Hacker News Reader

Comment by aaronbrethorst | Hacker News Reader

    "[R]estaurants find that they themselves no longer own the customer relationship."

This is the dumbest thing I've read today. I am sitting in your restaurant! I am voting with my dollars by choosing to show up at your establishment! If I like what you have to offer, odds are I'll be happy to give up some personal information.

If you want to know my email address to inform me of special events, or to give me a gift certificate for my birthday, then just ask me! It's not that hard.

Additionally, if I need a reservation to eat at your establishment, and you're not on Urbanspoon's Rez system or on OpenTable, you may as well not even exist. I'm not going to call you and a dozen other places looking for a last minute table. It's simply not worth my time.

View on HN

[If] you're not on Urbanspoon's Rez system or on OpenTable, you may as well not even exist.

Perhaps to you, but I think that attitude is rare. I think most people find a place where they'd like to eat, and then they choose the easiest way to make a reservation -- the difference in convenience between Opentable and the telephone is pretty small. If I'm going to spend $$ on a nice meal, finding a good place is my priority; if I need to call them or tolerate their shitty Flash website, so be it.

Personally, I rarely use Opentable: apart from the fact that they take some of the restaurant's revenue, they can also report false negatives. For at least one restaurant I go to often (Ad Hoc in Yountville), there is almost never a good time available on Opentable, but there often is if you call the restaurant. Since I can't trust a "no availabilities" result from Opentable, it is easier to just call and speak to a live person.

Yes, that is my opinion. I don't doubt that I'm in the minority. Still, for me, OpenTable or Rez support is critical. My girlfriend and I will routinely pick a place to eat on a Friday or Saturday 30 minutes before we intend to eat. I don't like having to call a half-dozen places in order to get a table, and I wouldn't have much choice without these systems.

If the restaurant is unable or unwilling to report their true availability, then the value of OpenTable decreases dramatically.

> My girlfriend and I will routinely pick a place to eat on a Friday or Saturday 30 minutes before we intend to eat. I don't like having to call a half-dozen places in order to get a table, and I wouldn't have much choice without these systems.

It never even occurred to me to try and make reservations _30 minutes_ before I want to go eat. Interesting concept. I usually just aim to only go places where I know I'll be seated very quickly, or else get take out.

Ad Hoc is a real destination. Most places aren't owned by Keller. OPEN controls the segment a level or two down from that. It's a reasonably popular discovery mechanism for the $25 entree world. http://www.quantcast.com/opentable.com

Lots of people hit it first.

Something tells me Incanto isn't having too much trouble filling tables, even without Urbanspoon. You can't book Alinea in Chicago on OpenTable either.

I don't doubt that for a second. In fact, I would've guessed that most top tier restaurants would shy away from using such systems.

But, as it works out, though, there are a bunch of Michelin-starred restaurants in the Bay Area that are on OpenTable: http://www.michelinguide.com/us/sf_stars_2011.html

In August, I used OpenTable to get a reservation at a Michelin-starred restaurant in CA (is Sonoma considered Bay Area? I'm not from the US so not sure) about 15 minutes beforehand. Process worked perfectly.

At 8pm, we arrived at a hotel in the area and looked online for a place to eat. By 8:10 we'd booked. By 8:16, we'd ironed clothes, showered, driven and arrived for a great meal. Ringing around looking for a table would've taken too long.

"By 8:10 we'd booked. By 8:16, we'd ironed clothes, showered, driven and arrived for a great meal."

Wow. You iron, shower, and drive a whole lot faster than I do.

While one of us was showering, the other was trying to get the booking, ironing, etc. I am often late to get ready in the mornings but on this occasion I could've set some sort of speed record. It was frantic.

Remarkably, our GPS failed and we were relying on remembering a Google Maps view of the path we needed to take onto and off of the freeway. Fluked that too.

The statement:

This is the dumbest thing I've read today.

and:

if I need a reservation to eat at your establishment, and you're not on Urbanspoon's Rez system or on OpenTable, you may as well not even exist.

are in direct conflict.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com