Heads up: This post is 15 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
“To put that in perspective, consider that the average profit margin, before taxes, for a U.S. restaurant is roughly 5%. This means that a table of 4 spending $200 on dinner would generate a $10 profit. In this example, all of that profit would then go to OpenTable fees for having delivered the reservation, leaving the restaurant with nothing other than the hope that that customer would come back (and hopefully book by telephone the next time).”
A restauranteur writes about the poisonous relationship restaurants have with OpenTable - http://incanto.biz/2010/10/22/is-opentable-worth-it Talk about biting the hand that feeds them!
This is a reminder for myself, as my OpenHIppel business model grows and CUUSOO begins to mine and analyze all the user data across the web, we must help nurture all the OpenHippel communities rather than leeching off of them like OpenTable does.