4 ms·

Restaurants dissatisfied with OpenTable: a startup opportunity?

• DanielStraight 16y ago
  I had no idea OpenTable charged restaurants so much. I didn't use it often, but I see no reason to use it at all now. It's convenient, but I would much rather the money go to the restaurant.
• petervandijck 16y ago
  It sounds like it's definitely an opportunity. A though one to crack though, like all marketplaces.
• jorangreef 16y ago
  I've developed a web-based alternative to OpenTable: http://www.sexbyfood.com http://www.sexbyfood.com
  • jorangreef 16y ago
    Video: http://vimeo.com/9152251 http://vimeo.com/9152251 PDF: http://bit.ly/cXpF25 http://bit.ly/cXpF25 Screenshots: http://bit.ly/bIZBrv http://bit.ly/bIZBrv
  • m_eiman 16y ago
    Isn't the name a bit of a problem?
• bobf 16y ago
  UrbanSpoon announced a competing restaurant reservation service earlier this year: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/urbanspoon_challenges_opentable_with_rezbook.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/urbanspoon_challenges_o... Their pricing model is described as $99/mo + $1/reservation, which seems more reasonable than OpenTable's reportedly high fees. Also, UrbanSpoon seems uniquely positioned to replace OpenTable, since they already have users and restaurant data.
  • phil 16y ago
    Thanks! We've been working for a while now on this at Urbanspoon. There's more press on our reservation efforts here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703691804575254680739522068.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870369180457525... http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/urbanspoon-squares-off-against-opentable/ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/urbanspoon-squares-... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/technology/personaltech/01smart.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/technology/personaltech/01...