The New Restaurant Reservations Landscape

So you want to make a restaurant reservation. Nearly 20 years ago, OpenTable disrupted the old-school telephone reservation system by pioneering online reservations. In today’s hyper-connected, mobile-friendly, phone-call-adverse world, making an reservation often involves one of the major players: OpenTable, Reserve, Resy, Tock, or Yelp Reservations. What used to be a process managed by a maitre’d and pen and paper has evolved into high-tech, connected networks and technology that promises any combination of more guests, better targeting, customer relationship management, fewer no-shows, table management, and loyalty tracking. And all of these services started by offering what now feels like a standard product: a seat at the restaurant table. OpenTable has been the longest player in the game, but in the last few years other consumer-facing reservations options have emerged and thrived, offering new options for both diners and restaurants. “We felt there was an opportunity to