DoorDash takes on Resy and OpenTable as restaurant reservation war heats up

Now available on your favorite food delivery app: restaurant reservations.

The still-simmering booking wars of the last decade could fully resume this year, as a changing technology landscape pits some of the biggest players against each other to capture businesses and users. Incumbent reservation operators, delivery app newcomers and premium credit card partnerships are all stepping up the fight for a shrinking pool of diners.

Delivery giant PorteDash announced in June the $1.2 billion acquisition of SevenRooms, a reservation platform focused on direct reservations through a restaurant’s website. A few months earlier, UberEats And Reserve assets OpenTable announced a partnership to integrate reservations on the Uber app. And in 2024, American Expressalready owner of Resy, bought Tock, a reservation platform focused on high-end restaurants, for $400 million.

“These are three very large, very ambitious, very well-resourced companies competing for the exact same real estate, which is restaurants that are in high demand,” Ben Leventhal, founder of Resy and Eater, told CNBC.

Resy was acquired by AmEx in 2019, and today Leventhal – Resy’s strategic advisor through 2022 – is focused on Blackbird Labs, a loyalty program for independent restaurants that he founded that same year.

The booking wars started over 10 years ago. Leventhal’s Resy burst onto the scene in 2014 and gained market share, undercutting OpenTable’s historic business, by charging restaurants a simple monthly fee.

At the time, OpenTable, founded in 1998, charged restaurants both a monthly fee and a cover for each customer booking through the platform. Today, the company still sometimes charges a variable cover charge for seated diners, depending on the establishment.

Despite Resy’s rise and dynamic partnerships with top restaurants, OpenTable still far outnumbers its rival in terms of number of restaurants.

Starting this summer, Resy will integrate all 5,000 restaurants, bars and wineries listed on Tock onto its own platform, bringing its total number of locations to around 25,000. That’s still less than half of OpenTable’s roughly 60,000 restaurants.

But where OpenTable has scale, Resy has a “cool factor” and a strong positioning in big cities, like New York, where restaurants are big business.

And each company’s relationships with credit card companies have also added a new layer to the war.

American Express Platinum Cardmembers enjoy special access to dining reservations at sought-after establishments, as well as a $400 dining credit per year to use at Resy restaurants.

“We know that American Express cardholders spend almost $90 billion a year … on dining, and it’s an area they’re passionate about,” Resy CEO Pablo Rivero told CNBC. “And we know they’re also spending more. People with Resy credit on an American Express card spend more than 25% more on dining transactions.”

Likewise, visas and Hunting Cardholders enjoy exclusive OpenTable reservations.

These partnerships also helped the incumbent lure some high-profile restaurants away from Resy through cash incentives made possible by credit card companies.

Winning back top restaurants with Michelin stars or James Beard awards has been a priority for OpenTable over the past five years, said OpenTable CEO Debby Soo.

“Credit card companies are looking for an edge to differentiate their cards, especially for premium cardholders,” Soo said. “Especially after Covid, experience has become even more important.”

Now, DoorDash is entering the fray with its acquisition of SevenRooms.

The company is used to fighting for market share in a competitive industry. Before the pandemic, DoorDash battled UberEats and Grubhub for dominance in the third-party online food delivery market.

By 2025, DoorDash was the largest player in the U.S. market, with a share of about 67%, according to digital restaurant operating company Deliverect. UberEats is at the bottom with a 23% share.

By entering the reservations game, DoorDash seeks to capture the breadth of dining possibilities, whether delivery, takeout or table seating.

During the first months of its reservations integration, the platform offered users DoorDash Cash to use on future food delivery orders using the reservations feature. And in some cities, it offers exclusive tables in trendy places to members of DashPass, its subscription service.

Importantly, the integration with SevenRooms allows DoorDash and its restaurants to access more diner data.

“Delivery and dine-in are typically siled data sets,” said Joel Montaniel, co-founder of SevenRooms. “So if a customer has ordered six times and they come to the restaurant for the first time, are they a first-time customer or a seventh customer?”

Tracking a diner across touchpoints means a better experience and more personalized marketing, he said.

“We’re seeing real buzz and excitement in the DoorDash reservations marketplace, but it’s still early,” said Parisa Sadrzadeh, DoorDash vice president of strategy and operations. “We have a lot of room to continue to grow.”

Correction: This story has been updated to correct that Ben Leventhal was Resy’s strategic advisor until 2022.