Here's How You Can Get Last-Minute Reservations At Toronto Restaurants & Save Date Night

Do you ever find yourself trying to book dinner at one of Toronto's best restaurants but you can't find a reservation at the last minute? Well, there's a new service in town that can help you save date night.

ResoExchange is a platform co-founded by Kamal Mukhalalaty and Mohamed Hegazy to help Torontonians find last-minute reservations in the city, while also saving others from paying a cancellation fee if they have to bail on plans.

Basically, it matches up people who can't keep their table with others who desperately want it.

"After catching the flu and facing a hefty cancellation fee, with neither the restaurant able to assist nor friends to take up the reservation, I wondered why there wasn't an exchange platform for such situations," Mukhalalaty told Narcity.

Many of us have been in that awkward scenario where you booked a reservation with your credit card, only to have to cancel it that same day because life happens. Sometimes it's OK, but other times you'll find yourself facing a cancellation fee that's almost the same cost as your meal.

Well, now, if you're ever put in that scenario, you can simply submit your reservation to ResoExchange and hopefully, someone else who is looking for last-minute plans will claim it.

The website "was created to facilitate the free exchange of restaurant reservations," Mukhalalaty said. "It allows users to both give up their expiring reservations to avoid cancellation fees while allowing others to claim last-minute, hard-to-get reservations at popular restaurants," the co-founder added.

It's a win-win-win.

This model not only helps customers but also aids in keeping a restaurant busy. When another person claims a reservation, the restaurant isn't left with an empty table that could've had people dining on it.

As creative as this model seems, it's not something new. In fact, there are similar platforms already in use in New York City, where high-end dinner spots are just as in-demand as they are in Toronto. So it makes sense for a service like this to exist in Toronto, especially with the Michelin Guide in town and cancellations costing an arm and a leg.

ResoExchange also has a competitor in Toronto called DINR, but the other service requires payment to participate in the exchange, while ResoExchange is free.

The service is slowly but surely growing, and the transactions can be done through their website for now, but they hope to have an app up and running soon.

So the next time you can't make a reservation or you're dying to squeeze into a restaurant that's booked up, give ResoExchange a look and they just might save you date night.