OpenTable alternatives for venues that own bookings

A restaurant owner looks at a month of bookings and notices something uncomfortable. Most of the guests who booked through the marketplace were regulars, people who would have found the venue anyway, and the venue paid a fee for many of them. The marketplace brought some new diners, and it is easy to use. But the owner starts to wonder what it would mean to take bookings on the venue's own page, keep the guest list and stop paying for guests who were already coming.

That question leads many venues to look for OpenTable alternatives. The search quickly becomes confusing, because the alternatives are not all the same kind of thing. Some are other marketplaces. Some are booking systems for the venue's own website. Some combine bookings with the till and the guest list. Each has different costs, different strengths and a different answer to the question of who owns the guest.

This guide sorts OpenTable alternatives into categories, sets out what to compare when choosing between them and explains how to move without losing bookings or regulars. It compares by category rather than by claim, and it quotes no prices, because plans and fees change: check each supplier's current published pricing before deciding. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

OpenTable is one of the best-known restaurant booking networks. It combines a consumer website and app, where diners search for restaurants and book, with a reservation and table management system that restaurants use to run their diaries.

For restaurants, its main appeal is discovery: being listed where many diners look. It charges restaurants a subscription and, on many of its plans, a fee per guest for bookings that come through its own website and app. Check its current pricing before comparing, because plans and fees change.

Venues look for alternatives for a handful of reasons. Cover fees that grow with trade, so the busiest months cost the most. A sense that many of the guests they pay for are regulars who would have booked directly. A wish to own the guest list and the relationship with returning guests. And a desire to have bookings, the till and the guest records in one system rather than several.

Not every venue should leave. For some, the discovery a marketplace provides is worth what it costs. The point of looking at alternatives is to make that decision deliberately.

The deepest question is whether a venue rents its bookings or owns them. On a marketplace, the platform usually owns the diner relationship: the diner's account, their history and often the right to market to them. On the venue's own booking page, the venue owns the guest's details and, with consent, the relationship.

Our guide to booking platforms: what you rent and what you own covers the difference in detail, and it is worth reading before comparing any alternative.

The first category of alternative is another marketplace: a different booking network with its own diner app or website. These offer similar discovery to OpenTable, often in different regions or with different strengths, and similar trade-offs about fees and ownership.

Switching from one marketplace to another changes the terms but not the model. It makes sense if another network is stronger where you trade, or its terms suit you better, but it does not, on its own, give you ownership of your bookings.

The second category is a booking system built for the venue's own website and booking page: a widget or page guests use to book directly with the venue, usually for a flat monthly fee, with no cover fees and no marketplace.

These give the venue ownership of its bookings and its guest list. They do not bring new diners on their own; the venue brings guests to its booking page through its listing, website, social media and email.

The third category combines bookings with the venue's other systems: the till, the kitchen screens, the floor plan and the guest records, in one platform. A booking becomes a seated table, the guest's allergies reach the kitchen ticket and the bill completes the booking, without connections between separate systems.

These suit venues that want one view of each guest, from booking to bill, and fewer systems to run. Like the second category, they rely on the venue's own channels to bring guests to the booking page.

The fourth category is the booking feature that comes with some point of sale systems. If your till already includes bookings, using them may avoid a separate subscription entirely.

Check how capable it is. Some till-based booking features are basic: a diary and little else. Others are fully featured. Compare them on the same points as any other alternative.

The fifth, and simplest, alternative is no online booking at all: bookings by phone and email, written in a diary. It costs nothing in fees and suits some small venues, especially those with mostly walk-in trade.

The cost is in guests who want to book online at midnight and cannot, and in the time spent answering the phone. For most venues that take many bookings, it is a step backwards rather than an alternative.

Compare fees carefully, by working out a year's cost at your real volumes. A system with a higher monthly fee and no cover fees may cost far less than one with a low monthly fee and a charge per guest, once a busy year's covers are counted.

Include every fee: the subscription, cover fees, fees for bookings made through your own site, payment fees for deposits and charges for extra features. Our guide to commission free bookings: the arithmetic covers how to work it out.

