I’ve used Open Table for restaurant reservations for a long time. It is just so much more convenient to peruse around for what restaurant will fit your time and date and type of food rather than calling them one at a time to see if anyone has the ability to accommodate you. As an added bonus, I’ve never had a reservation lost, most likely because the reservations go right into the restaurant’s reservation computer system.
But, I noticed this today and can’t help but wonder why this would in any way be a necessary thing. Unless you were inviting people, do they really need to see that you have a reservation somewhere?
Now, posting your review after dining at the restaurant might be a useful thing, but this up front posting doesn’t really make sense to me, especially at the level that there might need to be a dedicated button to handle such a once in a year posting as opposed to some sort of manual posting.
The question then is this: Is Open Table – and several other businesses – trying too hard to somehow be linked / connected to social media sites like FaceBook and Twitter, or is there a legitimate need being met?