Long a staple of online reservation booking, OpenTable recently launched a section of its Web site devoted to private dining. The service, targeted at event planners, lets users book private events and banquets at fine dining restaurants in more than 20 U.S. markets.
"I started talking to event planners this summer," said OpenTable director of restaurant marketing Caleb Canning, "and we were hearing that the site was good for 4, 6, or 10 people—but not for larger groups. So we gathered the basic information they needed for private dining, and tried to make it really easy for them to contact the restaurants."
Now, in each of the markets where private dining is available, participating venues list standing and seated capacity in as many as five private rooms or spaces. All restaurants are listed on the same page, and each listing contains a link to submit a bid. The site isn't solely aimed at planners, though. Canning also wanted the service to work for it's existing customer base, so they designed it to also cater to nonprofessionals who book just a few events of this size every one or two years.
Launched in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington on November 1, OpenTable has since expanded the service to 16 of its other markets. It will be available throughout the United States and Canada in January.
The timing of the soft launch has so far worked well for OpenTable. "We can't measure how many users have been phoning the venues directly, but we do know how many people are submitting Web contracts, and it's been really terrific," said Canning. "That was the nice thing about launching in November—all of the holiday bookings let us take off really quickly."
