Finding It Harder and Harder to Get a Restaurant Reservation? Some Diners Are Paying for Priority Access.
A boom in dealmaking among reservation apps, credit card companies and membership clubs is reshaping who gets a table and who doesn’t.
If you’ve struggled to book a table lately, and the only times available you seem to find are 5 and 11 pm, it’s not your imagination. High-end restaurants across the country are getting harder to access, and a web of dealmaking is a big reason why, according to the .
Reservation apps are racing to lock in tables exclusively for their top users. Credit card companies are paying restaurants to hold seats as a cardholder reward. Membership clubs like Dorsia charge steep fees for tiered access. DoorDash entered the fight last year, buying reservation platform SevenRooms for $1.2 billion.
The result is a perfect storm of holds on tables that are locking a lot of people out of prime spots. Some don’t see this as a bad thing, as long as it gets people in seats. 鈥淢y personal view is that money invested in restaurants is a good thing. Full stop,鈥 said Pablo Rivero, the CEO of the app Resy, which is owned by American Express.
If you’ve struggled to book a table lately, and the only times available you seem to find are 5 and 11 pm, it’s not your imagination. High-end restaurants across the country are getting harder to access, and a web of dealmaking is a big reason why, according to the .
Reservation apps are racing to lock in tables exclusively for their top users. Credit card companies are paying restaurants to hold seats as a cardholder reward. Membership clubs like Dorsia charge steep fees for tiered access. DoorDash entered the fight last year, buying reservation platform SevenRooms for $1.2 billion.
The result is a perfect storm of holds on tables that are locking a lot of people out of prime spots. Some don’t see this as a bad thing, as long as it gets people in seats. 鈥淢y personal view is that money invested in restaurants is a good thing. Full stop,鈥 said Pablo Rivero, the CEO of the app Resy, which is owned by American Express.
