I’ve been asked why I built LocalFeed when there are already booking platforms in New Zealand. The honest answer: because the existing ones are built on a model that extracts value from venues rather than creating it, and because I’ve spent 20 years in NZ hospitality watching good restaurants pay commission that compounds their already-difficult economics. LocalFeed is the platform I wanted when I was operating — one that’s genuinely on the venue’s side.
The Commission Problem, Stated Clearly
The dominant booking platforms in New Zealand charge venues 15-25% commission on every booking. This is not a fee for a service that costs 15-25% to deliver. The technology of a booking is not expensive. The cost of the commission is the cost of being visible in a marketplace that the platform controls — essentially a rent on the customer relationship.
At a $50 average spend per person, 20% commission is $10 per person. A 60-seat restaurant turning four tables per service on a busy Saturday — roughly 240 covers — would pay $2,400 in commission from a single Saturday if all those covers came through the platform. That’s a significant number. Multiplied across a year, it’s a number that affects what the venue can invest in staff, ingredients, and the customer experience.
“Commission on booking platforms is rent on the customer relationship. The platform controls access to diners, so venues pay for access. LocalFeed doesn’t control access. It facilitates it.”
STAT: The average NZ restaurant on a commission-based booking platform spends 8-14% of gross revenue on platform costs annually (commission plus promotional requirements). For a $1.2M revenue venue, that’s $96,000-$168,000 per year going to the platform.
The Forced Discount Problem
Beyond direct commission, the major booking platforms in NZ have created incentive structures that push venues toward discounting they didn’t design and don’t want. Venues that run deals get better algorithm placement. Venues that don’t discount become less visible. This creates a soft mandate: discount or be marginalised.
The result is venues offering 30-50% off their food revenue to attract platform traffic, then paying commission on the discounted revenue. The net revenue per cover on these deals is often below the cost of producing the cover. The venue is effectively paying to serve customers who are unlikely to return at full price.
LocalFeed doesn’t do this. Venues design their own offers. There’s no algorithm that penalises venues for not discounting. The offer you create is the offer diners see — full stop.
NOTE: The LocalFeed model requires venues to take responsibility for their own offers. There’s no platform hand-holding on what to promote or when. This is the point — the venue knows its business better than any platform does.
The Customer Data Problem
When a diner books through a commission-based platform, the customer data — contact details, booking history, preferences — belongs to the platform, not the venue. The venue gets the booking, but not the relationship. Next time the diner wants to eat out, they go back to the platform, not to the venue directly.
This is a structural dependency that compounds over time. The venue becomes increasingly reliant on the platform for customer access, while its own direct customer base fails to grow proportionately. The platform’s value to the venue increases while the venue’s independent customer relationship remains weak.
LocalFeed gives venues their booking data. The customer who books through LocalFeed is a customer the venue can build a direct relationship with. That’s the difference between being a platform tenant and running an actual business.
Why New Zealand Specifically
New Zealand’s hospitality industry is dominated by independent operators — small businesses without the negotiating power of a chain, without the capital reserves to absorb high platform costs, and without the margin buffer that insulates larger operations. The commission model is most damaging to exactly these businesses.
NZ also has a food culture that genuinely values local and independent — the customer base is predisposed to support venues that are doing things the right way. Building a platform that aligns with that value — that genuinely benefits local independent venues rather than extracting from them — made sense here specifically.
“New Zealand diners want to support local venues. A booking platform that takes 20% of the venue’s revenue isn’t supporting local. It’s competing with local while appearing to serve it.”
STAT: New Zealand has approximately 14,000 food service businesses, roughly 78% independently owned. LocalFeed is built for this majority — the venues that make up the real character of NZ’s food culture.
What LocalFeed Is Not
LocalFeed is not a charity or a movement. It’s a business with a model that works differently from the incumbents. The $10/week after 20 bookings is revenue. The 25% of no-show fees is revenue. The model works because it’s designed to work at scale — many venues paying a small, flat amount — rather than at deep extraction from a smaller number.
This means LocalFeed’s incentives align with venue success rather than with transaction volume. If venues do well and stay on the platform, LocalFeed does well. That’s the alignment that the commission model doesn’t have.
FACT: Zero commission on food revenue. $10/week after 20 bookings. 75% of no-show fees go to the venue.
LocalFeed exists because NZ hospitality deserves a booking platform that’s actually on its side. LocalFeed — commission-free, venue-controlled, and built for the independent NZ venues that are worth supporting.