OpenTable

Pros

As we have 2 restaurants in our company, we are always looking new ways to promote them and to have less empty seats for lunch or dinner. We have found about OpenTable online, and we contacted them several years back. At that time they were only U.S. based, but last year when they spreader their network in Europe, we were the first company in our country that signed the contract with OpenTable.
Their training staff was great, introducing the system and training our staff.

As were the first users, we believe that we gain enough advantage for the time being and the fact that we were the first helped us to increase the business in our restaurant - times four....

Cons

In this part we would say the fees, but the fees are ridiculously small, we counted that we are spending or giving 2,5-3% of our revenue to OT, which is really small when you count the fact that any mediator would ask for 10%...

Pros

Whenever I need to find a restaurant I first go to OpenTable to see what's available. It is easy to use and I can make reservations when the restaurants may not be open. I really like the ability to reserve table in other countries ahead of my visits.

Cons

Sometimes the calendar function does not work very well. Also, they have started putting new restaurants on their site that don't take reservations - I don't see the point of doing that.

Pros

It allows you to assign tables in the restaurant as they come in and shoes a fairly good job of tracking several metrics like turn time, server cover counts, etc. It also has ways to advertise and draw in customers who may not know about you.

Cons

It's impossible to compete. With the difficulty in finding a restaurant as a customer it translates to moe exposure for larger chain restaurants with budgets to throw at open table. Also, it's pricey. The cost per guest that books is unreasonable and you still have to pay more to advertise. It's just not worth it in my opinion. That are cheaper methods available that focus on phone number advertising as opposed to email (because who opens email nowadays). There are text message options with open table but they are buried and not effective.

Pros

Easy to use, provides great marketing options, well supported. The product support has been great, operationally and from our representative.

Cons

More expensive than newer reservation system software, but has many more benefits and a larger market presence.

Pros

Easily search and find available reservations for that night. Reminds you of the reservation. Quick and easy instead of calling.

Cons

Recently I have had a lot of glitches where it won't allow me to reserve the reservation. Software glitches.