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Is OpenTable Worth it?

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Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#61

Post by ojilles »

jasonjei wrote: post #39

I think there definitely is an opportunity to remove OpenTable from the equation. Look at restaurants like Momofuku Ko's annoying reservation system, where their in-house .NET reservation system books out within 3 seconds after 10am ET for 12 seats (24 covers a night), and seat inventories are only released 6 days in advance. Momofuku almost never starts a restaurant project without it now (e.g their buttermilk Ameri…

How big is the part where OT is used for business, but when the OT points are cashed out folks can keep that privately? Could be hard to sway that...

Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#62

Post by ojilles »

ajx wrote: post #50

The question is not is opentable worth it, the question is this question worth it being posted on this site, or is it just completely irrelevent drivel? I'd say the latter is true.

Excellent business opportunity is not material for HN?

Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#63

Post by stevenwei »

sshumaker wrote: post #48
d2viant wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's what I'm thinking. I'm already working on a startup, so I'll give this one away for free. Build the web app portion that allows reservations to be made from the customers perspective, just like they have now. Integrate it with Twilio so that the restaurant receives an automated call and can confirm/deny the reservation on their end, without having to deal with a bunch of new hardware. You just tell them that t…

You're missing half of the equation - It's not just the act of performing the reservation, it allows customers to search for to see if which restaurants have availability (and at what time). You can't do that unless you have access to all of their seating data, including walk-ins.

Yup, and accessing table availability requires integrating with the restaurant's point of sale system so you can track when tables are getting seated and cleared.

Innovating technology wise in the restaurant space is pretty tough cause sooner or later you're going to hit the wall of having to integrate with a dozen or more point of sale providers, no matter what you're trying to do (mobile/online ordering, reservation/waitlist systems, reporting systems, etc).

Oh, and because of their incredibly low profit margins, most restaurants can't afford to buy this type of tech. And the ones that do typically keep it for 5+ years between upgrades.

Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#64

Post by _urga »

My startup http://sexbyfood.com provides a web-based reservation book for restaurateurs. It works on any HTML 5 browser or iPad, keeps audit trails of changes to reservations, prints a proper guest-list, has real-time activity feeds, a flexible allocation algorithm, and provides a plugin that restaurants can add to their website.

Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#65

Post by stevenwei »

d2viant wrote: post #19

This is an interesting opportunity to profit from. This company has massive expectations baked into it's stock price (NASDAQ: OPEN), trading at over a hundred times earnings. It's being massively shorted by the hedge funds. Combine the fact that there's relatively no barrier to entry with the rumors that their customer base isn't very satisfied makes for a huge opportunity to profit in the short/medium term.

I think people generally underestimate the sales challenges associated with selling tech to restaurants. Restaurant owners are too busy running their restaurants to be looking for this stuff themselves.

That's why Groupon, Yelp, and OpenTable all have massive sales forces dedicated to finding and acquiring new restaurants. This costs money. The same pretty much applies to every other restaurant technology company, ever. (Particularly point of sale companies.)

Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#67

Post by a4agarwal »

Many restaurant websites actually put an OpenTable link on their reservations page, directing traffic there.

That makes me think the restaurant prefers reservations to come in that way. They don't just see it as a secondary reservation system to bring in more customers, but the primary channel.

The added efficiency of OpenTable cannot be underestimated. Especially when trying to book something for a large group or at the last minute, being able to see availability across many restaurants in a single glance is critical. I'm not going to bother calling.

Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#68

Post by scottrafer »

danielharan wrote: post #57
d2viant wrote: post #19

This is an interesting opportunity to profit from. This company has massive expectations baked into it's stock price (NASDAQ: OPEN), trading at over a hundred times earnings. It's being massively shorted by the hedge funds. Combine the fact that there's relatively no barrier to entry with the rumors that their customer base isn't very satisfied makes for a huge opportunity to profit in the short/medium term.

Is it legal to short a company and enter the market with an OSS solution or other competitive offer?

Yes, it's legal.

Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#69

Post by scottrafer »

neilc wrote: post #25
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #3

"[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 ce…

[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 prior…

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.

Re: Is OpenTable Worth it?

#70

Post by jamiequint »

stevenwei wrote: post #63
sshumaker wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing half of the equation - It's not just the act of performing the reservation, it allows customers to search for to see if which restaurants have availability (and at what time). You can't do that unless you have access to all of their seating data, including walk-ins.

Yup, and accessing table availability requires integrating with the restaurant's point of sale system so you can track when tables are getting seated and cleared. Innovating technology wise in the restaurant space is pretty tough cause sooner or later you're going to hit the wall of having to integrate with a dozen or more point of sale providers, no matter what you're trying to do (mobile/online ordering, reservatio…

How bad is the barrier to entry though on the software side really? It's my understanding that Micros/Aloha (Radiant Systems) own 50-80% of the restaurant industry. If you hit that percentage with just two integrations it's really not that bad right?
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