Opentable.com is one of the few online restaurant reservation websites. Their service covers a majority of North America and is beginning to venture into the European market. Users are able to search for restaurants of various categories, find information and reserve a table right from the site.

Users can also sign up on the site to create a profile page that allows them to save favorites and collect Dining Awards. Every reservation made on the site is worth a certain number of points that the user is able to redeem for cash. Not a bad deal! Opentable.com supplements this service with reservation software inside the restaurant. This allows a seamless communication between reservations made online and directly with the restaurant. This also provides Opentable with leverage to charge per reservation made. ($1 through opentable.com, $.25 directly to the restaurant)

The Opentable website has not seen any drastic change throughout its life. The user experience is very clean and simple for its basic functions, but I believe it can do more for users by providing relative information through recommendations and more interaction. By recommending other similar restaurants by category and location on the reservation page, users can easily select an alternative if their restaurant of choice is not available. To make the website more viral, Opentable could add an ‘invite friends to sign up’ option to easily tell friends about Opentable services. This could potentially be supported by a user referral program for Dining Awards. A newsletter describing the new restaurants in the user’s area could also be sent on a monthly basis integrating the social features of sending/inviting friends.

After searching online for evidence of opentable.com advertising, I was surprised to not see a lot (if any) on the web. Recommendations in this space would include widgets on social networking and cooking/restaurant related blogs that would advertise its reservation service as well as Opentable’s expansive database of establishments. An example for Facebook could look something like a ‘Where I’ve Eaten Map’ or ‘My Favorite Restaurants’ map on users profile pages.

Opentable has a fantastic service for anyone looking to make restaurant reservations and is definitely the current leader with the reputation inside and outside the restaurant. Enhancing this service with recommendations and related info, as well as getting started in social media, could take Opentable’s brand to the next level.