I wouldn't say that OpenTable is hated by all restaurants, but there is definitely a spectrum of loving it through hateful ranting...
Generally, I hear a few reasons why restaurants feel they can't leave OpenTable:
Myth #1: they won't be discovered through the web anymore. People actually discover restaurants via word of mouth or local search (Google usually). Great food, SEO, marketing, PR, guest care, etc. matter a lot more than being in one particular portal. See studies about restaurant discovery.
Myth #2: their guest information is locked into OpenTable. It isn't. You can export your guest database with phone numbers (if collected) and email (if they opt-in). While it may sound like they are missing something if they can't export email addresses (unless they opt-in), it isn't. They can't email those guests through OpenTable either.
Myth #3: guests care a lot about points. This is a smaller, sub-population of the restaurant going public. Most people don't care, they just want the ease of booking online when they want, which is generally 2/3rds of the time outside of the restaurant's hours (see poll by OpenTable).
Generally, those people that use points a lot (or discounts) are not great customers either (see any study about Groupon discounting).
Why would you want to give your guest a discount to eat at another restaurant anyways?
Anyways, if you are interested in more restaurant reservation analysis feel free to check out my Quora account:
Generally, I hear a few reasons why restaurants feel they can't leave OpenTable:
Myth #1: they won't be discovered through the web anymore. People actually discover restaurants via word of mouth or local search (Google usually). Great food, SEO, marketing, PR, guest care, etc. matter a lot more than being in one particular portal. See studies about restaurant discovery.
Myth #2: their guest information is locked into OpenTable. It isn't. You can export your guest database with phone numbers (if collected) and email (if they opt-in). While it may sound like they are missing something if they can't export email addresses (unless they opt-in), it isn't. They can't email those guests through OpenTable either.
Myth #3: guests care a lot about points. This is a smaller, sub-population of the restaurant going public. Most people don't care, they just want the ease of booking online when they want, which is generally 2/3rds of the time outside of the restaurant's hours (see poll by OpenTable).
Generally, those people that use points a lot (or discounts) are not great customers either (see any study about Groupon discounting).
Why would you want to give your guest a discount to eat at another restaurant anyways?
Anyways, if you are interested in more restaurant reservation analysis feel free to check out my Quora account:
http://www.quora.com/Chris-Butler-7/answers
Also, check out Complete Seating (http://completeseating.com) an OpenTable alternative I work on!