How to Automatically Book a Hard-to-Get Resy Reservation

By JustReservd · Updated October 14, 2026 · 7 min read

The way to automatically book a hard-to-get restaurant reservation is to set an alert for the date and times you want, connect your Resy account, and turn on auto-reserve. The service watches the restaurant for you — at the moment new dates release and through the weeks in between for cancellations — and books the table in your name as soon as a matching time appears. You never have to be awake or at your phone.

Why the hardest tables are so hard to get

Most of the restaurants people talk about release their reservations on a fixed schedule: a set number of days ahead, at a set time each day. At 9 or 10 AM the next date appears, and the good times can be gone within moments. If you are in a meeting, on a train, or asleep in a different time zone, you are not in the race.

The second path is cancellations. Plans change, and people give tables back — often days or weeks before the date, at any hour. Those openings are usually only visible for a short window, because other people watching the same restaurant grab them quickly. You cannot reasonably watch a booking page all day, which is exactly the job software is good at.

Three ways to try to get the table

Alerts are a good start, and they are free on JustReservd. The catch is the gap between the email arriving and you finishing the booking. For the most contested tables that gap is often the whole game, which is why auto-reserve exists: it removes the human step.

How to set up auto-reserve, step by step

1. Find out when your restaurant releases tables. Check the release schedules page to see how many days ahead and at what time a restaurant opens new dates. The right date to target is the one that drops next.
2. Pick the restaurant, date and party size. Open the restaurant page and choose the date you want. Dates that have not been released yet are marked so you can alert on them ahead of time.
3. Choose several times, not one. Select every time you would accept. If more than one opens at once, we try them in chronological order and keep the first one that books. You only get one reservation, and one charge.
4. Link your Resy account. Auto-reserve books through your own Resy login so the reservation lands in your account. Your Resy password is stored encrypted, and you can disconnect at any time in Settings.
5. Add a card for the booking fee. Nothing is charged when you add it. You are charged only after a booking is confirmed.
6. Turn on auto-reserve for the alert. That is it. Close the tab.

What actually happens when a table opens

For alerts with auto-reserve on, we check availability about once a minute. For restaurants whose release time we track, we switch to checking every couple of seconds around that moment, so we are looking when the new dates appear rather than a minute afterward.

1. A table matching your date, party size and one of your times shows up.
2. We book it through your Resy account using the booking details Resy returns for that slot.
3. Once Resy confirms the reservation, your card is charged the booking fee.
4. You get a confirmation email, and the reservation appears in Resy.

If the slot is taken in the instant between us seeing it and completing the booking, we move on to the next time you selected. If nothing books, you are not charged.

What it costs

• Alerts: free. You can have up to 5 active alerts at a time.
• Auto-reserve: $5 per confirmed booking, charged only after the reservation is confirmed. No subscription.
• Not booked: $0. If the alert ends without a booking, there is no charge.

What to know before you rely on it

• It is not a guarantee. The most contested tables can sell out in seconds, and some will go to someone else. Auto-reserve improves your odds; it cannot create a table.
• Member-only tables are invisible to us. Some restaurants — Carbone, which is now largely limited to cardholders, is an example — set aside tables for American Express Global Dining Access cardholders. We can only monitor and book tables that are publicly bookable, so those held-back tables will not trigger an alert.
• Resy only, for now. JustReservd focuses on hard-to-book restaurants in New York that take reservations through Resy.
• Deposits and cards on Resy. Some restaurants require a card or charge a deposit at booking. Auto-reserve books instantly with no confirmation step, so check the restaurant's policy on Resy and make sure a card is saved on your Resy account first.
• You manage the reservation in Resy. To cancel or change it, use Resy. The auto-reserve fee is for securing the table and is not refunded if you cancel later.
• Overnight checks are slower. By default, routine checks slow down overnight (around 11 PM to 8 AM local time) to avoid pointless load, but release-time checks still run on schedule.
• Keep your Resy connection fresh. We refresh it automatically where we can and email you if it needs to be reconnected.

Make the most of it

• Alert on the date that releases next, not just dates that already show as booked.
• Be flexible on time and, if you can, on the day of the week — more options mean more chances.
• Set a few alerts for different dates at the same restaurant instead of one.
• Check the restaurant's how-to guide for its release pattern before you decide which date to target.

Frequently asked questions