SeatMe Review
SeatMe offers restaurants an affordable alternative to OpenTable, and the company's recent acquisition by Yelp brings a powerful ally to the business war for reservation-booking business. For many years, OpenTable has dominated the industry with its Electronic Reservation Book system that drives revenue by deducting commissions on the total sales that each reservation generates. SeatMe, however, charges only an affordable monthly fee for making reservations, which could save restaurateurs hundreds or thousands of dollars each month.
Restaurateurs' other concerns are whether SeatMe has the chops to reach local diners with its system and technology. SeatMe's acquisition by the industry-leading consumer-review site Yelp makes the
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No long-term contract is required, and it only takes a few minutes to train your staff to use the system.
SeatMe Background and Profile
SeatMe transitioned from a startup company to major industry player in just two years. The company's decision to offer reservation bookings at a low flat fee instead of taking a commission percentage of every sale attracted immediate notice from the hospitality industry. Yelp, which had been looking for new services to monetize its third-party, unsolicited review site, acquired SeatMe in 2013 to challenge OpenTable's hold on the reservations market and sucker-punch Google in the eye as well.
Yelp is also testing restaurant delivery services, so SeatMe could eventually take reservations and delivery orders for dinners, lunches and catering business. SeatMe's future, of course, is now tied to Yelp's business prospects, which have been disappointing lately due to three consecutive years of not making a profit before posting modest gains in 2014.
Many business analysts predict that Yelp is ripe for a friendly or hostile takeover in late 2015 or
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Yelp's technology has always been cutting-edge, so SeatMe's customers can expect to benefit from Yelp's technology developments, apps and upgrades of mobile marketing apps for both Android and iOS users.
SeatMe Competitors and Market Opportunities
Yelp and SeatMe are competing with market leaders Google and OpenTable. Apple wants to get in the game as well, if filing a patent for an online ordering and reservation system is any indication of its intentions. OpenTable expanded its efforts by acquiring small reservation systems like Ness, Rezbook and Quickcue. Google is always a force in any marketing program,and the company's acquisition of the Appetas reservation system promises competition in the reservation booking wars from the world's most popular search engine.
SeatMe's biggest competitor might well end up being parent company Yelp. Restaurants that don't need an extensive system can book reservations with a free website widget on their Yelp profile page and get many of SeatMe's intuitive features without paying the company's modest monthly fee of $99.
SeatMe, OpenTable, Google and Yelp Generate Complex