Dining Around with Gene Burns - Part III
February 10, 2006
|
BURNS: Yeah, sometimes when we travel--obviously people who come to San Francisco have a short list of places they absolutely have to eat in while they're here, and other people may have those for other cities--Chicago comes to mind, New York, of course--but what about someone traveling to a major city like that who really doesn't--who knows nothing about the dining scene? Pick some parameters and plug it into the citywide search...
Ms. BISHARAT: Absolutely.
BURNS: ...and let them pop up and then you can check individual restaurants if you'd like.
Ms. BISHARAT: That's exactly right. You can indicate your parameters, say, 'I want to dine in this neighborhood. I really want to try the Chinese food in New York.' It'll pop up a list of what's available on that evening. You can click on each page, see the Gayot rating, get a little bit more information about that. There's also a link directly to their Web site. Perhaps you want to delve even further and look at the menu. All of that is available right online, a couple clicks away.
BURNS: Now you have other features, too. You have a frequent diner club.
Ms. BISHARAT: That's correct. And that's one of the great things about opentable.com. Not only is your reservation free; you don't pay anything for the service. You can actually earn what we call "dining points." Every time you dine, you get 100 points. There is a special program. Some restaurants like to get diners in there at off-peak times where they'll give you 1,000 points. For every 1,000 points, you get a $10 gift check that you can use at any OpenTable restaurant. Basically you present it as part of your bill.
BURNS: Ooh.
Ms. BISHARAT: So if you have a $10 gift check, or a $25 gift check, whatever you've earned, that will come straight off the bottom line for you.
BURNS: This almost sounds too good to be true, except I know it works. So we know it is true. It's remarkable. What a great idea.
Ms. BISHARAT: It worked because restaurants really appreciate the fact that these diners come to them through the Internet, dine in their restaurant, and for that they're willing to...
BURNS: Yeah.
Ms. BISHARAT: ...make these points available through OpenTable.
BURNS: Well, the other thing too, though, telephone answering services are the bane of some of our existences, and it is so frustrating to call a restaurant, particularly a well-known one, and get the busy signal or get the machine or call back during these hours or whatever, whereas if you go to OpenTable, it's open 24/7; you can make reservation.
Ms. BISHARAT: It's open around the clock. And picture this: You're a busy mom; you put your kids to bed; you go online to pay your bills; you go online to take care of everything; it's 1:00 in the morning; you want to make your restaurant reservations--you don't want to wait until the next morning.
BURNS: Yeah.
Ms. BISHARAT: This way you can just run your search, click your table.
BURNS: Yeah.
Ms. BISHARAT: You're done two minutes later.
BURNS: And not many restaurants are staffing at 1:00 AM.
Ms. BISHARAT: Well, that would be my point.
BURNS: Exactly. I just couldn't resist. The devil made me do it.
We'll wrap up our discussion with our guest from opentable.com just ahead.
BURNS: KGO time now is almost out of it--the time, that is.
Jaleh Bisharat, who is vice president of marketing for opentable.com--well, I guess we just need people to fire up the computer and go to opentable.com.
Ms. BISHARAT: That's correct.
BURNS: They have their homework assignment if they want that table on Tuesday night, and good luck to them.
Thank you for joining us.
Ms. BISHARAT: Thank you.
BURNS: We appreciate it.
They are not only in most major American dining cities and almost all states; they're available in London as well. So use the services of opentable.com. You'd be foolish not to. Thank you for joining us.
Back to OpenTable News
|
|