OpenTable Solidifies Position as Leading Supplier of Internet-Based Management Tools to the Restaurant Industry
August 17, 2000
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SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (August 17, 2000) — OpenTable (www.opentable.com), the leading provider of Internet-enabled customer relationship management, yield management and marketing solutions for the restaurant industry, has recently solidified its position as the leader in its category with a series of strategic alliances and announcements. The company today further confirmed their leadership position with the addition of the 800th restaurant to its online dining network, making OpenTable by far the largest real-time restaurant reservation network in the world.
“One thing that has been proven over and over again on the Internet is the power of first mover advantage,” said Bill Gurley, managing general partner at Benchmark Capital — a leading venture capital firm that invested in the company’s second round of financing. “OpenTable is ten times the size of our nearest competitor, and we believe our leadership position is insurmountable. The leading restaurants recognize the importance of working with the winning platform. As such, the only real option in the marketplace is OpenTable”
“OpenTable has clearly emerged as the company that will bring restaurants into the Internet age,” said Jeff Edwards, the company’s CEO. “OpenTable has won the race in online reservations, and is now moving on to bring other value propositions to the industry, including defining the ways that the Internet and technology can help the hospitality industry automate, improve customer relationships and ultimately increase business.”
More Than 800 Restaurant Partners
To date more than 800 of the nation’s top restaurants have joined the OpenTable restaurant network, making it the largest real-time restaurant reservation network in the world. Washington DC’s award-winning Kinkead’s is the 800th restaurant to sign on for OpenTable’s electronic reservation book to help manage the floor, enhance customer service, and better understand and market to their guests.
Kinkead’s has won numerous awards and accolades including the 2000 Ivy Award and Wine Spectator Best Restaurant of the Year Award. The restaurant is consistently ranked by the Washington Post Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine and Zagat Survey among the best restaurants in Washington DC.
Elite Restaurant Partners
In signing on for the OpenTable network Kinkead’s joins the ranks of the nation’s finest and most popular restaurants that are currently accepting online reservations at www.opentable.com, including Fleur de Lys, Boulevard and Campton Place in San Francisco; Vong and Tru in Chicago; L’Orangerie in Los Angeles; Citronelle in Washington; Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia; and Lespinasse and Palladin in New York.
New Products and Distribution Channels
OpenTable is committed to simplifying and enhancing the reservation process both for pleasure diners and for those who make dining reservations as part of their job, including travel agents, hotel concierges and administrative assistants. To that end, the company recently launched OTConcierge, a proprietary Internet-based booking tool that gives hotel concierges direct online access to tables at restaurants in the OpenTable network. OTConcierge is currently being tested by many of the country’s leading hotel chains, and is in use at more than a dozen of the Bay Area’s finest hotels. The company has planned a nationwide release of OTConcierge for September of this year.
OpenTable recently released OTAdmin throughout its 15-city network. OTAdmin is designed especially for administrative assistants to enable them to create multiple diner profiles and easily make and confirm dining reservations for others via the Internet. The product has been in limited release in San Francisco for a number of weeks and is currently being rolled out nationwide. OTAdmin is already helping OpenTable deliver significantly more business diners to its restaurant partners.
Global Travel Network Integration
To address travel agents and provide them with convenient online access to restaurant reservations, OpenTable has reached and will soon be announcing a partnership with a leader in global electronic distribution of travel
information and electronic commerce capabilities for travel agencies. OpenTable will provide restaurant reservation functionality — OTTravel — to the travel agents in the providers’ network, and is actively negotiating partnerships with other major global travel networks.
International Expansion
OpenTable serves restaurants in seventeen US cities with their online reservation network and Internet tools. The company recently announced a partnership with lastminute.com, the UK’s leading travel website according to Media Metrix data. In addition, OpenTable has recently signed an agreement with a major player in France's hospitality industry to jointly build and operate a version of its real-time reservation system in Paris. After an initial pilot period, OpenTable and its partner expect to publicly launch service in France this Fall. OpenTable continues to explore opportunities in other European markets, and will continually and aggressively expand throughout Europe and into other parts of the world during the coming year.
About OpenTable
OpenTable is dedicated to harnessing the power of the Internet for restaurants and providing dining consumers and hospitality professionals with the best possible reservation experience. The company’s proprietary electronic reservation book (ERB) introduces revolutionary customer relationship management, marketing, and yield management tools, as well as real-time online reservations, to the restaurant industry. OpenTable has strategically partnered with leading Internet and media companies including America Online (AOL) Digital City, OracleMobile.com, The Chicago Tribune’s Metromix.com, The New York Times NYToday.com and The Boston Globe’s Boston.com. OpenTable’s customers include more than 800 of the nation’s top restaurants. The company is backed by leading venture capital firms Impact Venture Partners and Benchmark Capital, as well as American Express. OpenTable is based in San Francisco, California, and has offices in seventeen cities including New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Washington DC. For more information about OpenTable or its online restaurant reservation network visit www.opentable.com or call 1.800.OPENTABLE.
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