All switching guides

Switching from OpenTable

You are paying per cover for guests who, in many cases, already knew your name.

What makes this feel harder than it is

The marketplace is the real question, not the software. Some of your covers come from diners discovering you there, and some are regulars routed through it who would have found you anyway. Only you can tell which is which, and it is worth knowing before you decide.

What comes with you

  • Your guest listExport your contacts from your current provider and upload the CSV. Served reads the usual column names, joins split first and last name columns, skips guests you already have, and tells you which rows it could not read. Imported guests are marked consent unknown until you confirm it, because a spreadsheet cannot carry a lawful basis across.
  • Your menuPaste the text from your current menu and Served structures it into sections, items, prices, allergens and dietary flags. Works from whatever you already have.
  • Venue details and opening hoursEntered once during onboarding, then published to your Served page. Most venues finish this in a sitting.
  • Your Google reviewsRead live from your Google listing rather than migrated, so nothing has to move. They appear in the reviews dashboard as soon as the listing is connected.
  • PhotosUploaded directly. Anything already on your Google listing keeps working where it is.

What does not

  • Upcoming bookingsThere is no bookings importer. Bookings already in your current system stay there and get honoured there; Served starts taking new ones from the day you switch over. This is why the changeover is scheduled rather than instant.
  • Historical covers and booking historyDoes not move. Export it before you close the account: once it is gone, it is gone, and this is the single most common regret in any platform move.

How the changeover runs

  1. Run a free Growth Scan

    Before changing anything, see what your current setup is actually doing for your visibility. It takes a venue name and no account, and it gives you a baseline to judge the move against afterwards.

  2. Export everything from your current provider

    Guest contacts, booking history, anything you would miss. Do this first and while your account is still active. Under GDPR you have a right to your personal data in a portable format; ask for it in writing if the export button is not obvious.

  3. Upload the guest list

    Drop the exported CSV into Served and your contacts come across. You will see how many landed, how many you already had, and any rows that could not be read. Guests arrive marked consent unknown, so nothing gets emailed until you decide it should.

  4. Set Served up alongside, not instead

    Create the venue, paste the menu, publish the page. Nothing is switched off yet and your current system keeps taking bookings, so there is no window where guests cannot reach you.

  5. Pick a changeover day

    Usually a quiet service. From that day Served takes new bookings; anything already in the old system is worked off there. Two systems overlap for as long as the last booking in the old one.

  6. Close the old account, after the last booking

    Not before. Check the notice period on your side first. That is between you and them, and it is the thing most likely to cost money if it is missed.

Ask OpenTable these before you start

We have not read your contract and cannot tell you what it says. These are the answers worth having in writing before anything changes.

  • What share of your covers came from their marketplace versus your own site and phone?
  • Can you export your diner list, and does it include the guests who booked through the marketplace?
  • What notice does your agreement require?
  • If you leave, what happens to your listing and the reviews attached to it?

When to stay where you are

If a large share of your covers genuinely originates from diners browsing the marketplace rather than looking for you, that reach is doing real work. Served makes you easier to find on your own terms, but it is not a marketplace and will not replace that demand overnight.

Start free Growth Scan

Still deciding? Served vs OpenTable, capability by capability

Served makes no claim about any other provider’s contract terms, export tools or notice periods. Those vary by plan and by country, they change, and only your provider can tell you what yours says. Everything above about the other side is a question to ask them, not a fact we are asserting.