Cover fees, charges for each guest who books, are the cost that most often drives venues to look for alternatives. They are small per guest and large per year, and they rise exactly when the venue is busiest.

Ask each alternative whether it charges cover fees at all, whether they apply to bookings made on your own site as well as the marketplace and how they are counted. Systems for your own site often charge none.

Compare discovery honestly. A marketplace brings diners who browse its app looking for somewhere to eat. A booking system for your own site brings none on its own; guests reach it through your listing, website and marketing.

Work out how many of your current marketplace bookings are genuinely new guests, and how many are regulars or guests who would have found you anyway. If most are regulars, the discovery you would lose is smaller than it seems.

Compare who owns the guest's details and the right to contact them. On your own booking page, the guest's name, contact details and booking history belong to the venue, and marketing consent is collected by the venue.

Ask each alternative what happens to guest data if you leave: can you export it, in what form and how quickly? Our guide to owning your guest data when you switch systems covers what to ask.

Marketing consent matters as much as the guest list. A list of guests who have agreed to hear from the venue is worth far more than a list of names. Check how each alternative collects consent at booking, whether it confirms it and how unsubscribes are handled.

Our guide to marketing consent, collected so it holds up covers what good consent looks like.

Compare how each alternative helps with no-shows: reminders, an easy way for guests to change or cancel, deposits or card holds for busy times and a waitlist that fills cancelled tables. A system that reduces no-shows can be worth more than one that is cheaper.

Our guide to deposits vs credit card holds for bookings covers the options for protecting busy nights.

Compare how each alternative runs the room on the night: the floor plan, table assignment, combining tables, the waitlist, walk-ins and how the host sees the evening ahead. A booking system that takes bookings well but runs the floor badly makes service harder.

Ask to see it in use during a busy service, or talk to a venue that uses it. The host's view on a Saturday night is the real test.

Compare how each alternative fits with the rest of the venue: the till, the kitchen, the guest records and marketing. A booking system that connects to nothing leaves the host and the server working from separate information. One that shares the guest's details with the till and the kitchen joins the whole visit.

Count the connections each option needs. Every connection between separate systems is a thing that can break during service.

Compare contracts and exit terms: the length, the notice period, fees for leaving early, hardware leases and what happens to your data when you go. A system that is easy to leave is one you stay with because it is good.

Read the marketplace contract you have now, too. Its notice period and any commitments decide when you can switch.

Online booking on your own site is the heart of owning your bookings. A booking page or widget that is quick to use on a phone, shows real availability, confirms instantly and sends reminders makes booking directly as easy as booking through a marketplace.

Put it everywhere guests look: your website, your Google listing, your social profiles and your emails. Our guide to booking platform vs your own booking page covers the comparison in detail.

Leaving a marketplace completely is not the only option. Many venues keep a marketplace listing for the discovery it brings while moving regulars and returning guests to their own booking page.

If you do, make sure both diaries stay in step, and encourage guests to book directly next time, where the marketplace's rules allow. Over time, more bookings move to the own channel, and the marketplace's share, and fees, fall.

Moving regulars to direct booking is mostly a matter of making it easy and visible. A booking link on the receipt, in confirmation emails, on the website and the listing, and a word from the team, shift many regulars within a few months.

Give them a reason if you can: a note that booking directly helps the venue, or a small courtesy for direct bookings. Regulars who like the venue are often glad to help it.

Switching booking systems needs care with future bookings. Move every booking made on the old system, check each one, keep the old system available until the last of them has passed and tell the hosts which system holds which dates.

Our guide to switching systems: the fear and the actual risk covers how to plan the move so no guest arrives to find their table missing.

Booking platforms are one part of how a venue fills its tables, alongside its listing, its website, its regulars, walk-ins and word of mouth. The right booking setup depends on where your guests actually come from.

Look at the sources of last month's bookings before deciding. A venue whose guests mostly find it through its listing and regulars needs a good booking page more than a marketplace; one that depends on diners browsing an app may need to keep the marketplace for now.

