Restaurant Database

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

Restaurant Database:

Frank was looking at another of our threads and realized that there were a lot of great restaurant recommendations in that thread. Well, given the real focus of the website is supposed to be timeshares and traveling he suggested that perhaps we should look into adding another part to this website to include our favorite places to eat in different parts of the country....

I agree with the idea... I need some more advise on how this should work, what we would want included, and how it would be organized and then I can see about getting it started....

When done, I may be able to interconnect the Restaurants database with the resorts database as well as the Reviews Database (timeshare reviews) to help people going to a trip to a specific resort to find restaurants in the area...

Over time I can work to make this Restaurants database search-able by keywords or meta data that we add in the various picklists...

So, what would we want to know..... Please comment on the idea and add to what we should capture... Here is a start to the list....

1. Restaurant Name
2. Address w/ Map based off address

• Street
• Street 2
• City
• State
• Country

3. Phone
4. Fax
5. Website
6. Type of Restaurant (pick list)

• Fine Dining
• Casual Dining
• Family
• Informal
• Carry Out

7. Cuisine (Multi-selectable pick list)

• Italian
• Greek
• Indian
• Mexican
• American (Steak & Seafood American? --- What about McDonald's )

8. Alcohol Served

• Yes
• No
• BYOB

9. Meals Served:

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner

10. Dress Code (pick list)

• Formal (Coat and tie)
• Business Casual (Dress clothes)
• Casual (Nice Jeans)
• Informal (shorts & t-shirts)

11. Rating Systems on:

• Food
• Service
• Atmosphere
• Waite

12. Where were you staying when you went to this restaurant (If on Vacation)

• Any of the following will auto populate this info with a link to the resorts database...
• TS4MS Database Number (our own unique Database number)
• RCI Number
• II Number

13. Free Text area for review

It may be a while before I can do this but lets start pulling the details together as when I start to finish the resorts database a Restaurants database could be set up using similar systems...

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Perhaps this should be on the future projects list. TUG had a section for this in it's old reviews and it never seemed to get much attention. If you want to think about it and see one possibility, click on the dining guide link below. I'm open to suggestions for improvements at that site and have found that reviews are very hard to come by.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I had thought of making it easy and just adding a website link but I like the way Ken has it all organized better. Being able to add a review for the restaurant is great so people through the years will know of any changes. We also may want to include if the Restaurant participates with www.restaurant.com , Or Dine on us or if it is an entertainment discount restaurant.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

Perhaps this should be on the future projects list. TUG had a section for this in it's old reviews and it never seemed to get much attention. If you want to think about it and see one possibility, click on the dining guide link below. I'm open to suggestions for improvements at that site and have found that reviews are very hard to come by.

Is that a site that you own/run?

I agree that I do have more pressing priorities but this Restaurants database could run in a similar way to the Ressorts Database so if I can reuse code I may be able to do it somewhat sooner...

Now that we have so many members, things like this have a better chance of getting used and we can build reminders into the system to trigger people to consider filling some of the ifo out...

For example, a person is doing a review of a timeshare they might see a question... "Did you eat at any restuarants you would like to review while on your vacation..."

We will see how this works out...

[Hoc Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Hoc]

I regularly maintain and update dining and activity recommendations for TUG for San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Tahoe. The guy who took over the TUG review area kind of considers the guides to be an annoyance, so I stopped updating them several months ago. The problem is that, because I did them as a TUG volunteer, they have TUG's copyright, even though they are mostly my work.

In any event, I started one here for New Orleans on my board here.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Is that a site that you own/run?....

Yes. The updating process is ongoing with restaurants changing names and Wilma really hasn't been taken into effect yet. Linking or noting discount programs to the guide like mine with with entertainment plus 2X1 is another ongoing problem-participation keeps changing. So what I'm saying is that it doesn't take long for such a guide to be outdated and trying to keep one updated for many locations will entail a bit of work continually. Like with Hoc, I had a guide on TUG for a while, but updating had to be done thru someone else via noting changes and it was annoying. I need to get some updating done again soon.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

For example, a person is doing a review of a timeshare they might see a question... "Did you eat at any restuarants you would like to review while on your vacation..."

We will see how this works out...

I love it great idea. That is the time to get a reviewer to post about the eateries they visited.

Hoc, I believe that even if it is copyrighted, If you are the original poster you can do as you wish. I post multiple exact posts on here, Tug and timesharetalk. Look at my Hotel updates for Mexico as an Example.

[CC_dad Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CC_dad]

Give it a try

I agree with the idea and suggest you give it a try. Prioritizing with other projects is an issue to contend with - why not start with something basic to see if there's any use. If there's a decent response and calls for more content, then add it later. People can use the free form text area to add things they think are relevant - like the discounts.

[Lanalee Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lanalee]

I like this idea. I think you should change "Nationality" to "Cuisine" and allow for more than one selection. Also, I like the idea of identifiying if the restaurant serves Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. Also, it would be nice to know if they serve alcoholic beverages. And a map link to the restaurant's location would also be nice.

Maybe a free-from text box area for each of the items that are rated (food, service, atmosphere, etc.). Then one extra free form box for any other comments.

Anyway, I'm just throwing out suggestions. I hope I'm not going overboard.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

I like this idea. I think you should change "Nationality" to "Cuisine" and allow for more than one selection. Also, I like the idea of identifiying if the restaurant serves Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner. Also, it would be nice to know if they serve alcoholic beverages. And a map link to the restaurant's location would also be nice.

Maybe a free-from text box area for each of the items that are rated (food, service, atmosphere, etc.). Then one extra free form box for any other comments.

Anyway, I'm just throwing out suggestions. I hope I'm not going overboard.

Ideas included in 1st post

The free text for every area reviewed would be a huge resource drain on the restaurants database... Those would need to get included in the main free text area... The rest of the options requires and consumes very little space (memory)...

[Lanalee Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lanalee]

Oops sorry! I guess I need to read more carefully!

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

Oops sorry! I guess I need to read more carefully!

Not sure why you said that... I edited my first post to include your ideas (they were not there before you suggested them)

We had threads like this for the classifieds for about six months or more before I started working on the classifieds as I need to know what to include before I start programing... Things can be added but it is much easier to plan things well from the start as opposed to later reworking things...

I love getting any and all advise but advise before I start coding is twice as nice to get!!!

[Lanalee Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lanalee]

Oh that makes sense! I thought you were telling me that my suggestions were already in the first post and I missed seeing them. Whew! Good to know I wasn't losing my mind.

Thanks!