Connecting OpenTable to Tablevoice takes about ten minutes. What makes or breaks the first week is how OpenTable is set up behind that connection. This page covers both: the connection, then five checks to walk through before you go live.
Part 1 — Connect OpenTable to Tablevoice
You do this once. In Tablevoice, open Configuration → Integrations → OpenTable. The Setup tab shows your Tablevoice Business ID and the connection status.
Copy the Tablevoice Business ID shown on the Setup tab.
Log in to OpenTable GuestCenter. Your OpenTable account must have the Marketing or All access role.
Open the menu (☰, top-left). Under Admin, select Integrations.
Under Phone Automation, select Tablevoice.
Select Get Started.
Paste the Tablevoice Business ID in the Unique Identifier field, then select Verify.
Check that the information matches and select Connect.
Back in Tablevoice, refresh the page and select Test Connection.
Under Configuration → Reservations, set Booking through OpenTable to Integrated.
Under Configuration → AI Host, select Update AI Host.
Once connected, the Setup tab shows a green Connected badge, and the Availability tab lets you search your live OpenTable inventory the way your AI Host sees it.
Part 2 — Five checks before you go live
In this order:
Turn on credit card request texts, if any reservation needs a card.
Decide whether your AI Host asks about seating.
Decide what your AI Host may book.
Match the party-size limits.
Match your cancellation and change policies to what you actually do.
1. Turn on credit card request texts
Only if any of your reservations require a hold, deposit or prepayment. Experiences, large parties, peak nights and holiday menus are the usual cases.
When a booking needs a card, OpenTable texts the guest a link to add one. If that text is turned off for in-house reservations, OpenTable refuses the booking and your AI Host has to hand the caller off to your team.
Log in to OpenTable GuestCenter and make sure the correct restaurant is selected in the top-left.
Open the menu (☰, top-left) and go to Communications.
In the left sidebar under Communications, click Settings.
Turn Request credit cards for in-house reservations on.
Changes save automatically. There is no Save button on this page.
2. Decide whether your AI Host asks about seating
This is a Tablevoice choice, not an OpenTable one. Under Configuration → Reservations → Seatings, the Seating preference question has three settings. What you pick decides which of the steps below apply.
Setting | What your AI Host does | What to set up |
Don't ask | Books without asking about seating. | Nothing. |
By dining area | Asks which room or section the caller prefers, and says each area's name out loud. | Give each area a name a host would say (below). |
By table type | Asks which table style the caller prefers: high top, bar, patio. Only asks when more than one type is free for that time and party size. | Check each table's type (below). |
If you chose By dining area:
In Tablevoice, under Dining Areas on the same card, give each area an Override Title written the way a host would say it: Main Dining Room rather than MDR, Bar Lounge rather than Bar 2. Nothing changes in OpenTable.
Tables with no dining area in OpenTable arrive as one area called "Other". If that is really one room, rename it in Tablevoice. If it mixes rooms, assign those tables in OpenTable under Availability Planning → Floor plan, then Publish.
If you chose By table type:
In Tablevoice, under Table Types on the same card, rename any type your AI Host should say differently. The standard OpenTable names are used otherwise.
Types come from each table's Table Type in OpenTable: Standard, Bar, High-top, Counter, Outdoor. If a table is typed wrong, fix it under Availability Planning → Floor plan and Publish.
3. Decide what your AI Host may book
Your AI Host books from your in-house availability, the same inventory your team sees at the host stand. That is wider than what you release online. Anything you hold back from online booking is still in-house, so your AI Host can see it and book it: private rooms, the chef's table, tables you keep for regulars, the big table you only give out by hand.
Hide those one of three ways.
Permanently, in Tablevoice. Under Configuration → Reservations → Seatings, below the seating question you picked in check 2, a Dining Areas or Table Types list appears. Exclude anything your AI Host should never offer. Excluded areas are removed from availability, so your AI Host never offers or books them. Use this for a private room or chef's table that is never booked by phone.
Temporarily, on the Tablevoice calendar. Under Configuration → Hours & Calendar → Calendar, add a Pause reservations entry for the whole venue or for one dining area, or a Closure, on the dates it applies. Each entry has a line for what the AI Host tells callers, so a guest asking about a buy-out night hears why, not just "no availability". This is the preferred way for buy-outs, private functions and patio closures.
At the source, in OpenTable. Under Availability Planning → Schedule, set that table type or area to Online only or Walk-in for the shift. Do this when your team should not be booking it by phone either.
Blocking a date in OpenTable only blocks online bookings. Your AI Host still sees the in-house inventory for that day. To close a day to phone bookings too, add a Closure or Pause reservations entry on the Tablevoice calendar, or edit the shift under OpenTable's Availability Planning → Schedule or Special days.
4. Match the party-size limits
OpenTable's maximum party size and Tablevoice's Maximum party size for a regular reservation (under Configuration → Reservations → Party Sizes & Groups) must agree. If OpenTable stops at 6 and Tablevoice allows 8, a party of 7 fails at booking and the guest hears you are full.
5. Match your cancellation and change policies to what you actually do
Your AI Host cancels and changes reservations through OpenTable, and OpenTable applies your policies exactly as written. Two things it will refuse: any Experience booking, and a reservation with a hold, deposit or prepayment once the free cancellation window has closed. When OpenTable refuses, your AI Host hands the caller to a team member, or takes a message outside transfer hours.
If your team waives the policy over the phone anyway, the written policy is stricter than the real one, and every one of those calls lands on your team. Loosen the window in OpenTable to match what you actually do, and your AI Host handles them itself.
In OpenTable, review the cancellation window and card policy on each shift under Availability Planning → Schedule, and on each Experience under Availability Planning → Experiences. Set them to what you really enforce.
Experience bookings can be made by phone but never cancelled or changed by phone. If that is not acceptable, exclude the Experience under Configuration → Reservations → Experiences so your AI Host does not book it.
Keep the Cancellation Policy text under Configuration → House Rules → Reservation Policies in step with OpenTable. Your AI Host quotes it when guests ask, and reads OpenTable's own policy back when it books a reservation that needs a card. Under Configuration → Reservations → Existing Bookings → Cancellations, leave the Cancellation Mode unset (it follows Integrated, so your AI Host cancels on the call) or pick Confirmation needed if you would rather review every cancellation.
Part 3 — Test it
On the Setup tab, select Test Connection.
Open the Availability tab and search a busy night. Every room and table type you see there is one your AI Host will offer. This is the fastest way to notice a private room is exposed.
Call your AI Host and book a table a few months out, then cancel it in OpenTable. If the slot needs a card, the guest's phone should get OpenTable's text within a minute or two.