The story
History
OpenTable was founded by Chuck Templeton on July 2, 1998, and initially incorporated in California as easyeats.com, Inc.
On May 21, 2009, the company held its initial public offering (IPO), on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol OPEN. The underwriters of the IPO were Merrill Lynch, Allen & Company, Stifel Nicolaus, and ThinkEquity.
On October 1, 2010, the company acquired Toptable, a restaurant reservation site in the UK.
On January 29, 2013, the company announced that it had entered a definitive agreement to acquire Foodspotting.
On June 13, 2014, the company agreed to a takeover offer by the Priceline Group of $103 a share, a 46% premium on the previous day's closing stock price. The offer valued the company at $2.6 billion. Both companies said OpenTable would continue to operate as a separate business under the same management.
In August 2020, OpenTable named Debby Soo as its new CEO.
In 2024, OpenTable signed a partnership deal with Visa that gives certain cardholders access to reservation slots at popular restaurants.
Information
For users
Users search for restaurants and reservations based on such parameters as dates, times, cuisine, and price range. Users who have registered their email address with the system will then receive a confirmation email. Users can also receive 100 or 1,000 points after dining that can be redeemed for discounts at member restaurants.
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The company also has a mobile application that allows users to find and book dinner reservations.
In April 2024, the company announced a policy change under which anonymous reviews will no longer be allowed beginning May 22. All reviews will display the user's display photo and first name at a minimum, and all existing reviews will be retroactively deanonymized to meet this standard. After receiving significant pushback, OpenTable quickly announced that it would not apply the new policy retroactively, leaving previous reviews anonymous. The start of the new policy was also pushed back to later in the year.
For restaurants
Restaurant owners use an Electronic Reservation Book which computerizes restaurant host-stand operations and replaces existing paper reservation systems. The system handles reservation management, table management, guest recognition, and email marketing.
From Wikipedia’s article on OpenTable, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4