Locu, maker of the popular menu dashboard for local merchants, today announced a partnership with OpenTable, a leading provider of free, real-time online restaurant reservations for diners and reservation and guest management solutions for restaurants, that enables OpenTable restaurant customers to easily publish and edit their menus in real-time. The menus powered by Locu are displayed on the restaurants’ profile pages on OpenTable and are automatically optimized for restaurants’ own websites.

Locu's platform is designed to help busy restaurateurs provide real-time menu information across the Web, and reduce the amount of time needed to maintain and distribute their menu online and offline. Nearly half of 600 restaurant owners surveyed by Locu stated that they would update their online data more frequently if it were easier to do so. As consumers continue to demand fresher ingredients and more sustainable dining experiences, frequent menu updates and access to specific ingredient information take on greater importance. Some 67 percent of the Locu-surveyed restaurant owners cited frequently changing specials as an important part of their offering.

“We’re constantly looking for ways that we can leverage technology to help our restaurant customers delight their guests and run their operations more smoothly,” said Brandon Bidlack, Senior Director of Restaurant Marketing for OpenTable. “By allowing our restaurant customers to sign up with Locu’s free and simple menu publishing tool, we’re hoping to eliminate the tedious effort that is typically associated with keeping online menus up to date.”

“We are focused on restaurants as well as other local merchants and how we can use technology to make it easier to connect to consumers and grow their business.” comments CEO Rene Reinsberg. “We launched our merchant product last month and thousands of local businesses have already signed up to use the product. We’re off to a very strong start. This partnership will allow us to expand our user base and we are excited to partner with OpenTable to bring our product to their restaurants.”

According to the AT&T Q1 2102 Insights report, restaurants are the top local search category in both online and mobile searches. Locu helps restaurants to better capitalize on this opportunity by making it easier for them to update, design, and share their menu on their website, mobile page, Facebook, and partner sites. With more than 500,000 menu listings in the U.S. alone, Locu is the largest provider of menu information.

About OpenTable, Inc.

OpenTable is a leading provider of free, real-time online restaurant reservations for diners and reservation and guest management solutions for restaurants. The OpenTable network delivers the convenience of online restaurant reservations to diners and the operational benefits of a computerized reservation book to restaurants. OpenTable has more than 25,000 restaurant customers, and, since its inception in 1998, has seated more than 280 million diners around the world. The Company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and the OpenTable service is available throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. OpenTable also owns and operates toptable.com, a leading restaurant reservation site in the United Kingdom.

About Locu

Founded in 2011 by MIT graduates and computer science researchers, Locu's vision is to better connect merchants with consumers. Locu’s APIs give developers access to the world’s largest real-time, structured repository of local business offerings data, such as restaurant menus. The data comes directly from merchants, via Locu.com, and Locu’s patent-pending technology platform that digitizes and structures real-world content. Locu is backed by General Catalyst, Lowercase, Lightbank, SV Angel and angel investors and has offices in San Francisco and Cambridge.