OpenTable Will Soon Let Restaurants Tag Vaccinated Customers

OpenTable, the platform that makes it easy for customers to reserve a table at their favorite restaurants, will soon roll out a feature that makes it easier to verify your vaccination status. Some restaurants are requiring customers who want to eat indoors to show proof of vaccination; going forward, these same customers can be tagged in the OpenTable system to expedite future reservations.

Though many restaurants are once again open to indoor dining, some have certain entry requirements for these customers. The requirements may be based on local regulations or may simply be corporate policy, such as requiring customers who want to dine indoors to show proof of full vaccination.

OpenTable's new feature, which will roll out later this month, is designed to speed up the reservation process by removing the need to verify entry requirements each and every time the customer wants to dine indoors.

Once a customer who has reserved a table has been verified, the restaurant can tag them as meeting requirements so that it won't be necessary to verify again in the future. OpenTable notes that the customer's data, such as a vaccine card, isn't stored by the system; rather, restaurants can simply add a 'verified' tag to these customers.

The verification will show up for any restaurants that may be part of the same group as a restaurant the customers were verified at. When it launches, the feature will only support tagging the customer who made the reservation, but the company explains that notes can be added to the system regarding the verification of others in the dining party.

OpenTable notes that this feature can also be used for things like verifying that the customer is old enough to, for example, be allowed into a bar. Only restaurants will be able to view the 'verified' details about the customers.