Claudia Tomina’s Post

🚨 When Google Hijacks Your Booking System 🚨 Today, I noticed that a restaurant I manage had its OpenTable booking integration replaced with Google Assistant. Instead of OpenTable, Google now calls the restaurant to request bookings. But here’s the problem; Google has determined that it has called too many times, and now customers can’t book at all. Worse yet, the restaurant doesn’t even answer its phones (they receive 1,500+ calls per month). I turned off Google Assistant in the settings, hoping that would bring back the OpenTable booking link, but instead, it displayed: “This merchant is not accepting reservations through Google at this time.” This is a horrible user experience that costs restaurants sales. ❌ Google replaces a working booking system? ❌Google Assistant fails because the restaurant doesn’t pick up! ❌ Instead of restoring OpenTable or showing alternative links, Google blocks reservations entirely. ❌ There is no option to disable Google Assistant and restore OpenTable immediately. If Google wants to offer Assistant for reservations, fine but businesses should have the option to choose their preferred system instead of having it forcefully replaced without warning. Have you run into this issue?