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American Express is known to many as the card for travel and fine dining. It used to be that a concierge for the credit card issuer could get you a table at the hottest spots in town. This further shifted to more self-serve options with American Express buying Resy a few years ago. Now, Amex has made another acquisition in the form of Resy competitor, Tock.
The reservation, table, and event management technology provider was purchased from Squarespace for $400 million. It’s clear that American Express is continuing to push the importance of having a hold on the reservation platforms that power restaurants and has seen value in its Resy acquisition.
Pablo Rivero, Vice President, American Express Global Dining and CEO Resy, said:
From our acquisition of Resy in July 2019 through year-end 2023, we’ve increased the number of engaged diners by 3x, increased the number of restaurants by 5.4x and driven solid growth in diners seated. Restaurants value access to our premium, high-spending customer base and to Resy’s technology to help run their businesses. These acquisitions will enhance our dining platform and help us continue to support the industry’s growth.”
Tock launched in Chicago in 2014 and was acquired by Squarespace in 2021. It provides reservation, table management, and event ticketing tools to approximately 7,000 restaurants, wineries, and other bookable venues (this will complement the 16,000 that Resy powers). As part of the deal, Squarespace and American Express will also partner to deliver additional value for small businesses that use American Express cards through Amex Offers and card member benefits.
The overall hope is that having control in this space will allow American Express to build loyalty. It remains to be seen what this does to Chase who has been using Tock to power its own restaurant bookings. This combination will also further challenge OpenTable’s dominance in the restaurant booking game.
Anthony’s Take: I use Resy, OpenTable, and Tock to find restaurant reservations. I welcome the ownership by Amex and look forward to seeing how it’s further integrated.
(Featured Image Credit: American Express.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
