OpenTable, the restaurant reservation application, is working on a pilot program in Boston that rewards frequent diners with special reservations at hard-to-book restaurants, encouraging users to leverage the app for more than just casual dining.

The program, called Premium Access, gives special reservations at high-end restaurants that normally have long waitlists to get in to OpenTable users who are frequent high-value diners. The move is meant to help expand the app’s reach to higher-end diners who dine out more often and spend more.

“This Premium Access pilot fits into the overall strategy of building loyalty by helping diners discover and book the perfect restaurant table and, at the same time, helping restaurants connect with new guests,” said Vannie Shu, consumer product marketing lead at OpenTable. “In terms of other diner incentives, the OpenTable Dining Points program enables diners to earn points for each honored reservation.  

“Points can then be redeemed for OpenTable gift cards that may be used towards the check at participating restaurants. Most reservations earn 100 Dining Points, but we also offer select 1,000 Point reservations that can help diners earn rewards faster.”

Loyal diners
OpenTable’s new Premium Access feature that lets customers exchange rewards points for reservations at hard-to-book locations is being piloted in the Boston area.

Customers who want to use the new program, must simply set their location to the Boston area when starting up the app and look for the new Premium Access section.

Once there, customers can use their OpenTable Dining Rewards Points to book reservations at special access, high-end restaurants that would normally be much more difficult to book.

The reservations at these fancier establishments are set aside by partnering restaurants specifically for OpenTable diners.

This offers the double benefit of giving partnering restaurants assurance that their tables will be filled with valuable, reliable customers who have a proven record of spending on good dining and offering rewards to loyal customers by giving them access to the cream of the crop in fine dining.

The points that customers spend to get those reservations can be earned from making reservations at any standard establishment through OpenTable regardless of price. This means that customers who are used to fine dining can get a free shot at skipping the line for an exclusive restaurant and that customers who normally dine at lower-end, more casual places are given the option to try out a fancier place that they might not normally go.

A smooth transition
To facilitate this new feature and to encourage users to make more reservations, OpenTable has been refining its model to allow for quicker smoother transactions and dining experiences. Recently, the reservation app introduced a virtual Tab system that would let users put their financial information into the app before going to the restaurant of their choice, inform their server that they are using OpenTable tab to pay and have their account automatically charged at the end of the meal (see story).

To make it even easier, OpenTable also integrated with Apple Pay early this year for a similarly speedy checkout process, encouraging users to make more reservations (see story).

More rewards points earned is a boon to all parties involved, giving restaurants business, getting OpenTable traffic and letting consumers redeem those points for rewards and, in this case, hard-to-get reservations.

“We have more than 38,000 restaurants around the world on the OpenTable network  that span the spectrum in terms of concepts and price points,” Ms. Shu said. “So we don’t see the program as limited to any one type of restaurant, but it does lend itself to those that are really hot or in high demand during peak days and times and want to make tables available for high frequency, high-value diners.”