What differentiates them is whether their systems require proprietary hardware and software, the level of control restaurants maintain over the reservation process and how restaurants pay for the service.

CNN: Online restaurant reservations really do work

As they get more familiar with the hotel industry, more owners are opting for franchising, a system in which they pay for a chain's name, reservation network and marketing, but manage and control the hotels themselves.

ECONOMIST: Asia��s hotels

The county's fire authority said the car appeared to have gone out of control in the wintry conditions and hit the central reservation.

BBC: Big freeze tightens its grip on England

Most well-educated Indians have moved off reservation land, leaving an ill-educated and poverty-stricken group that too easily abdicates control to the few remaining members who know how to pull the right levers.

ECONOMIST: Indian housing