OpenTable Debuts Free Mobile-Friendly Sites for Restaurants

OpenTable has introduced a free service that makes it easy for its restaurant customers to optimize their websites for mobile devices.  The new service is designed to help restaurateurs capitalize on the massive shift toward mobile by making restaurant websites more user-friendly and functional on smartphones.  The service, powered by DudaMobile, is quick and easy to use and the before and after results are dramatic without sacrificing the branding and elegance of the restaurant's desktop website.  

 

OpenTable’s goal is to make it easier for restaurants to reap the benefits from the shift toward mobile by removing the friction associated with creating and hosting mobile-friendly sites. More than 100 million people in the U.S. own smartphones, but only an estimated 10 percent of reservation-taking restaurants have mobile optimized sites.

 

OpenTable has experienced a growing number of diners who are choosing to book via mobile devices.  In the second quarter of 2012, reservations booked on mobile devices accounted for 28 percent of the 28 million diners OpenTable seated in North America.  Since the introduction of its mobile solutions in November 2008, OpenTable has seated more than 30 million diners through reservations booked on mobile devices, representing more than $1 billion in revenue for OpenTable restaurant customers (based on a check average of $42.50 per person as reported by OpenTable restaurant customers).

 

To take advantage of the free service, OpenTable restaurant customers in the U.S., Canada, and the UK must claim their mobile site through the OpenTable Restaurant Center before February 1, 2013.  Customers who sign-up by the deadline will enjoy the service for free as long as they're an OpenTable customer and comply with the terms and conditions of the service.  Customers who sign up after January 31, 2013, will have access to the service for a nominal monthly fee.  Restaurants interested in becoming customers of OpenTable can learn more by visiting the Restaurateurs: Join Us section of the OpenTable website.