Now out there in your favourite meals supply app: restaurant reservations.
The still-simmering reservation wars of the final decade may absolutely reignite this yr, as a shifting tech panorama pits among the largest gamers towards one another to seize companies and customers alike. Reservation incumbents, supply app newcomers and premium bank card partnerships are all ramping up the battle for a shrinking pool of diners.
Supply large DoorDash introduced in June its $1.2 billion acquisition of SevenRooms, a reservation platform targeted on direct bookings via a restaurant’s personal web site. A number of months earlier, UberEats and Reserving Holdings’ OpenTable introduced a partnership to combine reservations on Uber’s app. And in 2024, American Specific, already the proprietor of Resy, purchased Tock, a reservation platform targeted on upscale eating places, for $400 million.
“It is three very giant, very bold, very well-resourced firms all vying for a similar precise piece of actual property, which is high-demand eating places,” Resy and Eater founder Ben Leventhal advised CNBC.
Resy was purchased by AmEx in 2019, and at this time Leventhal — a strategic advisor for Resy till 2022 — focuses on Blackbird Labs, a loyalty program for impartial eating places that he based that very same yr.
Bringing eating places on-line
The reservation wars initially kicked off greater than 10 years in the past. Leventhal’s Resy burst onto the scene in 2014 and gained market share, undercutting OpenTable’s legacy enterprise, by charging eateries a easy month-to-month charge.
On the time, OpenTable, which was based in 1998, charged eating places each a month-to-month charge and a canopy for every diner who booked via the platform. Lately, the corporate nonetheless generally expenses a variable cowl charge for seated diners, relying on the institution.
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Regardless of Resy’s rise and buzzy partnerships with high-profile eating places, OpenTable nonetheless considerably outstrips its rival by restaurant depend.
Beginning this summer time, Resy will combine the 5,000 eateries, bars and wineries which have listed on Tock onto its personal platform, bringing its whole variety of venues to about 25,000. That is nonetheless lower than half of OpenTable’s roughly 60,000 eating places.
However the place OpenTable has scale, Resy has a “cool issue” and powerful positioning in main cities, like New York, the place eating out is huge enterprise.
And every firms’ relationships with bank card firms has added a brand new layer to the struggle, too.
Supercharging the platforms
Platinum American Specific cardholders get particular entry to restaurant reservations at sought-after institutions, plus a $400 eating credit score per yr to make use of at Resy eating places.
“We all know that American Specific card members spend near $90 billion a yr … on eating, and it is a ardour space for them,” Resy CEO Pablo Rivero advised CNBC. “And we all know that additionally they spend extra. Folks with a Resy credit score on an American Specific card spend over 25% extra on eating transactions.”
Likewise, eligible Visa and Chase cardholders get unique OpenTable reservations.
These partnerships have additionally helped the legacy participant woo some big-name eating places away from Resy via money incentives made attainable by the bank card firms.
Recapturing top-tier eating places with Michelin stars or James Beard awards has been a precedence for OpenTable over the past 5 years, stated OpenTable CEO Debby Soo.
“Bank card firms are searching for a perk to distinguish their playing cards, particularly for his or her premium cardholders,” Soo stated. “Particularly after Covid, the experiential has develop into much more essential.”
Supply’s right here
Now, DoorDash is coming into the fray with its SevenRooms acquisition.
The corporate is used to preventing for market share in a aggressive business. Earlier than the pandemic, DoorDash was up towards UberEats and Grubhub for market dominance of on-line third-party meals supply.
As of 2025, DoorDash was the largest participant within the U.S. market, with about 67% share, in accordance with digital restaurant operations agency Deliverect. UberEats trails with a 23% share.
Eric Baradat | AFP | Getty Photos
Because it enters the bookings recreation, DoorDash is trying to seize the vary of eating prospects, whether or not it is supply, takeout or desk.
Within the early months of its reservations integration, the platform was providing customers DoorDash money to make use of on future supply orders for eating utilizing the reservations characteristic. And in choose cities, it affords unique tables at stylish spots for members of DashPass, its subscription service.
Above all, the mixing with SevenRooms offers DoorDash and its eating places entry to extra information about diners.
“Supply and dine-in have usually been siloed information units,” SevenRooms co-founder Joel Montaniel stated. “So if a buyer has ordered six occasions, they usually’re coming into the restaurant for the primary time, are they a first-time buyer or a seventh-time buyer?”
Following a diner throughout touchpoints means a greater expertise, and extra tailor-made advertising, he stated.
“We’re seeing the flywheel occurring and the joy in regards to the DoorDash reservation market occurring, but it surely’s nonetheless early days,” stated Parisa Sadrzadeh, vp of technique and operations for DoorDash. “We have loads of room to proceed to develop.”
Correction: This story has been up to date to right that Ben Leventhal was a strategic advisor to Resy till 2022.
