Advice on making reservations through "online reservation companies"

When making reservations through another company, just understand that it might be a little easier to deal directly with the hotel. Sometimes the rates are cheaper and if you need to make changes on your reservation, it is much easier to work with the hotel directly.

You will find some good bargains and some nice trips through these other companies and they often work without a glitch or a problem. Just check all sources before booking to insure you have the best possible way of dealing with problems while on the trip.

Should someone be able to sell a reservation for a restaurant besides the restaurant?

I think this is just wrong for someone to act like they have the ability to "auction" or "sell" tables at restaurants without working with the restaurant. Having been a concierge, I know that there are times when you can have a restaurant hold a table or two for you but to sell them...I can't agree with that. I never was a fan of OpenTable or other websites that tried to do the job of a concierge or a person calling the restaurant themselves but after reading this article, I really don't enjoy this process.
~Corey Webbspun


By SARAH KERSHAW
Published: March 12, 2008

IT is hard to imagine Joseph Bastianich, who owns a dozen restaurants with Mario Batali and controls some of the most coveted tables in the country, being flustered by a reservation for two at Babbo for 6:15 on a Friday night.

But Mr. Bastianich was furious: someone was offering that table at TableXchange, a Web site on which diners can buy and sell reservations, hot commodities in a town where getting a table at the most popular restaurants has become an extreme sport.

The price was $25. The table was gone within an hour.

“We’re selling dinner; we don’t sell the opportunity to have dinner,” Mr. Bastianich said. “It goes against the grain of everything we do.”
~~~
Read the entire article in the New York Times.