OpenTable Infuriates Restaurants With Fake Reservations Scheme

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OpenTable

Reserve declined to share the specifics of its security protocols. Despite attempts by the OpenTable employee to hide traces of their identity, Reserve’s software engineers tracked the IP addresses, which led them to OpenTable. During the week of February 18, Reserve’s executives quietly contacted OpenTable and shared their evidence. After an internal investigation, OpenTable fired the employee. Neither Reserve nor OpenTable provided any details about the employee’s identity.

#Maps & Navigation #Online Bookings #Delivery Management System 36 social mentions

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Reserve

OpenTable, the market leader in the online restaurant-booking world, is embroiled in a scheme that affected 45 Chicago restaurants that use Reserve, an OpenTable rival. Last week, OpenTable confirmed it fired an employee who made several hundred reservations at restaurants using Reserve, which resulted in hundreds of no-shows over the course of the past three months. Reserve and several Chicago restaurant workers allege that the employee, who remains unnamed, wanted to convince those Reserve customers that OpenTable was a better product and intended to use the no-shows in their sales pitches.

#Business & Commerce #Online Bookings #Office & Productivity 3 social mentions

In addition to Reserve, OpenTable rivals include Resy (a company started by Eater co-founder Ben Leventhal) and Tock. In wooing restaurants, these reservation-booking services promise they’ll keep costs low while offering restaurants exposure. They also purport to reduce the risk of no-shows, which are a well-documented huge problem in the restaurant industry, costing restaurants thousands of dollars by taking away dining-room availability from interested diners. OpenTable has a “four strikes” user policy where an account is deactivated if there are four no-shows over the course of 12 months.

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Tock

In addition to Reserve, OpenTable rivals include Resy (a company started by Eater co-founder Ben Leventhal) and Tock. In wooing restaurants, these reservation-booking services promise they’ll keep costs low while offering restaurants exposure. They also purport to reduce the risk of no-shows, which are a well-documented huge problem in the restaurant industry, costing restaurants thousands of dollars by taking away dining-room availability from interested diners. OpenTable has a “four strikes” user policy where an account is deactivated if there are four no-shows over the course of 12 months.

#Business & Commerce #Online Bookings #Office & Productivity