Tired of waiting in long club lines on Saturday nights, only to be turned away? So are other many clubgoers who are now turning to InstantNightlife.com before going out for a drink or dance.
InstantNightlife, a Boston-based service founded by 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus Kayvan Zainabadi, provides clubgoers with constant updates about several clubs in Boston’s Theater District, including Caprice, Gypsy Bar, Liquor Store, Pearl, Club Royale and Underbar.
The InstantNightlife website, informs students how long club lines are, how big the crowd is, girl to guy ratio, genre of music playing as well as cover charges and prices of the venues’ most popular drinks to avoid any surprises.
Zainabadi launched InstantNightlife on Feb. 5 after testing it for a year and a half, he said. He developed the website’s categories based on surveys of which criteria people use to decide which clubs to go to.
“Clubs are one of the most dynamic places in the world,” he said. “We provide real-time updates and real-time specials.”
Club information is updated from 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. on weekends, Zainabadi said, with certain features being updated as regularly as every ten minutes.
Zainabadi said that InstantNightlife employees are stationed at the clubs every weekend to provide people with correct updates.
“This is a living, breathing person at the club,” he said. “It’s very reliable, very accurate and very unbiased.”
InstantNightlife not only benefits users, but the clubs themselves, Zainabadi said.
“The clubs get free publicity,” he said.
In addition to the website, clubgoers can access InstantNightlife on Facebook and Twitter or by subscribing to text message updates.
“Our opening weekend, one of the clubs had a fire alarm and had to empty out the club,” Zainabadi said. “People that subscribed to our messaging service were the first to know.”
InstantNightlife is currently creating applications for cell phones and e-mail as well, he said.
Even though the website was just recently launched, InstantNightlife already has a steady following.
“We had over 5,000 people visit the website in February,” Zainabadi said. “I’m pretty happy with that. Right now we’re concerned with building relationships with the people that use the site and the clubs.”
Zainabadi said he is optimistic about the attention and surrounding the website and its future.
“Almost everybody we talked to, they loved our idea,” he said. “There’s definitely a buzz going on.”
Zainabadi said he is currently running InstantNightlife based on a limited small business model, but plans to eventually expand to clubs in near Faneuil Hall and in Allston and Harvard Square.
“That’s the immediate expansion,” he said. “Once we have that down, the next step is to expand in other cities.”
Boston University College of Arts and Sciences freshman Hazel Lopez said she thinks InstantNightlife could be a real timesaver for students looking to go out at night.
“No one wants to wait in line,” she said.
College of General Studies freshman Jillian Ceballos said she doesn’t mind waiting in line at clubs, but she would rather avoid clubs that are overcrowded.
“It’s kind of not fun after a while,” she said. “It’s always good to know [about the crowd], because then you can sort of plan your night around it.”
Emily Shoov, a CAS sophomore, said she thinks the website is especially convenient in that it reports the girl-to-guy ratio.
“That’s sort of a big draw for going to clubs,” she said.
College of Communication junior Alexandra Wildenhaus said she thinks the site is especially beneficial to college students, and thinks there will be an even greater interest for the website once the word reaches more BU ears.
“I know if some girls in my sorority [Gamma Phi Beta] knew about it, they would be interested,” she said.
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