SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenTable (NASDAQ: OPEN), a leading provider of free, real-time online restaurant reservations for diners and reservation and guest management solutions for restaurants, today announced that OpenTable has generated more than 15 million reviews by verified diners, establishing OpenTable as one of the largest and most trusted sources for restaurant reviews.  

In celebration of the milestone, OpenTable is sharing an infographic illustrating OpenTable diner review trends and behaviors since the launch of the program in November 2008.   

"Since we launched our reviews program in 2008, restaurant reviews have become an integral part of the dining experience," said Ann Shepherd, OpenTable Senior Vice President of Marketing. "For a growing number of people, the experience of dining out now starts with consulting our trusted online consumer reviews to find the perfect spot and culminates with writing a review that will benefit others.  The beauty of this virtuous cycle is that it benefits both our diner community and restaurant customers." 

Some of the unique features of the OpenTable reviews program include:

• Verified Diners:  Diners who have honored an OpenTable reservation are invited via email to provide a review. Only reviews by verified diners are published on OpenTable.
• Relevance and Timeliness:  To ensure that reviews are useful and current, submissions are moderated in accordance with OpenTable editorial guidelines and deleted after 120 days.
• Restaurant Feedback Loop:  OpenTable reviews, along with ratings and trend reports, are delivered directly to restaurants via their OpenTable dashboard. Diners may, if they wish, also include a private note to restaurant management and provide their email addresses for follow-up correspondence.
• OpenTable Diners' Choice Lists:  The reviews program is also used to create OpenTable Diners' Choice lists showcasing the most highly rated restaurants in more than 25 categories, including Best Overall, Hot Spots, Fit for Foodies, and Most Romantic. With more than 450,000 reviews submitted each month, lists are refreshed frequently to provide the most up-to-date rankings. Lists are also available for more than 100 different metropolitan areas, providing locals and travelers with an array of excellent dining options.

These unique characteristics ensure that OpenTable reviews are reliable sources of insight designed to help the vibrant OpenTable diner network discover new restaurants and to allow restaurateurs to attract more guests and make their dining rooms even more enjoyable. 

"We love the feedback loop that the OpenTable reviews program provides," said Kevin Garry, Director of Operations for Epicurean Management whose restaurants include the acclaimed dell'anima and L'Artusi as well as the highly anticipated opening of L'Apicio later this month.  "Each week we review and analyze all of the feedback and emails generated by the program in order to identify positive trends and work to rectify any missteps.  Our experience has been that OpenTable diners are genuinely interested in providing constructive feedback and their authenticity has helped us enhance our service."

About OpenTable Reviews
Originally launched in November 2008, the OpenTable Reviews program helps diners find restaurants that best fit their dining occasions.  Diners who recently honored an OpenTable reservation are invited via email to submit restaurant feedback using an online form. OpenTable users can access reviews for thousands of OpenTable restaurant partners across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.  The OpenTable Reviews program has generated more than 15 million reviews by verified diners, establishing OpenTable as one of the largest and most trusted sources for restaurant reviews.  OpenTable reviews are hosted and managed by Bazaarvoice, a social software company that helps clients create, syndicate and derive actionable insights from online word of mouth.

About OpenTable
OpenTable is a leading provider of free, real-time online restaurant reservations for diners and reservation and guest management solutions for restaurants. The OpenTable network delivers the convenience of online restaurant reservations to diners and the operational benefits of a computerized reservation book to restaurants. OpenTable has more than 25,000 restaurant customers, and, since its inception in 1998, has seated more than 350 million diners around the world.  The Company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and the OpenTable service is available throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the UK. OpenTable also owns and operates toptable, a leading restaurant reservation site in the UK.      

OpenTable, OpenTable.com, OpenTable logos, OpenTable Diners' Choice, toptable and other service names are the trademarks of OpenTable, Inc. and/or its affiliates

SOURCE OpenTable