Articles tagged “opentable”

The reservations landscape has changed significantly over the past year. While the big players are (mostly) the same, new technology, new leadership, and new strategies keep the game interesting.

We can already search through hotel and flight bookings on Google. It's about time that we're able to do that for restaurant reservations, too.

The complete consolidation of Kayak and OpenTable's teams means OpenTable — Booking Holdings' only restaurant business — won't have a dedicated leader. It's disappointing to lose one of the few female CEOs in the restaurant tech space, especially the one who's arguably the most visible.

At this point, group-level features are table stakes for reservations companies and are a huge part of winning the all-important group contracts.

OpenTable has lost ground to rivals over the last few years, but the company is looking to leverage its scale and experience in the space to become a data-fueled recommendation engine for diners and a source of quality intelligence for restaurant operators.

For the past couple years, most talk about OpenTable has centered on its threat from competitors. But perhaps a healthy dose of competition is helping to drive change at the company that's still the leading provider of restaurant reservations in the country.

One restaurant group switching from one tech provider to another doesn't exactly headline news make, but it does help us all understand a restaurant's priorities and what it wants from said tech vendors.

Online travel's two most influential female executives, Ctrip's Jane Jie Sun and Booking.com's Gillian Tans, will now deliberate around the table together at Ctrip board meetings. Ctrip felt the need to announce that the two companies are strengthening their ties after Booking's 2017 investment in Ctrip rival and IPO-bound Meituan-Dianping.

We have an excellent line-up of speakers to share with you today. The only thing that could make this event better is if you join us.

If OpenTable's corporate leadership wants to position it as a force in the restaurant world, dropping key marketing, product, and communications executives is a step in the wrong direction.