OpenTable, Inc. and washingtonpost.com Announce Strategic Alliance
January 25, 2001
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Arlington, Va. and San Francisco, Calif. (Jan. 25, 2001) — Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI) and OpenTable, Inc. (www.opentable.com), the leader in online restaurant reservations and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for restaurants, announced today a strategic marketing and business agreement that makes OpenTable’s real-time restaurant reservations available on washingtonpost.com (www.washingtonpost.com) the leading city guide Web site in the Greater Washington area. Visitors to washingtonpost.com can now make real-time reservations at top Washington area restaurants directly from washingtonpost.com’s Entertainment Guide restaurant profiles and reviews using OpenTable revolutionary online restaurant reservation functionality. OpenTable will also incorporate restaurant reviews from washingtonpost.com into the Washington, DC pages of its web site in order to help dining consumers make more educated dining decisions.
Under the terms of the agreement, OpenTable integrates its real-time restaurant reservation functionality into specific dining and entertainment pages of washingtonpost.com’s Entertainment Guide (www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment). Visitors to washingtonpost.com will have access to OpenTable’s free, personalized dining reservation system that allows them to instantly reserve tables at dozens of fine restaurants throughout the DC metropolitan area including B. Smith’s, Georgia Brown’s, Paolo’s, Citronelle, Marcel’s, Vidalia and Red Sage. OpenTable’s technology enables diners to search for an available restaurant reservation online — using criteria such as cuisine type, price range or neighborhood — and delivers immediate, online confirmation of reservations. Confirmed reservations are simultaneously delivered to the restaurant via OpenTable’s proprietary, Internet-connected Electronic Reservation Book (ERB). OpenTable, Inc. and washingtonpost.com will also develop other joint programs to address DC-area diners and restaurants.
washingtonpost.com users can now easily and quickly complete their dinner plans by making real-time reservations. Restraurant reservations now join a growing list of entertainment and commerce services on washingtonpost.com that includes movie and event tickets, carry-out food, and shopping. Without question, these services further washingtonpost.com's position as the definitive source for entertainment information and resources in the Washington, DC area," said Tim Ruder, vice president of local at washingtonpost.com.
“We’re pleased to further our efforts to bring the advantages of real-time restaurant reservations to the Internet’s leading local city guides,” said Jeff Edwards, OpenTable’s CEO. “Washington DC is home to some of the best restaurants in the country and is already one of the most popular dining destinations in the OpenTable network. We look forward to delivering locals and visitors alike to our DC partner restaurants via this relationship with washingtonpost.com.”
About washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com is an award-winning news, information, entertainment and e-commerce resource on the World Wide Web. Local, national and international users look to washingtonpost.com as the source of The Washington Post online. The site offers the day’s Washington Post, breaking news coverage and extensive original news content, as well as a growing suite of cultural, community and commerce services that make it the definitive guide to Greater Washington.washingtonpost.com is published by Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, The Washington Post Company’s new-media and electronic-publishing subsidiary.
About OpenTable, Inc.
OpenTable, Inc. is the leading provider of Internet-enabled customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, yield management and reservations solutions to the $500 billion global foodservice industry. The company’s proprietary electronic reservation book (ERB) automatically builds a comprehensive customer database which enables restaurants to manage yields, communicate with diners more efficiently, enhance customer service, and conduct highly targeted on- and off-line marketing campaigns.
OpenTable introduced real-time online reservations to the restaurant industry in 1998, and now has products that deliver the conveniences of 24/7 online reservations to hotel concierges (OTConcierge), travel agents (OTTravel) and administrative assistants (OTAdmin). Dining consumers can tap into the OpenTable network and make reservations online at www.opentable.com, and also through the company’s many distribution and content partners including American Express, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. OpenTable’s customers include leading hotel chains and more than 1100 of the nation’s top restaurants.
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