Reservation Booker vs SeatSwiper: Pricing, Platforms and Review

Reservation Booker is a Resy booking service built around a list of New York restaurants. Its homepage pitch is “Let us try to book a table at New York’s most exclusive restaurants for you,” and its terms say it “automatically books reservations on your behalf.” I run SeatSwiper, so weigh the product sections with that in mind. Every statement about Reservation Booker below comes from its own homepage, restaurant pages, terms, privacy policy and the copy in its web app, attributed as I go. SeatSwiper is not affiliated with Reservation Booker. Last verified 26 October 2026.

The short version

The decisive differences, each backed up below:

• Platforms. Reservation Booker asks you to connect a Resy account, and all 77 of its restaurant pages link out to Resy. SeatSwiper books on Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable.
• Where. Its restaurants page lists 77 rooms: 73 in New York, three in Chicago and one in Hudson, New York. SeatSwiper isn’t tied to a list: it works wherever Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable take reservations.
• Price. Reservation Booker is a subscription. Its app says requests need an active subscription and that “Premium includes up to five reservation requests per week,” failed ones included. I could not find its price on any public page. SeatSwiper’s first booking is free, then a flat $5, charged only on a successful booking, with no subscription. A cancellation watch costs $1 to start, charged when the watch begins even if no table opens, not covered by the free first booking and not refunded, plus the same $5 if it wins you the table.
• Your account. Its terms say your platform accounts “may be subject to suspension or termination,” and that if an account is suspended or terminated it does “not owe any refunds.” SeatSwiper can’t get your account banned: it books one table on your own account, in your name, and checks every few minutes, never nonstop.
• Track record. Reservation Booker publishes a 60-day result for 25 of its 77 restaurants. I publish no success rate.

What Reservation Booker says it is

Its homepage lays out five steps, from “Connect a Resy account to our platform” to “Check your request’s status to see the outcome. Booking is not guaranteed.” You pick a restaurant, a date and a time window, and each restaurant page explains the rest: “If reservations haven’t been released yet, we’ll try to book when they open. If they have been released, we’ll scan for availability that matches your preferences.” The homepage adds that the scan includes “tables freed by cancellations.”

Before you connect anything, note that its terms say it “collects and stores user account credentials (username and password),” and its privacy policy says the same.

What we have in common

Credit first: both of us book. Reservation Booker books onto the Resy account you connect. SeatSwiper books the table the moment one opens, whether new availability or someone cancelling, on your own Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable account, in your name, for your own dinner, with nothing resold, transferred or listed. Neither promises a table: Reservation Booker’s terms say it “cannot guarantee the availability of reservations,” and SeatSwiper can lose a race too.

The price, worked through

Reservation Booker’s app has two tiers, Free and Premium. Its restaurant pages tell a signed-in user without a subscription that “An active subscription is required to request reservations,” and its settings screen says Premium includes up to five requests a week, then: “Failed requests count toward this limit. It resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC.” I could not find what Premium costs on any public page. The shape is clear, though: you subscribe in order to make requests, and one that doesn’t land still uses up one of that week’s five.

SeatSwiper’s full price list: your first booking is free, then a flat $5, charged only when a booking succeeds, with no subscription. A cancellation watch costs $1 to start, charged when the watch begins even if no table ever opens, not covered by the free first booking and not refunded, plus the same $5 when it wins you the table. In real years:

• One table. $0, because the first booking is free.
• Four hard tables in a year. $15: the first free, then three at $5.
• Six cancellation watches, four of which win. 6 x $1 + 4 x $5 = $26 at most.

The test for any subscription: divide what you pay over a stretch by the tables it books you in that stretch. If that comes to more than $5 a table, SeatSwiper is cheaper (add $1 for each cancellation watch you start), and a cap of five weekly requests, failures included, limits how many wins a subscription can spread its cost over.

