Your Online Reservations Reveal Your Dining Secrets
▼ Summary
– OpenTable now provides restaurants with AI-generated customer tags based on past dining behavior, such as drink preferences, spending habits, and cancellation tendencies.
– The platform collects detailed data from point-of-sale systems, including orders and payments, even if reservations aren’t made through OpenTable, by linking accounts via contact information.
– Restaurant staff are skeptical of the tags’ accuracy, noting they can be misleading due to shared accounts and lack context compared to manually kept notes.
– OpenTable states the feature is in beta for Pro plan users, using AI to categorize menu items but not process individual data, and allows users to opt out of data sharing in preferences.
– While Resy also collects dining habit data, it does not share point-of-sale information with unaffiliated restaurants, unlike OpenTable’s cross-restaurant data sharing.
The next time you book a table through a popular reservation platform, your dining habits might precede you. Restaurants using OpenTable’s premium service now receive AI-generated customer tags that highlight everything from your favorite drinks to your spending patterns, all drawn from your past restaurant visits.
Kat Menter, a host at an upscale Austin restaurant who shares industry insights online, recently noticed these new “AI-assisted” labels appearing in her system. While some tags identify customers who frequently order specific beverages like red wine or cocktails, others flag individuals who spend above average, regularly post reviews, or have a history of last-minute cancellations. Menter’s own profile simply reads “juice,” reflecting her well-documented brunch preferences.
This revelation surprises many diners who view reservation platforms as simple booking tools. The mechanism behind this profiling lies in OpenTable’s integration with restaurant point-of-sale systems like Toast and Epos. These systems track everything from inventory and orders to payment details. Even if you don’t book through OpenTable directly, providing your contact information at a participating restaurant can link your dining activity to your profile. The platform compiles data on your arrival time, specific orders, total spending, and payment timing.
Despite this extensive data collection, the information retained might be less detailed than expected. One journalist’s data request returned basic contact details, reservation history, and limited payment information, with only a single note marking them as a “first time diner” from years ago.
Restaurants have always maintained their own customer databases, particularly in fine dining establishments. Some Michelin-starred venues dedicate hours weekly to researching guests’ social media profiles, while others like San Francisco’s Lazy Bear track hundreds of thousands of past visitors. Menter’s restaurant keeps notes on frequent guests’ preferences, including favorite dishes, children’s names, and even seating preferences for security-conscious veterans.
However, Menter expresses skepticism about OpenTable’s automated tags. “We’ve been taking them with a grain of salt,” she notes, describing many labels as seemingly random. The system’s limitations become apparent when it aggregates data across entire dining parties, someone might be tagged as a “high spender” for expensing a business dinner, while a non-drinker could be mislabeled as a cocktail enthusiast based on their companions’ orders.
OpenTable confirms these AI-assisted tags remain in beta testing, exclusively available to restaurants subscribed to their Pro plan. According to communications director Mary-Kate Smitherman, the artificial intelligence analyzes menu item descriptions to categorize orders rather than processing individual guest data. She emphasizes that the technology aims to benefit both businesses and diners by enabling personalized service, such as suggesting preferred dishes or accommodating relaxed dining paces.
Privacy concerns emerge when examining OpenTable’s policy, which mentions sharing “dining preferences” and “additional information about your dining activity” without clearly indicating that data from unrelated restaurant visits might be included. While the policy describes using point-of-sale data for “aggregate information,” Smitherman clarifies this includes “aggregated insights about individual customers.”
Diners can opt out by adjusting their privacy settings. Within account preferences, unchecking “Allow OpenTable to use Point of Sale information” should prevent order history from being shared across the platform’s network. Currently, competitor Resy maintains stricter boundaries, limiting data sharing to affiliated restaurants rather than distributing dining history across unconnected establishments.
For now, restaurant staff appear to treat these automated tags with caution. Menter compares them to “anonymous tips from an unreliable narrator,” suggesting that your service experience likely depends more on the restaurant’s standard practices than on algorithmic profiling. As these systems evolve, they remind us that reservation platforms have always treated diners as valuable data points, not just customers seeking tables.
(Source: The Verge)
