Restaurant marketplace Bookatable is launching new beacon technology with the aim of pulling prospective diners into restaurants and boosting bookings across London.

Bookatable has partnered with American Express to develop the technology, which will initially be deployed to 119 restaurants participating in this years London Restaurant Festival, which runs 8 – 27 October. Among the London-based restaurants offering Festival Menus are OXO Tower, STK London, Ping Pong and Villandry.

The beacons send exclusive messages promoting the participating restaurants, including offers and menus, when diners who have downloaded the Bookatable enter a beacon hotspot, which are positioned near restaurant entrances and have a range of up to 50 metres.

“These notifications will offer diners convenient access to the restaurants booking page to encourage more people to dine at restaurants participating in the festival,” said Nick Brown, head of consumer product at Bookatable. “iBeacon have already proved to be hugely successful with companies such as John Lewis, Waitrose, EasyJet and Virgin Atlantic all using the tecnology to successfully reach their customers.

“Following the festival, we hope to increase the number of restaurants using iBeacons in the UK, enabling customers to enjoy more on-the-go access to great dining experiences.”