OpenTable

The site does nothing that you can't do directly at the restaurant itself. Except for the earned points for booking through them that add up to dining dollars. The problem is getting them! The first time we used open table we booked a regular 100 point table and didn't get the points. The second time we booked a 1000 point table and kept the reservation. We followed the proper links and met all requirements but got no points either time. Apparently some people get them, but some don't. They either have a computer glitch or ridiculous loop holes that are impossible to figure out. I'm a successful business owner and customer service specialist and my husband is a software engineer so we should be able to handle this! I contacted customer service and they were terrible! They finally agreed to "give us" 200 points instead of the 1100 they owed us. Very disappointing!

Dear Open Table, as you do not have a complaint service, I will write to you on this:

THE WORST BOOKING SERVICE I HAVE EVER HAD.

I cannot believe that despite receiving TWO email confirmations of my booking for valentines day at Kateh restaurant - confirmation number: *******. One on the 6th of Feb and the other on the 13th with...

"Just a reminder, you've got a reservation coming up! Your table for 2 at Kateh will be ready for you on Tuesday, February 14,2012 at 7:15 PM. Confirmation Number: ******* Be sure to check in with the maitre d' when you arrive. "

We turned up at the restaurant only to find that you had only called a few hours earlier (on valentines day!) to make the booking!

Naturally the manager of the restaurant was extremely apologetic (despite it not being his fault!)... he managed to find space for us... for an hour, forcing us to rush our meal so we could vacate in time for the next booking at 8.30. The food was amazing (despite us having to rush it). I will definitely be visiting the restaurant again, but wont be booking it on open table!

Incredible! I have used this easy-to-use website satisfactorally many times only to be put down tonight! This is what I was emailed: "Your table for 5 at Bar Italia will be ready on Sunday, January 8,2012 at 11:00 PM. The reservation is held under:... Be sure to check in with the maitre d' when you arrive." Surprisingly, I arrived at the restaurant and it was closed, totally closed, chairs on top of tables and nobody there. Imagine, at 11pm, ended top in a diner thanks to them!

What is this? I tried looking for a complaint or review tab in their site and there isn't any! Let's see if they answer my email complaining!

I went on the site a couple of days ago to make sure I'd been credited for our recent reservation only to find that I'd been stripped of the points I'd earned for a reservation from about six weeks ago. I asked them about this, and they said that it "looked like" I'd reserved from another source -- including visiting the restaurant web site and clicking on OpenTable to get to my account (which, for some stupid reason, doesn't count). I find it very curious that they went through all the motions of crediting me, ASKING FOR A REVIEW OF THE RESTAURANT(!), and then taking the points away because of this ridiculous little loophole. It's like making a purchase via PayPal, logging onto my PayPal account to pay, then having PayPal refuse to pay the merchant because I didn't leave the merchant site first and go to PayPal.

Scam scam scam scam scam.

I use opentable pretty frequently and have never had an issue. As someone who lives in metropolitan area where EVERYTHING is always packed opentable can be a real lifesaver. I will say the one downfall is that you have to make your reservation pretty far in advance if you aren't looking to eat early or late. I like to eat late, so I'm usually in luck! Overall I find this to be a great tool with an easy to use application interface.

I purchased a 50.00 coupon for 25.00 from Open Table to use at Anthony's Pier 4 in Boston. I printed the coupon which states that it's for this restaurant in Boston but when I clicked on the link I found that the reservation I made was at Anthony's Pier 4 Cafe in Swampscott, MA! The coupon even has a little map of the Boston restaurant. Open Table does not respond to my complaint so I now have to get a refund from my credit card issuer.

I have not used their reservation service. My opinion is limited to the restaurant reviews. I have done many comparisons between the reviews on opentable in my town (montreal) and reviews of food critics and something is amiss. The open. Table reviews appear to be much more favourable than the critics. May be ordinary folks are less critical, but I do not trust open. Table as they have a built in conflict of interest since they have a business relationship with restaurants. There is no way we can verify that the reviews are legitimate. Moreover, since their reviews tend to dominate the stars ratings provided by google on restaurants one could well imagine the possibility for open. Table to sell their reviewing services. I am not saying they do, but reviewer should be able to prove their independance from the restaurants.

Opentable.com can't be trusted. I made reservations on their site for 9/7/09 at The Red Canary in Chicago. After walking 40 min to find the place, we found out it was closed for the day. My girlfriend asked, 'Why didn't you just call to confirm?" I said, "Because with Opentable.com, you don't have to call, it makes calling redundant." To which she said, "Not if they are as crappy as this."

I will no longer use Opentable.com. In fact, I'm encouraging my friends here and in NYC to stop using it. Caveat Emptor!

Open Table is NOT reliable - Lately, I have begun to rely on Open Table to choose restaurants. The site is easy to use and I like the list of participating restaurants. I was very disappointed, however, when I tried to make same night reservations on 5/25/08. I used Open Table to search for available seating and made a reservation at Ana Madera for 9:30pm, table for 2. We arrived on time at the restaurant and the hostess turned us away. She said that our order had to be placed before 9:30pm because their kitchen closes promptly at 9:30pm. When we asked her why we were allowed to make a 9:30 reservation on OT, she shrugged her shoulders. Had I known that Ana Madera had this policy, I would have made my reservation at another restaurant. Can I still count on Open Table?

Free Money for Reservations - I love this website. It's easy to use and you pretty much get credit for making a reservation you would've done anyways. You can either search for a specific restaurant or you can just od a search for restaurants that have availability at a certain time. It'll list your reservation if available but also the next available one before and after your requested time, but to a 2 hour window. You can also search by neighborhood and typs of cuisine. Once you make a reservation you earn 100 points and in some cases 1000 points. As you earn points you can redeem them for credit that's good at any opentable restaurant! FYI, sometimes though, a restaurant will book up online and so you should try to call to make a reservation.