Photo credit: Illustration by Cari Vander Yacht

Announcements

Resy Demonstrates Strategic Growth & Reveals First-of-its-Kind Hospitality Tools to Empower Restaurants on a Global Scale

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NEW YORK (April 17, 2018) – Today, hospitality technology leader Resy revealed a disruptive lineup of first-of- its-kind features and significant product updates to further empower restaurants to deliver superior experiences and elevated customer service, now on a global scale. The brand new features and product enhancements were announced at Resy’s first annual Product Summit in New York, hosted by CEO, Ben Leventhal and CTO, Mike Montero.

“The inspiration for Resy came to life over a delicious meal on 86th Street with my longtime friends and current business partners, Mike Montero and Gary Vaynerchuk,” shared Leventhal during today’s Product Summit. “The three of us discussed what it could look like if restaurants had true partners in technology, and we set out to find the right balance that would make technology work for the business of hospitality. Four years later, Resy works with 10,000 network restaurants in 160 global cities, managing one million reservations per week for 2.7 million users. We’re building the future of hospitality technology together with our restaurant partners, and the brand new tools and features we’re revealing today are the tip of the iceberg.”

Empowering Restaurateurs with Smarter, Insights-Driven Technology

Making its long-awaited debut today is ResyFly, a brand new, ground-breaking inventory optimization program designed to help restaurants minimize the gaps between reservations. ResyFLY represents a significant advancement for the hospitality technology industry, offering a combination of slots-based and inputs-based systems for the first time. Restaurants will now have the flexibility to schedule different floor plans, reservation grids, and hours of operation for special days or time periods. The tool will go live on May 15, 2018.

“Restaurants have historically been shackled to imperfect inventory management systems like ‘slots,’ where restaurateurs have complete control over tables, and ‘flex mode,’ taking control out of the equation,” explains Montero. “But there’s no reason these should be the only options. We set out to solve that problem by consulting our restaurant partners and designing a tool that not only speaks to how restaurants themselves have evolved, but is versatile enough to increase the ease at which they operate their unique businesses. ResyFLY is our solution, and one that we’re very proud of. Resy is for restaurants, by restaurants, and we’re confident ResyFLY lives up to that commitment.”

Furthering its commitment to supplying restaurants with smart technology, Resy recently announced its integration with Upserve. Breadcrumb POS by Upserve will now supply Resy restaurant partners with granular insights into guest preferences — from favorite dishes and dining companions to frequency of booking — to make everyone feel like a regular. Joint Upserve and Resy partners can prepare for an upcoming shift with a summary of predicted covers, confirmed reservations, and guest profiles including favorite menu items and historical spend. And, when the waiter drops a check, Breadcrumb POS will send update table status in Resy, helping busy hosts stay on top of everything that’s happening in the restaurant.

Elevating Customer Experiences at Restaurants to a New Level

Empowering restaurants to optimize and enhance the dining journey for customers, Resy Surveys is launching today as the first-ever reservation-integrated dynamic survey product. The tool allows restaurants to completely customize private post-meal surveys to gain insight into all aspects of their operation — from steps of service, to customer behavior, to seating and meal preferences. Every survey is tied to a reservation, supplying the restaurant with meaningful, useful and actionable insights from the customer.

Resy is also launching a first-of- its kind loyalty program called Resy Select, designed to build deeper, lasting relationships between the best customers and the best restaurants. Resy Select members will receive exclusive booking windows for landing hard-to- get reservations, Notify waitlist priority, early access to event tickets, and other insider experiences (e.g. meet the chef and tour the kitchen). The loyalty program will launch in beta by invitation-only at the end of April and expand broadly over time.

Superior Hospitality Technology Introduced to Restaurants Globally

For the first time, international restaurant partners and users in Barcelona, Dublin, London, Madrid, Montreal, Paris and Sydney will be able to manage and book reservations on Resy, with Amsterdam, Toronto and Vancouver soon to come. Resy’s international expansion will offer diners the same elevated service, exceptional food and personal touch that Resy restaurants are empowered to provide in the U.S.

Resy’s commitment to connectivity and transparency is further underlined by today’s launch of Resy Global Service (RGS), the platform’s network of connected technology partners around the world. Partners connect to RGS, and Resy distributes inventory to demand-side partners such as Airbnb. By providing a layer of connectivity, RGS provides restaurants with a global brand to reach customers across the world. Two beta partners announced today, Formitable (The Netherlands) and Restorando (the largest restaurant reservation platform in Latin America), will contribute to the network of restaurants around the world going live over the next 18 months. This announcement comes on the heels of Resy’s groundbreaking integration with Airbnb, which allows users to book restaurant reservations through the Airbnb app, powered by Resy.

Rounding out Resy’s pursuit of bringing top-notch hospitality capabilities to international markets, today the company announced its acquisition of ClubKviar, a reservation platform and concierge service that partners with 300 of Spain’s best restaurants to facilitate curated dining experiences for its member-only community.

“ClubKviar has emerged as a key player in the Spanish marketplace with an impressive list of restaurants and significant consumer following, seating tens of thousands of diners a month,” adds Leventhal. “As Resy continues to expand our user and restaurant base in Europe, ClubKviar’s strategic relationships and brand value will be instrumental in expediting growth. By the end of the year, ClubKviar will grow into Resy Spain.”

Enhancing Existing Resy Products & Features

Resy revealed a brand new experience for consumers on Resy.com, bringing together the browsing and booking of Resy restaurant partners, compelling original content and trusted, expertly curated restaurant lists that together serve as a lens into dining experiences all over the world. For the first time, guests will be able to book reservations in major markets in two clicks, with all of the same customization features like pre-paid reservations, menu highlights, add-ons and special events that Resy is famous for. Discovery, content, booking, all in one trusted place. That’s the new Resy.com.

For more information on this news, tune-in to the Resy Product Summit livestream on resy.com from 9:15 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET today.

ABOUT RESY
Resy powers the world’s best restaurants, using technology to imagine the future of hospitality. Built for restaurants, by restaurants, Resy offers superior reservation management software and a consumer-facing restaurant reservation app to elevate and enhance dining experiences worldwide. Resy works with 10,000 network restaurants in 160 global cities and 15 countries, seating over 1 million diners a week. Resy boasts an industry-low, global no-show rate of 4.5%.

ResyOS is an end-to- end restaurant management platform that offers partners live two-way SMS, auto- confirmed reservation capabilities, a fully automated waitlist, PCI Level 1 compliant third-party credit card handling and loyalty channel management. Restaurant partners have access to ResyFLY, a groundbreaking inventory optimization program, Resy Surveys, an all-encompassing guest feedback loop and a suite of Business Intelligence tools to help them run their businesses smarter and more efficiently.

Consumers can book and manage reservations on Resy.com and on the app from a carefully curated selection of the world’s most distinguished restaurants, including n/naka in Los Angeles and Lilia in New York City. Users now have even better access to restaurants thanks to an enhanced Notify waitlist system, which sends alerts when hard-to- get reservations become available. The app is free and available for download on both iOS and Android.

Resy was co-founded by Ben Leventhal, cofounder of Eater and restaurant industry entrepreneur; Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur, investor, author; and Michael Montero, founder of CrowdTwist and Fotolog and noted CTO. Resy’s investors and partners include Airbnb, Related Properties, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Slow Ventures and Union Square Hospitality Group.