Diners are pickier post-pandemic, sparking a multibillion-pound battle for restaurant tables. Delivery apps, legacy platforms, and credit card giants vie for control in an industry eyeing $100 billion globally by 2027, per Statista.
OpenTable, launched in 1998, leads with 60,000 venues, including 5,000 in the UK. CEO Debby Soo targets elite spots like Michelin stars via Visa and Chase pacts.
“Credit card companies are looking for a perk to differentiate their cards, especially for their premium cardholders,” Soo said. “Especially after Covid, the experiential has become even more important.”
Resy, Ben Leventhal’s 2014 disruptor bought by American Express in 2019, now hits 25,000 venues post-Tock integration. Platinum perks boost spending.
“We know that American Express card members spend close to $90 billion a year on dining, and it’s a passion area for them,” CEO Pablo Rivero told CNBC. “And we know that they also spend more. People with a Resy credit on an American Express card spend over 25 per cent more on dining transactions.”
Leventhal warns, “It’s three very large, very ambitious, very well-resourced companies all vying for the same exact piece of real estate, which is high-demand restaurants.”
UberEats partnered with OpenTable, but DoorDash’s $1.2 billion SevenRooms buyout—leveraging its 67 per cent U.S. delivery share—merges data across channels.
“Delivery and dine-in have typically been siloed data sets,” co-founder Joel Montaniel said. “So if a customer has ordered six times, and they’re coming into the restaurant for the first time, are they a first-time customer or a seventh-time customer?”
“We’re seeing the flywheel happening and the excitement about the DoorDash reservation marketplace happening, but it’s still early days,” said DoorDash’s Parisa Sadrzadeh. “We’ve got a lot of room to continue to grow.”
Platforms hoard data as AI personalises experiences; independents may struggle without tools like Leventhal’s Blackbird Labs. Tech-savvy diners win for now.