American Express has announced plans to buy Resy, a digital restaurant reservation booking platform. The move is the latest by the financial issuer to expand beyond its traditional points loyalty program and provide its cardholders with value-added experiences, access, and services. The acquisition is expected to close over the summer, and follows similar deals by Amex to acquire airport lounge booking service LoungeBuddy and the Mezi travel assistance app.
"Resy was created to both connect people who love dining out with new, notable and hard-to-get-into restaurants across the globe, as well as help restaurants’ businesses grow and thrive," said Chris Cracchiolo, Senior Vice President, Global Loyalty and Benefits, American Express.
"Similarly, American Express has strong relationships with premium dining partners and restaurants across the globe, and provides our Card Members with access to incredible dining experiences through our exclusive benefits and programs," he continued. "We look forward to working with the Resy team to continue to grow the Resy digital platform, and develop new ways to further connect our Card Members and restaurant partners through unique access and experiences."
American Express has announced plans to purchase Resy.
American ExpressResy first launched in 2014 as a platform that allowed users to purchase reservations from restaurants instead of trying to book weeks or months in advance. It matched up avid diners with restaurants who found themselves with unoccupied tables. Since then, Resy has become more of a standard booking service, though it also began offering tools and capabilities for restaurants, including inventory management, ratings compilations, surveys, and analytics.
Resy now counts around 4,000 restaurants among its listings, and through partnerships with other platforms, it works with around 10,000 eateries worldwide. Those restaurants are primarily in the U.S., but include locations in Canada, Europe, the U.K. and Australia as well.
Compare that to rival OpenTable’s 50,000 or so restaurants. Despite being dwarfed, Resy is still valued at around $53 million and counts investors like Airbnb and Union Square Hospitality Group. The service distinguished itself from its larger competitor by scoring exclusive partnerships with sought-after restaurants, especially in its larger city markets, and remains the go-to for otherwise impossible reservations in places like New York City.
The partnership was a natural fit, according to Resy co-founder and CEO Ben Leventhal. "American Express is a brand that we have admired and sought to partner with from our inception," he said. "There are myriad points of synergy between Resy and American Express that we look forward to pursuing together in the name of creating an end-to-end global dining platform that thrills both diners and restaurants alike. As it does today, Resy will continue to focus on delivering world-class hospitality software to our amazing restaurant partners, connecting diners to insider experiences, and reimagining the future of dining," he said.
This news is only the latest salvo in a fierce battle amongst major credit-card issuers in the U.S. to woo and retain high-end cardholders. Although American Express long dominated the rewards credit-card market, it has faced increasing incursions from other banks in recent years, most notably Chase and Citi. In particular, the launch of the Chase Sapphire Reserve in August 2016 prompted other issuers, including American Express, to reevaluate and revamp their products in an effort to differentiate themselves in an increasingly varied and competitive environment.
"The overarching goal is to become more central to our customers’ everyday lives," said Amex’s Cracchiolo in an interview. "Loyalty is a lot more than just points. We’re proud to have what we feel is the best points program in the world with Membership Rewards. But when I think about loyalty, I really think about balancing both rational and emotional value."
For now, Leventhal says that Resy will remain available to the public rather than just Amex’s 114 million cardholders. Over time, however, we are likely to see special offers such as advanced reservation access, one-off chef events, and bonus points-earning opportunities offered specifically to customers with Amex cards in their wallets. Hopefully Resy’s recipe of exclusive partnerships and American Express’s strong record of loyalty program innovation will continue to make dining out even more rewarding for consumers at large, too.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericrosen/2019/05/16/american-express-acquires-resy-restaurant-booking-service/ 2019-05-16 12:00:00Z
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