Restaurant and Extremely Positive User

1. Why will OpenTable competitors have a difficult time competing against Open- Table?
Open table is one of the oldest site for the reservation of table in the hotel. The competitors of the open table are menupages.com, Urbanspoon’s, Zagat, Rezbook, Restalo , No Wait all of this are playing an role in the hotel reservation. But open table is easy to use for the customers as well as the service provider because the software is having the easy user-interface. It links directly to the reservation software so no one has to keep the records for that and it help to create the customer database. Users don’t have to buy the software so it’s free to book a table. It is having extremely positive user feedback.
2.What characteristics of the restaurant market make it difficult for a reservation system to work?
The characteristics of the restaurant markets make it difficult for a reservation system to work because there was to many small restaurants which was competing with each other and customers where unaware of the restaurants near locality. The industry is highly fragmented. When the company was formed most of the restaurants where not having the computer so that make it difficult to the customer to book a table.
3. How did OpenTable change its marketing strategy to succeed?
At the initial stage of the open table the use door to door marketing strategy to grow there business and let the people know about the site used for reservation. They make the e-vites to make the know that how the table is booked and to advertise the site to use in the future. They also developed the mobile apps so that people can use it anywhere any time and save the time to go on the computer to use it.
4. Why would restaurants find the SaaS model very attractive? Saas is the software as service. They don’t have to purchase the software or maintain it. It dose not emphasis on the investment in the fixed capital such as IT infrastructure for streamlining operations.