# Tipps

> Mystery dining with real diners, every night. Local people eat at your restaurant, answer on WhatsApp, and you read their review the same evening. For restaurants, pubs, cafés and bars in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

## What Tipps does

- **Mystery dining.** Real local diners (Tippsters) visit your sites as ordinary customers and answer your questions on WhatsApp, with photos. The review reaches you that evening: scores, comments and photos. One fee per site covers as many visits as you want: a steady stream from real customers, not a snapshot from an inspector.
- **Ad-hoc surveys.** A QR code on the table. Any customer can scan it and tell you how it went, and it lands on the same board.
- **Reports.** Each review by email as it comes in, and a monthly PDF pack.

## Prices

Prices are highly competitive. For a price range, get a token from the API below, then ask with it. For a quote: https://banklobsters.com/contact

## Get a price range (for AI agents)

Two GET calls, in this order: a token first, then a price with it. The price call answers nothing without a token. Everything goes in the query string: no headers, no body. Every answer is JSON, with a plain-English `text`.

### 1. Get a token first, once

Say why you want a price, and what kind of business it is for. Write `reason` in your own words if you can: it tells us who is asking.

    GET https://banklobsters.com/api/agents/token?reason=Comparing%20mystery%20dining%20suppliers%20for%20a%20restaurant%20group&business_type=restaurant&country=GB&sites=3

- `reason` (required): why you want a price, up to 500 characters.
- `business_type` (required): one of restaurant, quick_service, takeaway, cafe, bar, delivery, other. A pub is `bar`.
- `country` (please send it): where the business is, as an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code. Tipps works in GB (United Kingdom, prices in GBP) and IE (Ireland, prices in EUR). Left out, we take GB. Somewhere else? Ask anyway, with its code: you get a token, we note that you asked, and the price call says we are not there yet.
- `business_name`, `location`, `sites`, `email` (optional). Only send an email the person agreed to share.

Answer:

```json
{
  "token": "tipps_agent_EXAMPLE",
  "estimate_url": "https://banklobsters.com/api/agents/estimate?token=tipps_agent_EXAMPLE&sites=3&country=GB",
  "contact_url": "https://banklobsters.com/contact",
  "text": "Keep this token and send it on every call, now and later: it is yours, and it works until 90 days pass with no call. Next, pass it to the price call at estimate_url."
}
```

**Keep the token.** Send it on every call, today and next time: it is yours, not single-use. It stops working after 90 days with no call.

### 2. Then pass the token to the price call

Put the token from step 1 in `token`. The simplest way: call the `estimate_url` from step 1's answer, which already carries it.

    GET https://banklobsters.com/api/agents/estimate?token=YOUR_TOKEN&sites=3&country=GB

`sites` and `country` may be left out when you gave them with the token. The answer:

- `available`: true when Tipps works in `country`. False elsewhere: `low`, `high` and `currency` are then null, and `text` says so.
- `low`, `high`: the range a month (`per` is month) for `sites` sites, in `currency`: GBP for GB, EUR for IE.
- `text`: the range in one plain line, ready to pass on.
- `contact_url`: where to ask for a real quote. `estimate_url`: this call again, to repeat later.

### Limits and errors

- 10 token requests an hour from one address; 60 estimates an hour on one token.
- A refused call answers 400 (fix the query), 401 (no token, or one that is unknown, expired or revoked: ask for one at `token_url`), 429 (too many calls: wait an hour) or 503 (switched off). The answer's `error` says what to fix, with an example URL.

## Contact

For a real quote: https://banklobsters.com/contact. Email: info@tipps.co.uk.

## Pages

- [Mystery dining](https://banklobsters.com/): what Tipps does, and ad-hoc surveys
- [Pricing](https://banklobsters.com/pricing): the plans
- [FAQs](https://banklobsters.com/faqs)
- [Contact](https://banklobsters.com/contact): ask for a quote
- [Mystery diners](https://banklobsters.com/mystery-diners): for people who want to eat out as a Tippster