OpenTable Reviews 244

Open Table seems to think they control your relationship with restaurants by bullying and intimidation. Making a reservation thru them has always been combersome as they add no value to the process. I research my own restaurants before I book. Yet some restaurants seem to overly depend on them. Today I spent 30 minutes jumping through hoops multiple times to verify who I am (I have had an account for more than 5 years). (They are worse than my bank-for no reason.) By the end of it, they'd managed to alter my reservation to 2 days earlier than the original request and then because I didn't realize I had a different reservation, (because I was so worn out "barking like a dog and standing on one foot" for them), I was labeled "a no show" and I was asked to explain myself. Or else! Seriously? Who are they? Are they going to "punish me?" Yes, they promise to black ball me with that restaurant and others. There are always restaurants to eat at. I don't need them.

Absolute worst database of restaurants and a location search engine I have ever used. Pointless to try and find a restaurant and make reservations.

My Open Table account shows that I have made 19 reservations in the last 3 years but only 2 of the 19 result in rewards points. What nonsense. My attempt to question this results in being serviced by a bot and I end up a loop of the same questions but no answers.

Made a reservation and provided an email. I chose to OPT OUT of marketing emails. They disregard that and are spamming me multiple times per day. You cannot opt out. If you give them an email, expect more spam, from them and probably other companies. Better to just call the resturant and cut opentable out.

In general OpenTable is decent for booking restaurants, but its quality has fallen in recent years. Fewer restaurants use them, points have been devalued, VIP status means nothing, and even their search function is less useful. You cannot, for instance, make it search for just the time you're looking for. They show you a bunch of restaurants that aren't available at the time you want. That's dumb. And worst of all, there's no easy way to give feedback to OpenTable anymore because everything goes through their useless chatbox. Clearly, they don't care what their customers think.

They started off as being great, but the past few years it has been less then awful. Firstly you are MUCH better off to get a specific time and your number of people by calling the restaurant directly. Restaurants ONLY ALLOW A FEW TABLE AT UN-PEAK TIMES FOR OPEN TABLE MEMBERS. There is ZERO customer service at Open Table- and their rewards program is SO NOT worth It! Better to use rewards program of the specific restaurants that have one. To end my use every again with Open Table, is that their website is consistently having problems and very difficult to navigate/get on that coupled with zero customer service via live chat/on-line or a easily found customer service number to call- don't bother!

They make you stay with them for 6 months until you can leave and make you pay £150 a month plus £2 per cover for nothing as they don’t even help you get dinners. When you ask to leave they say you’ve to pay for the months left, when they are not doing anything to help you or brining income like promised. If anything lose more money. When someone contacted us as we wanted to leave they showed us marketing things they use and charge even more per cover! So wanting further money from us. As we are a small family restaurant this is beyond a joke as some of our customers come in for just coffee and cake so we are not earning anything if we have to pay them per month as well as per cover. They just want you to sign up and pay, they don’t care about the smell businesses. Definitely not helpful for small businesses and there are a lot cheaper apps out there. Over the next 5 months we have to pay £800 for nothing, we feel lied to and disappointed that this compay would treat small business like that. Would give 0 starts if we could. Awful and I can’t wait till we can finally leave.

A complete con of a company. Like many reviewers before me I booked a restaurant through OpenTable and received a text message asking me to "Reply 1 to confirm" my table, which I duly did. Two weeks later I noticed a 15p charge on my phone bill. Whilst this won't push me into bankruptcy, it is a devious scam and nothing less. OpenTable: hang your heads in shame. I will be spreading the word.

Same rip off everyone else has reported. OpenTable messaged me to confirm my reservation by replying to their PREMIUM RATE 67368 number. I booked with a prepaid voucher so why would I need to confirm by replying with a text message that would cost me £5.00 Obviously this is simply a rip-off scam perpetrated by OpenTable. I would advise everyone to avoid having ANY dealing with OpenTable or any company that uses them.

Unsolicited Texts with charges. Won’t use again.

Restaurant table reservation was fine, but then there is a rip-off request to confirm the day before using a premium-rate message!

DO NOT RESPOND TO THEIR RESERVATION TEXTS YOU WILL BE CHARGED

They charge you. OpenTable say it's not them, it's the phone company, that may be so, but customers should be informed that their number is a premium rate number and responding will incur a fee.
I messaged them, and this is the rubbish they responded with:

"I see you wrote in about being charged for responding to your reservation confirmation via text. OpenTable does not charge diners or restaurants for SMS confirmation reminders, however, text message rates may apply depending on your SMS plan"

The best thing to do here is to check with their mobile phone carrier. The charge may say "OpenTable" as the text was placed through our system, but the fees are placed by the carrier.

I responded:

"Untrue. If you reply to the text message that's when the cost is incurred, as OpenTable invites people to reply, but nowhere does it say that the return text can incur costs. Most reputable organisations would say something along the lines of "please note your operator may charge you"

They responded:

"We are not the ones who charge you and I am sorry about the charge being incurred, but you will need to speak to your phone carrier about the charge as we are not the ones who issue the charge"

I responded:

If I see a restaurant using opentable, I am actively going to avoid them.

Basically, OpenTable is not transparent about their costs.

Caveat Emptor!

Open Table gave us a reservation for a restaurant that was not even open on the day of the reservation … WILL NEVER USE THEM AGAIN

I was issued a gift certificate that is a money order from RBC for $26 for using their service for booking reservations for a few years. I have tried to redeem the gift certificate a few times at different and supposedly it is accepted at any OpenTable partner restaurant but i have been denied. I contacted their support and their solution was to "call ahead." This company is making big commission and service fees from the restaurants but giving nothing back to the customer.

Yes, I got ripped off too. I had booked directly with the restaurant, like many of the other reviewers.
The text caught me at a busy spot and I was worried I'd lose the booking if I didn't respond. My phone even warned me I'd be charged but I thought "it's only a text, surely not" wrong! Premium number, how is that even allowed?
What a nasty business model.

Rip off merchants ! Premium rate to confirm a restaurant booking ! Fortunately I have my spending cap set to zero so they didn’t make any money out of me but I had the hassle of emailing the restaurant direct ! Will think again about using restaurants who use these con artists.

I was charged by my mobile phone service provider for confirming to OpenTable that I still wanted the table I had booked. There is no warning in the text I received to say I could be charged and I then got a polite warning from my company about charging personal items to my company mobile. Thanks a lot open table! Won’t be using you again if I can avoid it!

Like many others, charged for responding to OpenTable’s text to confirm my booking without any notification in the message that this was a premium number with a charge.

I have investigated this issue of OpenTable using a Premium Rate phone line to send booking details and ask for booking status conformations. You will be charged if you respond to their booking reminders or send the STOP to opt out of their reminder service. Open Table claim they don't get the fee but BT who charge me £0.13 per SMS Text, insist they pay the money to OpenTable. The Phone Paid Service Authority who are supposed to regulate this confirm OpenTable does use a premium rate line and should warn customers that they will be charged.

Like many others in this thread I was charged 19p by my mobile phone service provider for confirming to OpenTable that I still wanted the table I had booked. There is no warning in the text I received to say I could be charged.