Imagine you own a restaurant and you get all your reservations online through your booking system; you even tell people to book online when they call, via an automated message. But then, all of a sudden, Google decides to hijack that booking link and replace it with Google Assistant’s calling feature.
So instead of Google linking to the booking system you selected, let’s say OpenTable booking integration. Now Google uses Google Assistant to try to call the restaurant and speak to a person. But no person will answer the call, the call goes to a message to tell people to book online. So the next thing that happens is that Google gives up calling, thinks there are no reservations available and tells those trying to book online that there are no reservations available.
While that is shit, if I call a restaurant to make a reservation and they just tell me to go to their website, I’m probably going elsewhere anyway.
Why even have a phone number if it is useless?
Tried calling a new Indian place in town and they wanted a credit card to book a reservation. Didn’t end up going.
Not sure about your situation specifically, but restaurants requiring a credit card during reservation is on the rise to combat reservation scalping and the no-shows that res scalping causes.
That is a thing? Restaurant reservation scalping ? Who is the market for that? I can buy restaurant reservations on eBay now?
Definitely a thing for days like Valentine’s.
I, on the other hand, prefer to do it online and wouldn’t mind this. Horses for courses.
Why even have a phone number if it is useless?
Really? Are reservations the only use for a phone?
The restaurant seems to think so if it just plays an automated message to book a reservation online
Yeah possibly. The article doesn’t specify it but I’ve seen systems that would give you the automated message but still put you through if you stayed on the line.
Why even have a phone number if it is useless?
Really? Are reservations the only use for a phone?
A publicly shared phone number for the restaurant? Pretty much. It has limited uses for checking hours and holidays and such, but the primary use is going to be checking availability to eat at the restaurant. If that’s not something you can get over the phone, 99% of the reason to have a public facing phone number is negated.
At a restaurant? Uh yeah.
Why even have a phone number if it is useless?
- forgotten glasses
- arranging a special event
- deliveries and business coordination
- employees calling out
- etc
These all require someone to actually pick up the phone, instead of playing an automated message.
You can have both.
Welcome to restaurant. For reservations please visit our website on restaurant.com. For any other requests, please hold the line.
Because many third part services require a phone number and will post that phone number around without permission.
I have a restaurant and we don’t offer phone service at all, phone goes to voicemail which tells you to send an email or order online.
I posted the number nowhere, but guess what, apple maps requires a phone number, uber grubhub dd require phone numbers, and lo and behold my fucking pos was posting the number on my website without my permission and gave me no way to remove it until I called repeatedly and complained, but even then it still pops back up sometimes.
Edit sorry I replied to the wrong person and im too lazy to change it 😬
employees calling out
Why would the employee have to look up a publicly listed number to call their employers to call out? That’s something a private line could easily take care of.
Google is so shite, damn phone app kept dialling China instead of local numbers here in Ireland.
Mega corpo abusing small business but these “entrepreneurs” still bootlick the regime
Fuckong idiots think they are part of the club haha
As an entrepreneur, please enlighten me: what is the alternative?
Almost nobody uses Organic Maps.
Barely 5% use Bing, less than 0.1% DDG.
Google is the default for both Apple and Android devices.
So, please, someone tell me: as an idiot, what else can I use?
I am confused… if you are asking these questions, you are already kinda half way there
I spend 2k on phones from google so I can deGoogle properly… i understand how clown that sounds, but the best you can do is work with the tools given. if enough people do it, that’s how you get change.
The problem here lies with the average consumer. The ones they barely know how to update their own phone, or get confused and panic whenever they see a popup they are not familiar with. The oblivious ones who are completely clueless about our vulnerability and dependance on those tools we now take for granted. The 60+ years old who rely on Facebook to connect with others, and who don’t even know alternatives exist.
You spent 2k on phones you degoogled yourself.
Congrats, this makes you part of the 0.01% of the population who doesn’t use anything Google.
What I’m saying is, 99% of my potential customers—actually, I’m pretty certain it’s 100%— use Google to find my business and my products.
If I try to cater only to the degoogled 0.01%, well, this becomes the equivalent of fishing in an empty pond. Very good for business.
So, please tell me, who’s the “fuckong” idiot here?
I see where you are going…
in context of fucking idiot “entrepreneurs” i was talking about restaurant owners relying on these mega corpos and shilling pro corpo agenda.
It sounds like you are coming from softtware development angle?
No. I’m a client-facing small business owner and entrepreneur. And a former restaurateur.
I absolutely rely on the tools and sites such as Google and Facebook and Instagram to operate.
There are no other viable alternatives to reach potential visitors.
And don’t take kindly being called a fucking idiot “entrepreneur” by a nobody who cannot understand the reality us entrepreneurs face right now.
Do you view yourself a being part of the capital owning class?
Did you support last 30 years of “pro-business” economic policy bestowed upon us?
I think you might need to brush up on your reading comprehension, and maybe your empathy. You’re coming off a bit condescending her. e
Today, I noticed that a restaurant I manage had its OpenTable booking integration replaced with Google Assistant.
Replaced in what context? My understanding is that OpenTable still works just fine but Google is, on its end, no longer automatically referring its own users to OpenTable. I wouldn’t call that “hijacking” unless the restaurant had a prior agreement with Google.
No Available Reservations
That’s not the error message. Google says that you can’t get a reservation through Google Assistant not that there are no reservations available.
Replaced in what context?
This was really confusing to me too from the context of the article. Here’s what I’m guessing. At the top of the article it has this:
So even though the article doesn’t say it, I’m guessing if a user were to search Google maps and find the restaurant, inside the details where was previously a link to “Book a reservation”…through Opentable. The article is saying that for this person’s restaurant Google is no longer showing the Opentable link, and instead showing a Google link driving by the AI. Those screenshots being what the user would see if they try to put in a reservation.
The logical suggestion is if the user were to:
- navigate directly to Opentable, they could successfully make reservation.
- navigate to the restaurant’s website and try to book a reservation, they’d be redirected to Opentable where they would successfully make a reservation.
So the issue, I think, is trying to book a reservation directly from Google Maps results.
