• Subscribers to Places benefit from customised market intelligence and valuable consumer feedback, empowering them uncover new opportunities and refine their offerings

Dubai: Dubai’s restaurants, cafes and bars have an exciting and efficient new way to reach customers across the city and gain valuable market insights thanks to the launch of Places, a new app which hosts the entire city’s dining scene in one user-friendly place.

Places was designed to provide a less fragmented approach to dining discovery. Currently, restaurants, cafes and bars may receive bookings only after consumers have had to scroll social media, search websites, sent emails, or picked up the phone before finding all the details they need before they are ready to make a reservation. Places is here to streamline that process by empowering venues to display and manage their menus, prices, amenities, news and offers in one convenient digital space.

Places currently has more than 10,000 of Dubai’s dining establishments and now, businesses can subscribe for free and take control of their place with a simple, yet powerful cloud-based dashboard. They can then update their information in real time and as often as necessary.

As well as discoverability, Places also gives venues access to rich market insights, such as what users in their area and across the city are searching for, including the most popular menu items, helping businesses identify opportunities.

Joining the Places community

Places has already done the hard work and most venues in the city will find their information already uploaded. Now, Places is ready to welcome restaurants, bars and restaurants to join its dynamic community and take control of the information and media which is on their profiles, and there are various subscription tiers available to accommodate different needs.

The free Places Essential subscription gives every business a seat at the table, with access to a dashboard where they can control their page in real-time. They will be able to update their menus, photos and amenities, and add restaurant website and delivery links. In addition, they can also run one feature, promotion or event at a time as a highlight on their page.

Places Pro offers businesses all that and more. With a subscription that starts from just AED 8 a day, venues will appear more frequently in searches, and enjoy up to 16 times more visibility by appearing in the app’s ‘inspiration wall’, where photos, videos, features and events are displayed as highlights.

The Places Pro subscription also includes insightful analytics such as trending searches, to help eateries and bars gauge how their business compares to others in the same category. This information can help venues elevate their offering by identifying gaps in the market. For example, Pro subscribers will have data insights like: ‘10 people have searched for a dog-friendly place in your neighbourhood today’, or ‘15 people nearby are looking for places that open at 7am’.

In addition, Places Pro allows venues to receive both public and private feedback, whether it be a quick personalised message of gratitude or a recommendation, or complaint that a user may want to share in a private note, such as ‘Bathrooms were not clean today’ or ‘Service was much slower than usual’. This community environment supports venues in consumer engagement, helping them connect with regular customers, identify team achievements and celebrate stand-out members of staff, as well as swiftly recognise areas for improvement.
This allows issues to be resolved at the time privately, rather than a public post later when very little can be done.

The third subscription option is Places Pro Sport, which has all the features of Places Pro but also allows businesses to easily showcase which sports events they are showing, along with details such as if they are playing them with sound. Businesses who subscribe to this option will benefit by customers finding them by a direct search for a game. For example, “I’m looking for a place to watch the Man City game with a steak sandwich”.

Places subscription prices at a glance:

  • Places Essential subscription: Free now and always.
  • Places Pro subscription:  From just AED 8 per day
  • Places Pro Sport: From just AED 10 per day

Mark Johnson, Co-founder of Places said: “Places was conceived in Dubai with the vision to revolutionise how the dining industry engages its customers, and assist businesses in refining their offerings to cater to the ever-evolving needs of our dynamic city. With our seamless discovery experience, Places is where residents will find what they are looking for within seconds, and where businesses can access personalised market insights, empowering them to engage more clients thanks to a deeper understanding of their F&B landscape.”

Market-leading technology

The Places app was built in Dubai, for Dubai residents. Using the latest technology to provide a seamless app experience, the ‘open search’ function allows the use of conversational-style free typing, or simply speaking into the app to bring up venue options. Geospatial technology ensured accurate results based on users’ locations when searching “near me”, and an in-house built AI model allows for multiple search capabilities. For example, users can tell Places “I want to go to a brunch with Italian food on the Palm or in the Marina”. 

Sign up now

Businesses can visit www.placesuae.com/Business.html to sign up.

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For further information, please contact:
Maryanne Peaky - maryanne@thecommsclubdxb.com

About Places:

Launched in Dubai in May 2024, Places is more than a smart search tool. It’s a gateway to the city’s best dining spots, loaded with menus, prices, and unique offers. Developed by a team passionate about food and technology, Places aims to simplify and personalise dining discoveries.