Philadelphia Restaurants Fighting Reservation Scalping
South Philly’s well-known Cambodian restaurant Mawn said it is fed up with restaurant reservation scalping. During the week of Jan. 5, the restaurant’s owners, Phila and Rachel Lorn, used Mawn’s…
South Philly's well-known Cambodian restaurant Mawn said it is fed up with restaurant reservation scalping.
During the week of Jan. 5, the restaurant's owners, Phila and Rachel Lorn, used Mawn's Instagram to scorn a woman attempting to sell dinner reservations for the restaurant on the “Buy, Sell, Trade” section of Philaqueens. This private Facebook group has approximately 75,000 members.
“It's disrespectful. Nobody should be making money off a free reservation … We felt like we had a responsibility to [say to] all the people who can't get a reservation, ‘This is not OK,'” said Rachel Lornto The Philadelphia Inquirer. Lorn manages the front-of-house operations for Mawn, including the restaurant's guest book.
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The incident revealed an insidious practice in restaurant reservation scalping. It occurs when individuals use bots and other methods to secure free reservations at in-demand restaurants, then resell the reservations at higher prices.
Virtually every major city has been experiencing problems with restaurant reservation scalping, including Philadelphia. As the practice of reservation scalping becomes more prevalent, so has legislation aimed at prohibiting it.
The Philadelphia City Council unanimously passed a law in December 2025 that would crack down on third-party websites from selling reservations without a restaurant's consent. Platforms such as Appointment Trader have been fined up to $1,000 per violation. Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker signed the legislation last week, joining leaders in New York, Louisiana, and Illinois in banning the practice.
"Chief among the concerns reservation scalping has raised in the restaurant industry: It overinflates the demand for a restaurant," the Inquirer noted.
At Mawn, Lorn said she feels “powerless” against platforms like Appointment Trader. She often discovers after the fact when a reservation has been resold. She also tries to disguise her suspicion when a guest shows up and can't recall the name for the reservation.
“What am I going to do in that moment?” she asked. “Accuse them?”
