Priceline is sort of like eBay — a company known for its origins in auctions, but more recently focusing on distinct, “buy it now” niches. It has recently fleshed out its core travel brand by moving up the value chain to travel reservations via its acquisition of Kayak. It has also gotten into the “sharing economy” by adding AirBnB-like private listings to its Booking.com brand, which is an international powerhouse.

Today, Priceline added restaurant reservations and search to its stable via the $2.6 Billion purchase of industry leader OpenTable, which works with 31,000 restaurants — mostly high end white table cloth restaurants willing to pay a hefty premium for reservations management and leads to undecided consumers. Open Table is an international leader with strong customer bases in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan and Mexico.

For Priceline, the most attractive parts of the deal are probably OpenTable’s 15 million, high end, travel-oriented customers; the company’s verified, high quality restaurant reviews; OpenTable’s strong mobile orientation; and its extensive affiliate network with 600+ local and vertical sites, which receive commissions for sending traffic to OpenTable (and accounting for 5-10 percent of OpenTable’s business.) These networks might be extended to include other Priceline properties.

There is probably some disconnect with OpenTable’s high-end customer base and Priceline’s discount set — most OpenTable customers won’t be using Priceline itself. And an effort to extend OpenTable’s feature set with Groupon-like deals proved to be underwhelming (although the company has maintained an extensive and apparently successful “Dining Checques” loyalty program). Many OpenTable customers are also not using the service in travel mode — they are local.

Still, OpenTable customers might use the other services. And the seamless Priceline app experience could also be applied as mobile becomes a paramount factor for all travel services.

A larger question we’d have is the core of OpenTable’s value proposition for restaurants: the reservations management system, which is based on dedicated customer premise equipment (known as The Electronic Reservations Book.) The average ERB using restaurant pays $249 for the service (plus $1.00 per seated diner using the OpenTable system.) But in the age of tablet-based POS and reservations services using WiFI, OpenTable’s proprietary system would seem threatened.

So far, it has held its own against such tablet-oriented companies as UrbanSpoon‘s Rez and Groupon‘s Breadcrumb — OpenTable’s base of customers is too strong to quickly turn off. OpenTable itself is preparing for a transition. Yet, it has been developing a Cloud Based program that charge a $2.49 per diner charge.

Structurally, we also ask ourselves whether OpenTable is in a distinct “high end restaurant reservations silo,” where it now sits; or whether it is really part of a developing “food silo” that is based on search and discovery, would also include reviews; restaurant and fastfood delivery (i.e. GrubHub), grocery delivery (Amazon Fresh, Google) and reviews (Yelp.) Priceline might be positioning itself to be in the right of the middle of these conjoining elements. (then again… the new silo might ultimately be oriented more around delivery).

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Restaurants are among the top categories for group buying deals. Now OpenTable, the restaurant reservations service, is getting in on the game. On its blog today, OpenTable announced that it is launching a weekly “Spotlight” offer that provides diners with $50 of dining for $25 at a featured restaurant, which must be an OpenTable customer.

The revenues are being split with restaurants and represent OpenTable’s first transaction product with consumers. OpenTable says it will feature a wide range of restaurants, both casual and formal.

Most dining parties will probably end up spending more than the offers, since typical OpenTable customers spend $50 a head and bring two to three people to dinner. Yelp has also been experimenting with group buying under the “Yelp Eats” and “Yelp Drinks” monikers.

Spotlight launches first in New York and Boston, with the weekly offers available beginning on Thursdays at 5 p.m. Other U.S. cities will follow in short order. In its first day, 1,100 New York offers have been sold, and 700 Boston offers. The infrastructure for the offers is being provided by IMShopping’s Nimble Commerce.

OpenTable intends to juice demand for the coupons by dropping “get a clue” hints as to the restaurant’s ID prior to the coupon going online — something that might spark additional page views.

Here are this week’s clues:

New York: This restaurant’s namesake has earned a total of 12 fierce and fiery Michelin stars.