Resy only, and a list of 77 rooms

This is the clearest gap. Reservation Booker offers to connect Resy and nothing else, every one of its 77 restaurant pages links out with “View on Resy,” and I found no mention of SevenRooms or OpenTable anywhere on its site. If your room books through either, it falls outside what Reservation Booker describes. Semma in New York, for one, books through SevenRooms (rooms do switch platforms, so check the restaurant’s own booking link, and see how SevenRooms hides its reservations).

The list is the second limit. It has real heavy hitters, including Torrisi, 4 Charles Prime Rib, Lilia, Via Carota and Tatiana, but I found nothing on its public pages about requesting a restaurant that isn’t listed. SeatSwiper doesn’t work from a list: point it at any room on Resy, SevenRooms or OpenTable, in any city where they take reservations.

Your account, in its words and mine

Reservation Booker doesn’t bury account risk, to its credit. Its terms say: “Your third-party platform accounts may be subject to suspension or termination by the respective platform.” They add: “In the event of account suspension or termination, we do not owe any refunds for the Service.” When you connect Resy, its app asks you to accept that third-party reservation services carry “inherent risks.” I found nothing on its site about how often it checks Resy, and I won’t add to its words.

Here is where I stand on mine. SeatSwiper can’t get your account banned, for two reasons. It books on your own account, in your name, one table for your own dinner, with nothing resold. And it checks every few minutes, never nonstop: a watch reads at most once every 5 minutes, every 2.5 minutes in the final day before the reservation, at irregular times, under a per-account daily read cap. The longer version is in will a reservation service get my account banned.

Where Reservation Booker genuinely wins

There are real reasons to pick it, and I would rather you hear them from me.

• Per-room results, bad ones included. On 26 October 2026, 25 of its 77 restaurant pages showed a 60-day figure. Torrisi’s said “In the past 60 days, 50% of completed requests at this restaurant were confirmed,” L’Artusi’s said 100% and 4 Charles Prime Rib’s said 0%. Publishing a zero is candid. I can’t audit those figures, but a number for the exact room beats none.
• Free release schedules. Every restaurant page says when that room releases tables (Torrisi, 30 days ahead at 10:00 AM; Lilia, 27 days ahead at 10:00 AM), free to read without signing up.
• One request type for drops and cancellations. Per its restaurant pages, a request tries at release if your date isn’t out yet, and scans for matching tables, cancellations included, if it is. On SeatSwiper a cancellation watch is its own watch: $1 to start, charged even if no table opens, not covered by the free first booking and not refunded, plus $5 if it wins.
• Possibly a heavy user’s price. If Premium is cheap and most of your five weekly requests land, it could beat SeatSwiper per table. I can’t check, because the price isn’t public.

The case for SeatSwiper, and its limits

Here is the case, plainly. If your restaurant books through SevenRooms or OpenTable, Reservation Booker by its own description is a Resy service; SeatSwiper books all three on your own account. If your restaurant isn’t one of its 77, SeatSwiper isn’t tied to a list. Its price is public (in full below), and its booking fee is charged only when a booking succeeds. And if account risk is the worry, set its terms beside the read limits above. You set a watch once at seatswiper.com, in the browser, and follow it from DRAFT to ARMED to RUNNING to BOOKED in a live race log.

The limits, stated plainly. SeatSwiper covers Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable only. It needs your reservation account connected. At a room where prime tables go in seconds, it can lose a race, and when it does you pay nothing beyond any cancellation-watch start fee. I publish no success rate, for the reasons in is SeatSwiper legit.

Who should pick which

Pick Reservation Booker if your restaurant is on its list, you value a published 60-day result for that room, and its price, once you see it, passes the test above.

Pick SeatSwiper if your table is on SevenRooms or OpenTable, or anywhere off its list, or if you would rather pay when a booking lands than subscribe to try. In full: first booking free, then a flat $5 charged only on success, with no subscription; a cancellation watch costs $1 to start (charged even if no table opens, not covered by the free first booking, not refunded), plus the same $5 if it wins. For a rival with the same Resy-and-New-York shape, see my JustReservd comparison, and for another plan-based service, TablePass vs SeatSwiper.