OpenTable tightens terms, forms council

OpenTable unveiled a new U.S. Restaurant Ambassador Council on April 28, even as restaurants were still contesting contract terms it rolled out earlier this month. (opentable.com) (restaurantdive.com) The council’s first cohort includes 20 chefs, operators and hospitality leaders across 17 cities, and OpenTable said they will meet with executives through 2026 to test products and discuss booking trends. (opentable.com) The contract dispute centers on OpenTable’s updated 2026 client agreement, which took effect April 16 and requires partner restaurants to designate OpenTable as their primary table-management system. (restaurantdive.com) (support.opentable.com) OpenTable says the change does not ban dual-listing on other reservation platforms. It says restaurants can still use multiple systems, but the same inventory offered elsewhere must also appear on OpenTable, and the booking link on a restaurant’s own website must run through OpenTable. (support.opentable.com) The company says the new language is meant to create a single source of truth for reservations, guest records and availability. It has blamed unauthorized third parties for scraping data, copying inventory and trying to replicate bookings outside approved channels. (support.opentable.com) (restaurantdive.com) Restaurants using several platforms say the practical effect is narrower than OpenTable describes. Operators told trade publications they rely on different services in different markets because diners in New York, suburbs and destination cities do not all book the same way. (restaurantdive.com) (restaurantbusinessonline.com) Altamarea Group, which has 16 full-service concepts globally and seven in the United States, told Restaurant Dive it wants to keep working with multiple partners. Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, which operates about two dozen restaurants, said it may have to rework its setup or leave OpenTable in some markets. (restaurantdive.com) (restaurantbusinessonline.com) The pushback has reached state officials in Washington. Marcos Wanless, president of the Seattle Latino Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, asked Attorney General Nick Brown on April 9 to review whether the terms unfairly restrict competition, and the attorney general’s antitrust division said it would look into the complaint. (washingtonstatestandard.com) OpenTable says it has received only a limited number of partner inquiries about the changes and says it still works with more than 200 authorized partners, including Google, Meta and OpenAI. (restaurantdive.com 1) (restaurantdive.com 2) The new council gives OpenTable a public forum with prominent chefs and operators at the same moment restaurants are asking how much control they will keep over guest relationships, inventory and the booking path on their own sites. (opentable.com) (support.opentable.com)