Marketplaces often carry reviews and ratings that guests read before booking, and a venue with good ratings on a marketplace may be reluctant to leave them behind. Those reviews usually stay on the marketplace if the venue leaves.

Build reviews where you own the relationship too: on your Google listing and through your own feedback after visits. Over time, the reviews guests read most will be the ones on the listing they see first.

Group bookings and private dining often need more than a standard booking form: a set menu, a deposit, a timeline and a conversation. Check how each alternative handles them, whether through an enquiry form, a separate process or simply a phone call.

For many venues, groups are among the most valuable bookings of the year. A booking setup that handles them well can matter more than small differences in the standard booking flow.

When a time is full, a good booking system lets guests join a waitlist for it, so a cancellation can be offered to someone who wants the table. Without one, a cancelled table at the peak may simply stay empty.

Compare how each alternative handles waitlists and cancellations: whether guests can join a list online, how the venue offers a freed table and how easily guests can cancel or change their own booking. These small features fill tables that would otherwise be lost.

Owning your bookings also means owning the data about them: when guests book, how far ahead, for how many, from which source and how often they return. That data shapes staffing, booking capacity and marketing.

Check what reports each alternative offers, and whether you can see bookings by source, so you know which channels bring guests. A booking system that shows you where your guests come from helps you decide where to spend your time and money.

Ask each supplier the same questions. What does it cost per year at our volume, including every fee? Are there cover fees, and on which bookings? Who owns the guest data, and can we export it? How is marketing consent collected? What helps with no-shows? How does it run the floor? What does it connect to? What are the contract and exit terms? Can we speak to a venue like ours that uses it?

Write the answers in one place, side by side. The comparison is clearer on a page than in a series of sales calls.

An invented bistro takes most of its bookings through a marketplace and pays cover fees on all of them. Looking at a month of bookings, the owner finds that about three quarters came from guests who had visited before. The owner compares three alternatives on fees, ownership, consent, no-show tools and how each runs the floor, and chooses a booking system for its own page that shares guest records with the till.

The bistro keeps its marketplace listing for discovery, puts its own booking link on its website, its Google listing, its receipts and its emails, and asks the team to mention it to regulars. Within six months, most bookings come through its own page, the marketplace's fees have fallen sharply and the bistro has a growing list of guests who have agreed to hear from it.

servearound is one of the alternatives in the third category: a booking system for your own page that shares the guest record with the till and the kitchen. Each venue has its own booking page and a widget for its own website, bookings carry no commission and there are no fees per cover, order, screen or user, because pricing is per venue, per month. Guests opt in to marketing with their own choice as they book and confirm it by email, reminders go out a set number of hours before each booking, guests manage their booking from a link and a guest who picks a full time is offered the waitlist.

servearound is not a marketplace, so it brings no new diners of its own the way a booking network's app can, and it takes no deposits or card holds today. Guests can be brought across from an Excel or CSV file, but they cannot be exported from servearound today, so ask about it before you plan around it. See the reservations module and pricing.

Other marketplaces, booking systems for your own site, platforms that join bookings to the till, the till's own bookings and phone-only booking.

Some, possibly. Check how many of your marketplace bookings are genuinely new before deciding.

Charges for each guest who books, which grow with your trade.

No fee per booking or per guest, usually in exchange for a flat subscription.

On your own booking page, usually the venue. On a marketplace, often the platform.

Yes. Many venues use the marketplace for discovery and their own page for regulars.

Put your booking link everywhere they look, and ask them.

The full yearly cost, cover fees, data ownership and export, consent, no-show tools, floor management and exit terms.

OpenTable alternatives fall into categories: other marketplaces, booking systems for your own site, platforms that join bookings to the till and the guest record, the till's own bookings and phone-only booking. Only some of them let a venue own its bookings and its guest list, and none of the own-site options brings new diners on its own the way a marketplace can.

Compare them on the full yearly cost, including cover fees, on discovery, on who owns the guest and their consent, on no-show tools, on how they run the floor and on contract and exit terms. Make online booking on your own site easy to find, keep booking platforms for discovery if they earn it, move regulars to commission free bookings and plan the switch so no booking is lost.