Aloha and Open Tables 1

[alohaakamai3]

Can anyone give me an official answer as to whether Aloha can interface with Open Tables? We have got a client that has both Aloha and Open tables, and claims they have heard these two products now DO work together.

I have heard conflicting answers, and just figured one of you guys could offer some clarification.

Thanks!

 

[DTSMAN]

I believe so.
Open Table people should know what to do, and they have remote access to their computers usually.
I can send you the contact info for a customer that is using it and interfacing it with Aloha and maybe they may answer a couple of simple questions for you if you need it.



Bo

Kentucky phone support-
"Mash the Kentrol key and hit scape."

 

[alohaakamai3]

Thanks Bo. Is this client definitely using both together though, are you not 100% sure?

 

[DTSMAN]

Oh, crap.. I may have been thinking of Pro Host.

http://www.jcrsystems.com/prohost.htm

Call Open Table and ask them. Sorry.

Bo

Kentucky phone support-
"Mash the Kentrol key and hit scape."

 

[OrtegasBistro]

This response may be a bit late, and I just came on board with Tek-Tips POS forum, but we just finished integrating Aloha with OpenTable - and everything seems to work... not quite as well as we'd like it, but it does indeed integrate.

- Phil

 

[alohaakamai3]

Better late than never Phil. Thanks for the input!

 

[AdamDR]

We have a client looking into this. When you say that it doesn't integrate as well as you'd like, what do you mean by that? Can you expand a little bit?

Thanks,
Adam

 

[OrtegasBistro]

You bet. OpenTable is capable of "listening to" the data sent to and from client POS machines. OpenTable listens for certain events, such as "New Table", "Entree Ordered", or "Desert Ordered". These events give OpenTable cues as to how far along that table's service is at any given time. (If a check was recently dropped, for example, OpenTable would know the table should be turned soon.)

Although OpenTable can listen for somewhere around 8-12 different types of events (don't quote me on the numbers - I'm not sure about that), Aloha only generates three: New Table, Entree Ordered, and Desert Ordered. There are several other types of events that I wished Aloha generated, such as "Check Dropped" or "Entree Plated"...

For the three events that Aloha generates, OpenTable picks them up perfectly and updates the table status appropriately. Open table even picks up the payee's name from a credit card (if one was used) and logs the amount the payee spent (for marketing purposes, if needed).

I hope this explaination helps. From what I hear, I think we are among the first restaurants to integrate the two. We will be training our staff in the integration in a couple weeks, and I might have more details to report after it goes into full use.

 

[AdamDR]

Very helpful, thank you!!