DoorDash is competing with Resy and OpenTable as the restaurant reservation wars heat up

Now available on your favorite food delivery app: Restaurant Reservations.

The reservation wars that have been raging for the past decade could fully reignite this year, as a changing technology landscape pits some of the biggest players against each other to take over businesses and users alike. Bookers, delivery app new entrants and premium credit card partnerships are intensifying the fight for a shrinking pool of diners.

Delivery giant DoorDash In June, it announced its $1.2 billion acquisition of SevenRooms, a booking platform focused on direct reservations through a restaurant’s website. several months ago, Uber Eats and Booking Holding OpenTable has announced a partnership to integrate reservations on the Uber app. In 2024, American ExpressResy, which already owns Resy, has bought Tock, a reservations platform focused on upscale restaurants, for $400 million.

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

Levinthal still serves as an advisor to Resy, which AmEx acquired in 2019, though today he is focused on Blackbird Labs, a loyalty program for independent restaurants he founded in 2022.

The Protectorate Wars initially began more than 10 years ago. Leventhal’s Resy came on the scene in 2014 and won market share, undercutting OpenTable’s legacy business, by charging restaurants a small monthly fee.

At the time, OpenTable, founded in 1998, charged restaurants a monthly fee and a cap for each diner booked through the platform. These days, the company still sometimes charges a variable cover charge to seated diners, depending on the establishment.

Despite Resy’s rise and its buzzy partnerships with high-profile restaurants, OpenTable still vastly outpaces its competition in terms of number of restaurants.

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

But while OpenTable has scale, Resy has a “cool factor” and a strong position in big cities, like New York, where dining out is big business.

Each company’s relationships with credit card companies have added a new layer to the war as well.

Platinum American Express cardholders get special access to restaurant reservations at sought-after establishments, as well as a $400 dining credit annually to use at Resy restaurants.

“We know that American Express cardmembers spend close to $90 billion a year… on dining, and it’s an area of ​​passion for them,” Resy CEO Pablo Rivero told CNBC. “And we know they’re spending more, too. People with a Resy balance on their American Express card spend 25% more on dining transactions.”

Likewise, the eligible visa and Chasing Cardholders get exclusive OpenTable reservations.

These partnerships have also helped the legacy player lure some big-name restaurants away from Resy through cash incentives made possible by credit card companies.

Reclaiming high-profile restaurants with Michelin stars or James Beard Awards has been a priority for OpenTable over the past five years, said Debbie Su, CEO of OpenTable.

“Credit card companies are looking for a feature to differentiate their cards, especially for their premium cardholders,” Su 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 was facing off against UberEats and Grubhub for market control in third-party online food delivery.

As of 2025, DoorDash was the largest player in the U.S. market, with a roughly 67% share, according to digital restaurant operations company Deliverect. UberEats trails with a 23% share.

As it gets into the reservations game, DoorDash is looking to capture a range of dining possibilities, whether that’s delivery, takeout or table service.

In the first months of the reservations integration, the platform was offering users DoorDash cash per reservation to use on future delivery orders. And in select cities, it offers exclusive tables in trendy locations to members of DashPass, its subscription service.

Above all, the integration with SevenRooms gives DoorDash and its restaurants access to more data about diners.

“Delivery and dining datasets are often siled,” said Joel Montanile, co-founder of SevenRooms. “So if a customer has ordered six times and is coming to the restaurant for the first time, is he a first-time customer or a seventh-time customer?”

Following up on diners across touchpoints means a better experience and more personalized marketing, he said.

“We’re seeing the flywheel and excitement around the DoorDash booking market happening, but it’s still early days,” said Parisa Sadrzadeh, vice president of strategy and operations at DoorDash. “We have a lot of room to continue to grow.”