Lastminute.com launches fonefood

Press release – 14 August 2008 – Lastminute.com Finding the perfect place to eat and book need no longer be a problem. From today online travel and leisure retailer lastminute.com launches fonefood, its new beta mobile restaurant booking service. Fonefood allows mobile users to search and book restaurants whilst on the go. It is available…

Press release – 14 August 2008 – Lastminute.com


Finding the perfect place to eat and book need no longer be a problem. From today online travel and leisure retailer lastminute.com launches fonefood, its new beta mobile restaurant booking service.


Fonefood allows mobile users to search and book restaurants whilst on the go. It is available in 12 countries and gives users access to over 6,000 restaurants from cheap eats to fine dining. The restaurant bookings will be powered by leading online restaurant reservations provider, the Livebookings Network.


Users are given descriptions of nearby restaurants, with currently over a thousand available deals, discounts and promotions.


Once they’ve chosen a restaurant there is no need to call, users can book directly on their mobile for free and receive an instant confirmation via sms text message—especially handy for users abroad who may not speak the local language.


Fonefood is available on the internet at m.lastminute.com and will work on all modern handsets. Alternatively users can text fonefood to 85959 to get the link free of charge (only in the UK). The application uses Google Maps to show restaurants near the users’ location.


Lastminute.com head of innovation Marko Balabanovic said: “We are very excited to be launching fonefood as we see mobile becoming increasingly popular with people as a way to organise and make the most of their leisure time. This is just the start of many mobile capabilities that we are developing within the lastminute.com labs team this year.”


Livebookings chief operating officer David Norris added: “We recognise that increasingly people are taking the internet with them in their pockets and more of us expect to be able to get online anywhere at anytime.


“Savvy diners can now find a table to reserve on the move which is great if you are visiting a new city or if you happen to be out with friends and need to book there and then. We are proud to be able to power the technology that connects this great new cutting-edge multi-lingual service from lastminute.com to over 6,000 restaurants.”