New Feature Lets Customers Make Dinner Reservations From Facebook's Mobile Pages Integration with OpenTable puts reservations at 20,000 restaurants at users' fingertips.
By Benjamin Kabin •
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Let's face it, how often do you search Facebook to find a great restaurant to eat at? If you're like most people, probably not very often -- if ever. The social media company is looking to change that.
Facebook users will soon be able to reserve a spot at tens of thousands of restaurants with the tap of a finger. The social-media site is partnering with reservation service OpenTable to allow users to make restaurant reservations from inside its mobile app.
Similar to its integration with Yelp, the new OpenTable feature will appear as a button on a restaurant's mobile Page right below its address. Users who wish to reserve a table will be given availability options. Once they choose to make a reservation, Facebook automatically fills in the user's name, email address and phone number and sends a confirmation receipt as an email.
OpenTable, which keeps tabs on about 20,000 restaurants in North American, charges them $1 to deliver customers who spend an average of $43. That's not a bad return, and demonstrates Facebook's commitment to bringing functionality into its mobile Pages offering.
That, in turn, could encourage businesses to devote cash resources to promoting posts, purchasing likes for their page and simply engaging customers over Facebook at a higher rate -- something the social network always likes.
Facebook also said today that it will display TV listing information on U.S. primetime TV and movie Pages. This new feature will only be available to iOS users, at least to start.
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