Dynamic pricing for the restaurant queues tourists travel across the world to stand in.
Some of Tokyo's best restaurants have lines an hour deep, full of people who flew here to eat there, and who'd happily pay to skip the wait. ifasto turns that wait into revenue.
Paid queue-skipping is already a proven category in Japan: fast passes are live at popular restaurants nationwide, and Nikkei reports half of buyers are ordinary diners, not the wealthy. ifasto brings it to your queue with a hard fairness cap.
Section 1 · Live demo · paused
This is the actual pricing engine, running live.
Below is a simulated restaurant, but the prices are real. Every number comes from live calls to the same pricing engine a partner venue would use, recalculating every few seconds as the queue changes. Watch what happens as the line grows.
Skip pass activates once the queue reaches 10 parties. Below this, the wait isn't long enough to justify paying for a skip.
The pricing engine is XGBoost-based (L1 wait prediction) feeding a multiplier-based pricing layer (L4) with hard caps on large-party inventory. The system targets a 12–15% conversion band on queued customers, self-regulating in real time. Calibrated against direct field observation from May 2026.
Section 2 · Mechanism
How the price actually gets decided.
The engine looks at four things and combines them into a single skip price. The whole point is restraint: the price is tuned to keep skip-pass buyers at around 12–15% of the queue: enough to be real money for the restaurant, but not so many that the people waiting in the normal line feel like they've been pushed aside.
Why the price can't run away.
Every time someone buys a skip pass, the next one gets a little more expensive. That's deliberate. It means the system slows itself down as demand climbs, instead of selling the whole restaurant to the highest bidders and leaving the regular line furious.
A ramen counter and a sushi temple shouldn't price the same.
The base price is set per restaurant, anchored to what people already spend there. A $96 ramen shop and a $1,920 sushi counter end up with completely different skip prices, automatically. Nobody has to sit there tuning numbers by hand.
Big tables are protected.
Letting a party of six skip means giving up one of your scarcest tables. So by default the engine only allows one large-party skip per service. You can change that number, or turn it off entirely. When the cap's full, the option just disappears.
Fairness by design
The regular line is protected. Structurally.
The most common worry we hear: will paying guests push my regulars aside? The system is built so they can't.
A hard cap, not a promise
Skip passes are limited to 12-15% of the queue by the pricing engine itself. When the share approaches the cap, prices rise sharply; at the cap, sales stop. No one can buy the whole line.
One tap turns it off
The owner has a pause button on the dashboard. If the room feels wrong, premium stops instantly, mid-service, no phone call needed.
The free line always moves
Every guest always sees the free option first, with an honest wait estimate. A skip pass buys minutes; it never buys someone else's seat.
Section 3 · Restaurant calculator
Run your own numbers.
Put in what your restaurant actually looks like on a busy day. The projection below is built from the same logic the live engine uses. No inflated assumptions, no best-case fantasy.
Your projection
Enter your venue's numbers and click Calculate my upside to see projected weekly, monthly, and annual revenue.
Talk to us about a pilotWhy this exists
I figured this out the slow way, standing in a line in Tokyo.
I'd been waiting far too long, and somewhere in that line I realized the wait was going to cost me half the things I'd planned to do that day. That's when it clicked: people travel across the world for these places, and the thing standing between them and the experience is just … time spent waiting. There had to be a way to fix that.
Arnav
Section 4 · Partnership
The restaurant takes on none of the risk.
I carry all of it: what it cost to build, what it costs to run, and the risk of getting the pricing wrong. The restaurant's side of this is simple: money comes in, nothing goes out.
You pay nothing. I mean nothing.
No setup fee, no monthly fee, no minimum. I cover the cost of building, hosting and running the whole thing. The only line this partnership adds to your books is income: 70% of every skip pass that sells.
It's running by the end of the day.
Any tablet or phone with a browser is all it takes. Nothing to install, no POS integration, nothing new on the floor. The engine runs on my side. None of it lives in your restaurant.
Leave whenever you want.
No annual contract, no notice period. If it's not working for you, one email ends it. I'd rather earn the next month than trap you into it.
Getting started
Live within 3 business days of your first message.
No construction, no hardware installs. One device with a browser and you can start.
Get in touch
Send the form below. You will hear back within 1 business day.
Online walkthrough
We explain the system and set your venue's rules together, including price caps. Everything happens online.
QR sign + staff training
You receive the door QR sign and a walkthrough of the queue board. Training takes about 30 minutes.
Go live
I am on site for day one. If it is not working for you, we stop on the spot.
Guests pay your venue directly for fast passes, so the cash stays in your till the same day. Our 30% fee is invoiced at month end. No prepayments, no held funds.
FAQ
Questions restaurant owners ask us.
When do we receive the money?
Guests pay your venue directly for fast passes, so the cash is in your till the same day and never passes through us. ifasto invoices its 30% fee at month end, payable by the end of the following month.
What does it cost?
Nothing. No setup fee, no monthly fee, no hardware. ifasto earns 30% of each skip pass sold; 70% is yours. If nothing sells, nobody pays anything.
What do my staff have to do?
Three taps: check a party in when they join, tap when you seat them, tap if they leave. The queue board replaces the paper list. There is a one-page guide, and most staff are fluent in minutes.
Will my regulars be upset?
The skip share is hard-capped at 12-15% of the queue, the free line always moves, and you have a one-tap pause button. See 'Fairness by design' above.
Who sets the price?
The engine does, within floors and ceilings anchored to your average check. You can see every factor behind each price, adjust the caps, or override entirely.
What happens on quiet days?
Below roughly 10 waiting parties the skip pass simply isn't offered. It exists only when there is a real wait to skip.
Who collects the money?
You do, at the counter with your normal till. ifasto never touches guest payments; we invoice our 30% share monthly.
What about tax and receipts?
The skip fee is your revenue, on your receipt, like any service charge. We provide a template for the required commercial-transactions disclosure.
Do I need new hardware or a POS integration?
No. Any tablet or phone with a browser works. There is nothing to install and nothing wired into your POS.
How long does setup take?
Same day. We create your account, you set your average check and caps, and the queue board is running before your next service.
Can I stop?
Any time, with one email. No contract period, no notice period, no cancellation fee.
Pilot
Talk to us about your queue.
Tell us about your venue and we'll reply within a day. Fifteen-minute call, same-day setup, stop whenever you like.