By Ken Storey
After acquiring mobile tech company JustChalo in June, OpenTable has announced that it will integrate the mobile bill payment that JustChalo was working on. The new feature will allow diners to pay via the OpenTable app. JustChalo currently has a pilot program with the Chalo app in 20 restaurants. OpenTable plans to introduce the new feature by the end of the year in its home city of San Francisco and expand from there.
Matthew Roberts, chief executive of OpenTable, states the the new payment process will feature no "geeky stuff" such as scanning or bar codes. The payment option will allow for diners to pay via a button, the diners can review the check and adjust the tip before making the payment.
The company is working on some kinks in the system still, including how to inform servers that a diner has paid their bill via the app. OpenTable will not take a cut from the payment transactions though restaurants would still need to pay their usual credit card transaction interchange fee.
This is just the latest in a busy year of improvements for OpenTable. In September 2012, it announced a partnership with Foursquare allowing users to make reservations via the Foursquare Explore tab. In January 2013, OpenTable acquired restaurant finding app Foodspotting. OpenTable currently works with over 28,000 restaurants nationwide.
After acquiring mobile tech company JustChalo in June, OpenTable has announced that it will integrate the mobile bill payment that JustChalo was working on. The new feature will allow diners to pay via the OpenTable app. JustChalo currently has a pilot program with the Chalo app in 20 restaurants. OpenTable plans to introduce the new feature by the end of the year in its home city of San Francisco and expand from there.
Matthew Roberts, chief executive of OpenTable, states the the new payment process will feature no "geeky stuff" such as scanning or bar codes. The payment option will allow for diners to pay via a button, the diners can review the check and adjust the tip before making the payment.
The company is working on some kinks in the system still, including how to inform servers that a diner has paid their bill via the app. OpenTable will not take a cut from the payment transactions though restaurants would still need to pay their usual credit card transaction interchange fee.
This is just the latest in a busy year of improvements for OpenTable. In September 2012, it announced a partnership with Foursquare allowing users to make reservations via the Foursquare Explore tab. In January 2013, OpenTable acquired restaurant finding app Foodspotting. OpenTable currently works with over 28,000 restaurants nationwide.
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| Image via Play.Google.com |