[ben1040]

It also makes me wonder why OpenTable hasn't tried this already as an upsell to their existing restaurant clients, since I'm sure they still deal with walk-ins and are looking for something classier than a vibrating/talking drink coaster. The advantage to the restaurant there is that then it'd be already integrated into their table inventory tool.

OpenTable has the advantage too of already having lots of their customers' phone numbers on file, which opens the door to some interesting matching/analytics opportunities.

Restaurant A might want to know, for example, that many of the same customers who walk in to their restaurant make reservations at B & C instead -- perhaps A might want to make changes so that people plan ahead to eat there rather than just walk in.