Foursquare partners with OpenTable to make reservations at hot venues

Foursquare has been pretty busy lately and is bringing more features to us that make dining out a simple and seamless experience.

I’ve noted in the past that I’m now using the foursquare “Explore” feature to find restaurants and bars far more than I’m using Yelp. That could mean bad news for Yelp if that trend holds true for anyone else.

Today, the company announced a new partnership with OpenTable that will let you make reservations right from the desktop version of the site:

Now, when you’re using foursquare.com on your computer, you can make a one-click reservation, too. We’ve partnered with OpenTable to offer reservations at over 15,000 places in major cities across the US, with more to come. Just click ‘Make a Reservation’ and reserve a table for your party!

By bundling offers with reservations, foursquare is quickly becoming the best friend of all of the venues who rely on it for exposure.

When foursquare added hours and menus within its app, we noted that the service was becoming much more than just a check-in app to share your location and tips with your friends.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes foursquare to put this feature into the app, which will of course require everyone to update it. Foursquare is quickly becoming the holy grail of location exploration for me, as I’ve found that tips from friends help me make decisions on where to visit when I’m in new cities.