DIRTY TRICKS FROM OPENTABLE.COM RESERVATION SYSTEM

An employee of OpenTable, the nationwide restaurant reservation service, made 300 fake reservations over three months at dozens of Chicago restaurants through a rival service called Reserve. The idea was to make Reserve look bad. As many as 1,300 expected diners didn’t show up, including on Valentine’s Day, representing a significant loss of income for the restaurants. Officials at Reserve figured out the scheme after looking into the data and notified OpenTable on February 21. OpenTable fired the employee the next day, claiming the person “acted alone.” OpenTable stressed the “rogue” employee wasn’t in a managerial or sales position and said affected restaurants would be reimbursed for lost revenue.
* One clue: All the reservations were made by a Mr. Ben Dover.
* Sounds like OpenTable was trying to eat Reserve’s lunch.
* It’s like a food fight, but without the food.
* Later, somebody ordered 1,300 pizzas to be delivered to OpenTable.