Set up to reopen

For a successful reopening, you’ll want to make sure your books are open, your staff is ready, and guests know about your offerings and the measures you’re taking to ensure a safe dining environment.

• Stay informed about local regulations and use OpenTable to adjust your floor plans and hours accordingly.
• Update your hours of operation, menus (including any new items with photos), delivery, and takeaway information on your website and other sites you might be listed on.
• Let diners know what to expect when they come to dine at your restaurant. This could include information on any health and safety precautions you are taking. On OpenTable, you can highlight your safety precautions on your profile page and booking policy messaging when diners make a reservation.
• Let OpenTable know if there has been a change to the main point of contact in the restaurant.

Set your business up for success

• Decide which services make sense for your restaurant and delivery or takeaway options.
• Contact your suppliers and vendors to let them know you’re reopening.
• In collaboration with your vendor, reconsider your menu items and profitability of each item. Consider shortening your menu to adjust to the new economic climate.

Bring your staff back

• Consider starting with a small crew as you adjust your operations and respond to diner demand, bringing back staff who can perform multiple tasks
• Train your staff to be able to comply with local guidance on health and safety standards
• Retrain staff on reservation systems, point-of-sale, and other technologies.
• OpenTable allows you to set individual access controls for your team.
• Share talking points with staff for anticipated guest questions. With OpenTable, you can add those to shift notes to keep these top of mind when serving diners.

Anticipate and stay on top of guest concerns

Establish clear safety and sanitation procedures and create a safe and welcoming environment by preparing your staff to respond to questions from guests.

• Be empathetic to guest requests such as changing seats, asking for new cutlery, or avoiding waiting areas.
• Follow government guidance on sanitation.
• Consider adding sanitiser stations at your entrance for guests.
• Beyond your profile and booking policies, let guests know what precautions you’re taking on your website and/or via email.
• Discourage food sharing by changing shared or family-style dishes to individual portions.
• Consider menu boards or single-use menus to decrease points of contact or utilise QR codes so that diners can view menus on their smartphones.
• Adopt a credit card-only system to eliminate handling cash.

Get the word out

Diners are ready to put their pots and pans away and come back to your restaurant, but they first need to know you’re open. Make it easy for people to discover you and find updated information about your restaurant.

• Put the word out on your social channels.
• Offer set menus or complimentary items to attract diners

Evolve your operations

As your business continues to evolve, your operations and supply chain will likely shift. Keep track of what’s working for you and your peers.

• Track how you’re doing. OpenTable for Restaurants give your deep insights into your reservation trends.
• Stay updated with governmental advice.
• Contact your vendors and suppliers to let them know of any changes in demand.
• Continue to learn from peers in the industry.
• Consider adding additional revenue streams such as meal kits, takeaway, delivery, gifts and grocery items.

The state of the restaurant industry

As the Covid-19 pandemic keep people home and some cities and countries limit restaurant operations, our community of nearly 60,000 restaurants faces unprecedented challenges. We’ve summarised week-over-week data of diners on our platform in restaurants around the world and are updating it daily.

See the latest in the data center