One40 Rooftop, a high-end dining establishment in New York City, opened last year under the direction of Mona Panjawani in Lower Manhattan. One of her earliest critical decisions involved selecting a reservation platform for the venue.

She recognized that in a challenging economic climate and a highly competitive restaurant industry, choosing the right platform could help attract greater attention to her business.

"This is my first restaurant in New York, and I am building my brand identity," Panjawani explained to CNN, emphasizing her reliance on such platforms for visibility.

Restaurateurs like Panjawani are now caught in an escalating battle between emerging platforms and established players, all vying for customer attention.

OpenTable and Resy, which have dominated the market for over a decade, now face fresh competition. New entrants—including exclusive high-end service platforms and even food delivery apps—are seeking a share of the lucrative reservation business for upscale restaurants.

This competition has become especially crucial as consumers cut back on dining out: a recent YouGov survey indicated that nearly 40% of Americans are eating out less frequently to save money.

**OpenTable vs. Resy**

For more than ten years, the competition in the online restaurant reservation market has primarily involved OpenTable and Resy.

Launched in 1998, OpenTable once held a near-monopoly in online reservations. Resy entered the scene in 2014, focusing on upscale restaurants and eventually attracting the attention of American Express, which acquired it five years later.

OpenTable remains the largest platform, partnering with approximately 60,000 restaurants. Resy, meanwhile, announced that it will integrate Tock—a reservation app specializing in wineries and tasting menus—this summer, expanding its network to 25,000 establishments.

Although smaller in scale, Resy often features trendier and more exclusive restaurants, which partly influenced Panjawani’s decision to choose it for One40. She also noted that Resy’s pricing is "highly competitive"—charging only a monthly fee, whereas OpenTable adds per-diner charges.

Additionally, Panjawani values Resy’s partnership with American Express, which offers monthly dining credits to holders of its premium cards.

This helps attract the kind of high-value customers that upscale restaurants "truly desire," she added.

**New Competitors Enter the Fray**

The success of Resy and OpenTable has inspired new entrants such as Dorsia. The platform takes its name from a fictional restaurant in the 2000 film *American Psycho*, which the protagonist desperately tries to book.

Founded four years ago as a membership-based service, Dorsia charges diners annual fees ranging from $200 to $25,000 for access to reservations at sought-after global restaurants, including Carbone in New York and Cote in Miami.

Unlike most competitors, Dorsia requires members to prepay a minimum spending amount per reservation, which can reach several thousand dollars at some venues. This approach aims to reduce no-shows and secure revenue for restaurants, making the service highly appealing to them.

"The reservation battle is definitely underway," Dorsia founder Marc Lotenberg told CNN.

Securing a table at Manhattan’s Carbone through Dorsia can cost thousands of dollars.

He added that Dorsia now has 30,000 paying members and generates daily revenue between $100,000 and $200,000.

This success has also prompted food delivery apps to move into the reservation space. Uber Eats quietly launched a reservation program last year in collaboration with OpenTable, while DoorDash acquired reservation platform SevenRooms for $1.2 billion nearly a year ago.

Marco Sharma, founder and editor-in-chief of the popular New York dining newsletter *We Eat Here*, noted that these apps recognize restaurant reservations as "a missing piece in the dining ecosystem."

"Whoever controls reservations controls the customer relationship. That’s incredibly valuable," he told CNN. "Whoever controls bookings can influence restaurant discovery, traffic, and demand trends across the city."

DoorDash’s nascent reservation service, initially launched in New York, Miami, and Las Vegas, expanded to Chicago earlier this month. The platform offers delivery credits to users who book through its app and attracts upscale diners with "exclusive" reservations at hotspots such as New York’s celebrity-favorite The Corner Store and its newly opened star-rated sibling, The Eighty Six.

Lotenberg observed that as competition grows, the term "exclusive" is being overused, since highly sought-after reservations often appear on multiple platforms.

He also suggested that delivery apps face a broader challenge.

"People aren’t going to book a high-end restaurant like The Eighty Six on the same platform they use to order McDonald’s delivery," Lotenberg said.

**Beyond Reservations**

Resy CEO Pablo Rivero stated that the company is expanding its services through technological upgrades, moving beyond mere reservations to offer operators more personalized data and customers more accurate recommendations.

"We are transitioning from a simple table management system to an interconnected ecosystem," he told CNN. In the coming months, the platform will incorporate more AI and technical tools to enhance customized dining experiences.

This is welcome news for restaurateurs like Panjawani, who expressed a need for better customer data and insights—such as which other restaurants patrons visit and how they discover her venue.

Ultimately, she hopes reservation platforms can work together, allowing her to use multiple services without risking overbooking.

"If we could leverage several platforms simultaneously, that would be ideal. But as a small business, we have to focus on what we know—one well-known platform," she said.

While more advanced booking technology benefits operators, it may not always be advantageous for diners, particularly at popular restaurants in major cities.

Sharma of *We Eat Here* pointed out that some reservation mechanisms are beginning to resemble ticketing systems, where only those who understand the rules and know how to "game" the system benefit.

"When every seat becomes digital inventory, a restaurant ceases to feel like a community space and turns into a scheduling system," he said. "In my view, that’s the central tension underlying all this competition."