Review Time
My account is not showing any of my upcoming bookings and is not showing my previous history either. As many restaurants charge for no shows, I am concerned that this will happen as I can’t see what I have reserved. I contacted customer care 3 days ago, only get a reply once per day at midnight. I have replied each time straight away and no response for another 24hours. Terrible app and customer service. Please resolve this asap.
Disappointing Experience with OpenTable – Unfair Practices and Poor SupportOur experience with OpenTable has been incredibly frustrating as a small, independently owned bar/restaurant.We signed up in hopes of increasing visibility and streamlining reservations, but quickly realized it wasn’t the right fit for our business. We cancelled within 15 days—well within the buyer’s remorse period as outlined under Ontario consumer protection laws. Despite this, OpenTable still charged us a $3,000 cancellation fee, which we believe is completely unfair and unreasonable.To make matters worse, the platform brought in very few bookings, and the high monthly costs weren’t justifiable. The support was minimal, and we felt like our concerns were dismissed once we expressed dissatisfaction.Small businesses should be cautious before signing up. The fine print comes with heavy penalties, and the value just isn’t there—especially when other, more flexible and transparent options are available.
We arrived on time for our reservation at 7:15 PM on Saturday, May 17, 2025, and were greeted by the owner, Mr. Francesco Catullo. We had a table in the back corner of the restaurant. First, my husband ordered a Martini drink from the bar, and then we ordered an appetizer. We placed the order for the main entree. We received good attention from the waiters since they knew us as customers. At 8:12, when dinners were being served, the owner approached our table aggressively, requesting that we leave because he needed the table. We asked if it was a mistake, and the owner said no. We paid our bill. We refused to take the boxed dinners that the waiter rushed to bring. When I started to put on my jacket, I discovered the reason: I was wearing a yellow ribbon 🎗️, a symbol of support for the hostages in the Middle East, and I was wearing a necklace with the Jewish symbol of LIFE. Antisemitism was the only reason.
OpenTable is designed to show you a bunch of restaurants that are available for the date and time you want to reserve. This is all fine and good. But If you are trying to find available dates and times for only 1 restaurant, the user interface is absolutely horrible. "At the moment, there's no online availability within 2.5 hours of your request. Do you have another time in mind?"The UI forces me to literally go through every possible day that I can, pick every possible time and see if there's availability one at a time. Just show me a frickin' grid of dates and times that are available for that restaurant and let me select one! Having to hunt and peck is SOOOOOOOOO DAMN ANNOYING.
I've been an Open Table subscriber since it started. In fact, I'm considered by THEIR terms, a VIP. It means nothing. Whatever they're claiming to be in the restaurant world, they aren't. I lost about 40,000 pts. during COVID, AND it's a complete (and often doesn't work at all) pain in the ass EVERY. SINGLE. TIME I've tried to cash in my points. It causes no fewer than three restaurant employees/managers to make it work...IF it does at all. If they were a genuinely good partner, they would start by making it easy to cash in your points... from your phone, where you make most of your reservations, instead of having to go to a computer. You wouldn't have to print out a coupon, and you certainly wouldn't feel like a cheapskate when trying to use your points at restaurants you frequent. If you're lucky enough to make it work, you end up feeling like you're trying to pull a fast one on your favorite restaurants when you try to cash in your 'points.' It's difficult and embarrassing, and I could not recommend this app less.
I have had a multitude of issues with OT since I created an account including:- Restaurants 'canceling' my reservation upon arrival instead of checking me properly to earn points- OT not recognizing my ACTUAL geographic location as an area (and forcing me to associate to one of two areas that are each a three hour drive from my home)- OT continuing to lose restaurants in my area (they're moving to Resy) which makes it harder and harder to actually earn points- Points expiring and being deducted from account with no communication, no warning / notice- Their chat bot being unable to handle a basic request to be connected to an agent directly (you have to navigate through the menu claiming that you are missing reward points and such before they will put an actual person on with you)- Excessively high minimum points values required for redemption while maintaining very low rewards amounts for completing a reservation- Very vague and difficult processes to follow if you want to redeem points for a "dining reward" versus just a gift cardThis program might be useful in very metropolitan areas where there are a LOT of restaurants that participate in the program, and if you eat out A LOT. With the current costs of going out to dinner combined with so few restaurants in my area continuing to participate, this program is a complete waste of time. Even though I travel for work and eat out while I am on the road, I -still- find little to no value from this reservation system.The truly irritating part is that certain restaurants take reservations SOLELY through this platform which will likely become a reason to stop eating there once my account is deleted.This program is a waste of time and effort for just about everyone.
I've just tried to write a review on OpenTable. They wouldn't accept my the verification code they sent 3TIMES and seem to insist that I download their app (I'm not prepared to do this). I decided to review the restaurant on Google Reviews instead. Restaurants should be aware that OpenTable is putting off reviewers. I hope they aren't paying OT for this facility.
We used Open Table (for the last time) this evening. We made a 6 pm reservation at The Grand Marlin on Pensacola Beach for March 21, 2025. I had asked for a 7 pm reservation, but Open Table said they didn’t have anything open for that time. So we secured the reservation for 6. We arrived at the restaurant tonight 15 minutes early for our reservation. The hostess said they had our reservation but there would be at least an hour wait. To add insult to injury, a lady came up behind us with the same number of people (3) in her party, and they told her it would also be an hour wait. She didn’t have a reservation. With the technology available these days, the restaurant should have called us or emailed us (they had all of our contact information), to let us know we wouldn’t be able to get in until 7:15. This would have been perfect if they had let us know beforehand. But we got no notice. I’m sure Open Table will blame the restaurant. The restaurant blamed Open Table (saying Open table issued too many reservations). I’m not sure whose fault this was (I’m also writing a negative review for the restaurant), but this was ridiculous. Again, Open Table had all of our contact information, and could have easily alerted us. Fortunately, we called Drift (a much much better restaurant than The Grand Marlin) and they were able to get us right in (without the need for a reservation). As I said, we will never eat at The Grand Marlin again. More importantly, we will never use Open Table again. Please use Resy. They are so much better. Good bye, Open Table.
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