Opentable (NASDAQ:OPEN)

I have discovered that sometimes my best market research on a company is relying on my own experience with the company. This is the case with my decision to buy OPEN. I have now been using the product for almost a year. I have been using their product more and more in various circumstances, such as finding a table on before the theater, out with friends or clients, even reserving a table for 20 when at an out of town at a soccer tournament for my son’s team. The convenience is what got me started. I use the reviews and menus on OPEN to decide where to make reservations. Finding a table at the last minute is not a problem. Finding a table when out of town has never been simpler. Discovering new dining experience has become a joy. I have not been disappointed with the service so far. As a result, my use of OPEN now causes me to exclude any restaurant that is not an OPEN client. Not that I would not want to go to non-OPEN restaurant, but when I am looking for a restaurant the non-OPEN restaurant is not readily in front of me when I am making the decision. Which is why I think OPEN has a much brighter future. If there are even 20% of OPEN users who act like me, can any restaurant owner afford not to be on OPEN? I can also see all chain restaurants that take reservations being on OPEN? It can only be a matter of time before the casual fast food restaurants pay a fee to OPEN to get their names in front of hungry nearby customers. I think this is going to be as common to a restaurant and to dining out as MasterCard and Visa.

Good service, growing customer base, and it's great for restaurants and customers. Opentable will be successful for a long time.

Yeah, so it books reservations for restaurants around the country. And the market values what used to be a 2 minute phone call for a $1.1B market cap?? Seems just a tad over-cooked.

The website is also a little ghetto. I know high school students that have put more thought into a website / blog design.

My husband uses this app a lot, he entertains customers for business. Easy to use and restaurants seem happy with it. I suspect the sales force is better than yelp, who people seem to resent. Open table should continue to grow if it can keep users and restaurants happy.

Yahoo is already choking on $4B in goodwill, the idea that they would be interested in another $1B+ market cap acquisition priced at 2000 bubble prices in a P/E compression environment is laughable.

Of course I could be mistaken here. Executive destruction of shareholder equity has historically been masked by central bank corporate welfare policies. Until it can no longer be...

Economy slows, less people eat out, OPEN's revenues dip. Economy picks up, more people eat out revenues return.

OPEN has room to grow in terms of getting people to use it's service. A greater usage base plus "normal" eating out patterns should equal a brighter future for the restaurant reservation service.

At this point I'm not as concerned about the threat of substitutes as Open Table has been integrated with Siri, Yelp & Zagat.

Reserve your seat at the put table, this baby isn't going anywhere.

Opentable has a great idea that just hasn't been fully embraced quite yet. This is a very practical service and as people are increasingly becoming more reluctant to dial a phone number, this could prove a very useful alternative for both the consumer and the respective restaurant.

Good business model. Will find additional ways to get revenue

Amass a fortune

A guess for me, but I know lots of people who use this. I also like using it.

Stock has been hammered. Another play on economic recovery.

OPEN has market leadership in the segment. Market is expecting competition, but this is a longer term risk. In the short term this stock seems oversold without meaningful change in fundamentals.

Red-thumbed this for a while and picked up points. Now it's time to pick up OPEN again at its depressed share price. OPEN has a huge advantage over other internet flame-outs in (a) the high barrier to entry and (b) exclusivity. Two businesses cannot play at the restaurant reservation game; OPEN has a lock on this space.

I don't think that we're at the bottom yet!

EC says it looks promising from a technical perspective and is the market leader in online reservations.

Innovative Business plan with stratigic aquisitions to assist in building strong moat - strong showing domesticly - may be troubling in 2011 and some of 2012 in the international areana ( think Europe ) but I believe this will pass and Open Table will continue to grow and beat the S&P 500 in the long term.

Overpriced stock in an economy where eating out will be less frequent. Bound to affect the results here.

Seems to be the thing everyone is using these days.