Boston: This “Boston’s Best” spot offers fresh, simple, hearty fare akin to the teashops in British universities. Only better.

The post OpenTable Launches Group Buying Deals (Updated) appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

As my colleague Mike Boland has reported, OpenTable has opened its network a bit, allowing registered Yelp users to directly make reservations from Yelp — whether they have registered with OpenTable or not. Users who have registered with both services will automatically get the benefits that OpenTable provides (i.e., dining credits). But they don’t have to.

The immediacy of linking Yelp’s reviews with reservations should prime the pump for OpenTable, and get more customers to ultimately register. Among OpenTable’s 11,000 restaurant customers in North America, there probably isn’t a single one without a Yelp review. OpenTable also says it won’t water down the comprehensive customer info that OpenTable has on every registered diner (i.e., missed meals, preferences, etc.). It will simply keep files on customers that come in with Yelp IDs.

OpenTable, in general, is aggressively moving to bring more diners and restaurants into its system. Another move the company recently made was the launch of OpenTable Connect, a Web-based reservation system that restaurants can use in lieu of the core OpenTable system. OpenTable Connect, which is aimed at mid-priced restaurants, such as bistros and sushi houses, costs $49 a month, and $2.50 per diner. More than 82 restaurants are currently signed on.

OpenTable’s moves come as it deals with more competition. CityGrid Media’s Urbanspoon, for instance, has launched two complementary reservation products that undermine OpenTable’s fees — and open new fronts in the battles of Yelp vs. Citysearch and now OpenTable vs. Urbanspoon/CityGrid Media.

The first of Urbanspoon’s new products is Urbanspoon Rez, an online reservations system that is now in 170 restaurants in Los Angeles and Seattle and ready for national rollout. The second is Urbanspoon RezBook, an iPad-based system that directly mirrors OpenTable’s proprietary Electronic Reservations Book computer. RezBook is now in pilot mode in five restaurants. A new report on Urbanspoon’s strategy is being released today for clients of BIA/Kelsey’s Marketplaces program.

The post Implications of Yelp’s Deal With OpenTable appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

As my colleague Mike Boland has reported, OpenTable has opened its network a bit, allowing registered Yelp users to directly make reservations from Yelp — whether they have registered with OpenTable or not. Users who have registered with both services will automatically get the benefits that OpenTable provides (i.e., dining credits). But they don’t have to.

The immediacy of linking Yelp’s reviews with reservations should prime the pump for OpenTable, and get more customers to ultimately register. Among OpenTable’s 11,000 restaurant customers in North America, there probably isn’t a single one without a Yelp review. OpenTable also says it won’t water down the comprehensive customer info that OpenTable has on every registered diner (i.e., missed meals, preferences, etc.). It will simply keep files on customers that come in with Yelp IDs.

OpenTable, in general, is aggressively moving to bring more diners and restaurants into its system. Another move the company recently made was the launch of OpenTable Connect, a Web-based reservation system that restaurants can use in lieu of the core OpenTable system. OpenTable Connect, which is aimed at mid-priced restaurants, such as bistros and sushi houses, costs $49 a month, and $2.50 per diner. More than 82 restaurants are currently signed on.

OpenTable’s moves come as it deals with more competition. CityGrid Media’s Urbanspoon, for instance, has launched two complementary reservation products that undermine OpenTable’s fees — and open new fronts in the battles of Yelp vs. Citysearch and now OpenTable vs. Urbanspoon/CityGrid Media.

The first of Urbanspoon’s new products is Urbanspoon Rez, an online reservations system that is now in 170 restaurants in Los Angeles and Seattle and ready for national rollout. The second is Urbanspoon RezBook, an iPad-based system that directly mirrors OpenTable’s proprietary Electronic Reservations Book computer. RezBook is now in pilot mode in five restaurants. A new report on Urbanspoon’s strategy is being released today for clients of BIA/Kelsey’s Marketplaces program.

The post Implications of Yelp's Deal With OpenTable appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.