The mobile app LineLeap promises to give users the power to skip the line at bars and pay cover charges before even arriving. However, it remains unclear whether Oxford bars will actually put this new innovation to use.
“LineLeap was founded by college students in 2017, and they now work with over 350 bars in 80 markets and have almost 600,000 users,” Maly Foote, LineLeap campus director said.
The app is available in over 70 cities across the U.S., from big cities like New York City to college towns like Auburn, Ala.
According to the website, the LineLeap app enables you to buy LineSkip passes, event tickets, drinks and pay cover from the convenience of your phone. Foote said the app first took off in 2020 to help businesses boost their numbers during the pandemic.
This fall, the company sponsored a Back to School Bar Crawl on Aug. 31, an event that took students to multiple popular bars on the Square, including Harrison’s, Rooster’s, The Library, Tango’s, Funky’s and Round Table. Tickets started at $10 and approximately 1,300 students participated.
The biggest question about LineLeap is whether the bars are going to use this app, as it only works with bars that have undertaken a partnership with the company. The Oxford bars currently listed on LineLeap are Harrison’s, The Green at Harrison’s, Tango’s, Round Table and Roosters.
Kyler Collver, a sophomore finance student who is an employee at Harrison’s, said that the bar’s staff do not often utilize the app.
“I have seen it advertised at Harrison’s, but we do not really use it,” Collver said.
Collver’s statement aligns with the fact that there have been no active passes available to purchase on the app under Harrison’s, or any other bar listed, during any day of the week. An employee at Round Table also stated that they are not affiliated with LineLeap and are not advertising the app.
According to Max Schauff, co-founder of LineLeap, the app has yet to officially launch in Oxford.
“We are in talks with some of the local bars and hope to officially launch in Oxford soon,” Schauff said.
When making an account, the LineLeap app asks users to put in their birthday to verify that the user is 21 or older.
“Even though we technically bought a pass to go to all of the bars (at the Back to School Bar Crawl), we still had to show our ID at each one,” sophomore marketing major Olivia Mattingly said. “Each bar had their own right to decide who was and was not being allowed in.”
When asking Maclain Pierce, a senior integrated marketing communications major, if she would spend the extra money on a line skip pass or a cover pass she said, “Game days are already so hectic, so anything that would help the day go smoother I would purchase,”
From the perspective of the bars, LineLeap is a source of passive revenue.
“LineLeap only makes money when it brings the bar new revenue in the form of Line Skipping,” Foote said. “For Line Skip passes the bar keeps the majority of the revenue and LineLeap keeps a small percentage, but again this is all brand new revenue for the bar.”
Going into football season, Schauff is confident that the app will thrive.
“Oxford has some of the best college bars in the country, and we know they would find great success in the app,” Schauff said.
