to receive recognition, especially for a product years in the making. The fact that 40% of the win was from public votes means the team’s dedication to make the app as user-friendly and convenient as possible has been bearing fruit,” he said.

Dineplan was founded in 2011 by Martin Rose and Greg Whitfield

Dineplan enables users to explore more than 2000 restaurants across South Africa by name, area or available rates. In addition, the app also helps users to check ratings, cuisines on offer, price range, and opening times among other information that can help them pick and book the perfect place.

In a statement last Friday (1 March), Cape Town Experiences Magazine (CTex) editor Lounette Loubster said the award acknowledges tech which aims to simplify, and in many cases, cut costs that make a difference in the administrative areas of the food and beverage industry.

In the same statement, Dineplan claimed that more than 300 000 bookings are made on its platform every month, with the app seating an average 1.5 million diners per month.

Whitfield (pictured above, right with co-founder Martin Rose) told Ventureburn today that since March last year, Dineplan app users have grown from between 2500 and 3000 registered users to just over 30 000. He added that the most popular restaurants listed on Dineplan’s platform have received up to 750 bookings from the app alone.

“The most avid app users have already made between 65 and 120 reservations each. This is a good indication of how, in just one year, the app has proven to benefit both diner and restaurant as a convenient tool for making and managing reservations,” he explained.

The app itself does not generate revenue for the startup as it is free for both consumers and restaurants. However, Whitfield explained that Dineplan’s “bread and butter” revenue is generated from its reservation management software.

The software, he pointed out, facilitates phone, internet and app bookings via a subscription service to over 1000 restaurants countrywide.

Read more: Cape Town’s Dineplan launches booking app with network of 1000 restaurants

Editor’s note (4 March 2018): Subsequent to the publication of the article, Dineplan notified Ventureburn that its app had 30 000 users instead of the 300 000 that Dineplan stated in an earlier version of this article.

Featured image, left to right: Dineplan founders Martin Rose and Greg Whitfield (Supplied)