Table of contents
Running a restaurant has never been simple. These days, it’s more complicated than ever. Costs are up, and diners have higher expectations than ever before. That means restaurateurs need smarter tools that help them stay competitive, protect slim margins, and deliver consistently great service. That’s exactly what the partnership between OpenTable and Square delivers.
At the Square Spring 2025 Releases event, OpenTable’s Director of Global Partnerships, Darcy Lundy, joined Square leaders and partners to talk about how the Square-OpenTable integration is helping restaurants deliver a better guest experience. “Restaurants continue to face margin pressure with increased prices across food, labor, rent, insurance, and utilities,” Lundy explained. “And it’s really important for OpenTable to help restaurants grow their revenue in a scalable and smart way. And OpenTable’s mission is to help restaurants do what they do better. And I think it really aligns with Square.”
By integrating OpenTable’s guest management system with the Square Point of Sale (POS) ecosystem, restaurants now get a complete view of their diners, from the moment a reservation is made to the moment the bill is paid. The result is that operators juggle less tech, deliver smoother service, and enjoy a sharper focus on hospitality.
Here are some of the top benefits the integration unlocks.
Fewer systems, one unified experience
Restaurants often run on a patchwork of disconnected tools — one for reservations, another for payments, others for CRM, marketing, loyalty, or deposits. That kind of fragmentation slows everything down and creates more room for error.
The Square + OpenTable integration solves for all that. Now, reservation and guest data flows straight into the Square POS. At the same time, transactional data syncs back to OpenTable, updating guest profiles with real purchase history, visit frequency, and dining preferences. From the front-of-house to the back office, staff can operate from a single source of truth.
“Sellers tell us they don’t want too many tools,” said Michael Cohen, Square’s Head of Global Partnerships. “They want something that just works.” That’s why this integration was built to reduce friction across the board, helping operators unify their systems without sacrificing service.
From day one of the integration, restaurants can deliver enhanced hospitality, improve operational efficiencies, and better target marketing.”
Darcy Lundy → OpenTable’s Director of Global Partnerships
Hosts don’t need to jump between tools to remember which guest loves the Chardonnay. Servers don’t have to ask if it’s someone’s first time in. The information they need is in their dashboards, right when they need it.
Real-time table intelligence
One of the most tangible wins from this integration is the real-time table status feature. As diners progress through their meals, from appetizers to entrées to dessert to paid, Square automatically sends those updates to OpenTable. That means that hosts and floor managers can see exactly what’s happening at each table, without needing to interrupt service or check in manually.
“As a diner moves through their meal, the host can see that in real time in OpenTable for Restaurants,” Lundy explained. “They can be assigning tables and optimizing floor plans, ultimately to decrease wait times for other guests.” With that kind of visibility, restaurants can speed up table turns and maximize revenue, all while delivering a smoother experience to diners.
Deposit automation equals less friction
No-shows and late cancellations have a direct impact on a restaurant’s margins. An OpenTable analysis shows that it only takes six no-shows to wipe the already razor-thin profits of a 40-seat restaurant. Reservation fees, or deposits, are one way to address the problem.
But collecting deposits has traditionally added more work to an already busy restaurant flow. When a guest prepaid a deposit, servers had to manually subtract that amount from the bill. It was a small task, but one that created room for error and slowed down checkout.
That’s why Square and OpenTable teamed up to build a more seamless solution. With the new integration, deposits are automatically deducted from the diner’s bill at checkout. According to Lundy, this removes friction and “allows restaurant teams to focus on delivering hospitality and recognition.” For guests, it’s a smoother close to the meal. And for staff, it’s one less thing to worry about at the peak of service.
A truly connected tech stack
Behind every great dining experience is a lot of behind-the-scenes coordination. And if the systems running the restaurant don’t talk to each other, that coordination can quickly turn into chaos.
That’s where Square and OpenTable come in. The integration connects key parts of the operation, from reservations to payments, giving restaurants a more streamlined and reliable way to work. Many businesses in the food and beverage space operate with complex models, and the partnership helps simplify how they work. Instead of adding more layers of tech, it brings critical systems together so staff can focus on service rather than navigating workarounds.
That’s why the onboarding process is seamless and self-serve, and the system sync ensures operators get the 360-degree view they need to run smarter. “Restaurants can simply log in to OpenTable for Restaurants, navigate to our integrations marketplace, click on the Square tile, and have data syncing in no time,” she explained. For restaurants that want a little extra support, onboarding specialists are also available to walk through setup and ensure the POS is connected right out of the gate.
This ease of setup is especially important in an industry where teams are stretched thin and turnover is high. The less time spent on complicated configurations, the more time teams have to focus on guests.
Looking ahead
The most exciting thing about the Square and OpenTable partnership isn’t just what it makes possible today, but what’s on the horizon. This first wave of integration solves some of the biggest pain points for restaurants — simplifying operations, reducing friction, and making hospitality easier to deliver. But both teams see even more potential ahead. Future enhancements could include deeper connections between loyalty programs, richer guest insights, and smarter marketing tools, all designed to help restaurants grow without growing complexity.
“This is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how Square and OpenTable can partner together,” Lundy said. With stronger data connections and more shared visibility, she added, servers can “think less about the tech powering the day to day and more about their guests and diners and how to deliver memorable experiences.”
That kind of long-term thinking is exactly why Square prioritizes partnerships like this one. “Our partners are our most trusted and most influential collaborators,” explained Cohen — a sentiment that underscores how closely aligned both teams are in their mission to serve restaurants better.
The integration with OpenTable already helps restaurants run more smoothly and serve more personally. But it also lays the foundation for something bigger: a connected, flexible system that grows with the business and makes exceptional service the standard.
