Fortunately, as the following article explains, there's an app for that. The question is whether consumers will acquiesce - or rebel. JL
Nina Sovich reports in the Wall Street Journal:
Spontaneous planning is growing fast, due in part to people booking on their mobile phones and what he calls industry plumbing: Hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues are developing the back-end capability to handle last-minute requests. No one unplugs anymore. Startups are introducing new ways for under-planners to take back the night.
Every once in a while Heather Schwager decides to stop on her way home from work for a glass of wine.
The inspiration strikes when the 42-year-old executive recruiter is just five minutes from pulling into her Washington, D.C. driveway, and the dollop of impulsivity creates a break from her routine.
Spontaneity, always in short supply, is scarce these days. It is nearly impossible to get reservations for dinner at coveted restaurants. Movies sell out, and vacations are planned to the 15-minute increment. A month ahead, parents can be sure their child gets into an art activity at the local museum and reserve ice cream at the nearby cafe for lunch afterward.
All this planning may not be good for us, creatively or romantically. Last-minute decisions and the surprises that may stem from them, such as finding a new, even better, cafe with open tables, or watching a film you hadn’t planned to see, are joyful.
Companies and small startups are responding by offering the option to plan at the last moment. The appeal: organized spontaneity.
“There are the people who tie up the best restaurants and hotels really early,” says Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston, “but they are offset by another group who make their decisions at the last moment. There are real extremes of distribution.”
Spontaneous planning is growing fast, says Mr. Huston, due in part to people booking on their mobile phones and what he calls industry plumbing: Hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues are developing the back-end capability to handle last-minute requests.
“Hotels have realized they don’t have to panic if they are going into the last 24 hours and everything isn’t booked,” Mr. Huston says. Restaurants are also beginning to keep tables free, knowing some customers want to make reservations at the last moment. Currently one fifth of reservations made on Priceline’s OpenTable app are done an hour before the meal, a number which is expected to increase as mobile usage increases.
A host of startups also are introducing new ways for under-planners to take back the night. Citymaps, an app that provides information on local events, stores and dining, has teamed up with concert-info app Songkick to give real-time information on what bands are playing nearby and whether tickets are still available. YPlan, an entertainment planning app, aggregates theater tickets for same-day purchase. Reservation apps such as Tablelist allows people to book tables at nightclubs, and Resy lets you buy a last-minute restaurant reservation.
Still, is using your phone to plan an event a truly spontaneous act? Edward Slingerland, professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia and author of “Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity,” thinks not.
“No one unplugs anymore,” says Dr. Slingerland. “The restaurant has to be amazing because we will take a picture of the pasta and post to Facebook. ”
He points out that constant planning also kills a romantic vibe. An unplanned moment can be bonding. It means taking a small leap of faith that your lark will be fun. Following an agenda is more rote and less exciting. This goes for everything from being caught in a thunderstorm to exploring a new neighborhood in Bangkok.
“The trick is not to have a plan but have the plan unfold,” Dr. Slingerland says of an ideal evening. “It’s the way a great dinner party feels.” This involves dialing down the parts of your brain which plan, primarily the prefrontal cortex, and which humans also use to lie. Once that part of your brain is immobilized, you become spontaneous and people will find you more trustworthy. This instinct to trust spontaneous people applies both to people we know, like our spouse, and ones we don’t, like politicians.
Debbie Lee Stalzer, a dentist in New York, may be an avid planner but says she better remembers the moments when she has been spontaneous. On Christmas Eve last year, she and her husband wandered around to find a place to eat. They stopped in three restaurants and finally found a table at the “local cheesy pasta place.” The food wasn’t great but it was funny and relaxing, Dr. Lee Stalzer says.
“We can’t leave the evening to chance because the food might be bad. The thinking goes, it’s the only time I get off all week I’m going to be really irritated if it’s bad,” says Rebecca Spang, author of “The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture.”
Still the desire for a less-planned existence lingers, even in the competitive world of restaurants. Anne Marler, co-owner of Washington, D.C. hot spot Komi, says because the small restaurant is often booked weeks in advance she and her husband, chef Johnny Monis, opened sister restaurant Little Serow next door.
“We wanted a place people could just walk in to and get a bite to eat,” says Ms. Marler of Little Serow, which doesn’t take reservations. Since opening, however, the northern Thai restaurant has become such a hit there are often lines stretching outside the door. On a Saturday night, diners hire professional line-waiters.
“Were we surprised by the line waiters?” asks Ms. Marler. “Yes, how could we not be. When we went for a reservation-free restaurant it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind.”
Ms. Schwager, the executive recruiter, is also on the PTA and her two children have four activities a week. She often works out at 6 a.m., and she eats dinner out two or three times a week.
“It’s not the busyness that bothers me, it’s the planning,” she says. “Anything I do spontaneously is five hundred times more enjoyableCitymaps is an app that shows you locations of nearby bars, restaurants, stores, and events.
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