Toast + Resy (and Tock… and Amex)
Alliances have formed.
The reinvigorated restaurant reservations war is getting personal.
Toast, a restaurant point of sale and payments provider, just announced a strategic partnership with American Express, parent company of reservations platforms Resy and Tock. Together, the companies plan to develop new tech to help restaurants create personalized experiences that engage diners before, during, and after a meal.
On Monday, I spoke to execs from both Toast and Amex. In separate interviews, each characterized today’s announcement as the start of a deeper, long-term relationship allowing more information to flow between their respective companies. Neither executive spoke in specifics about what comes next — the vibe was more… imagine the possibilities!
Luckily, they’re easy to imagine. Reservations services owned by a major credit card company have a lot of information about diners, including how many times they’ve reserved (or ghosted) and how many ‘notify’ alerts they’ve set hoping to get in the door. And Toast, a popular point of sale system, has tons of info about what those diners do once they’re seated — what they’ve ordered, how many times they’ve ordered it, and even how well they tip.
“All of that information can be combined in a way that the restaurant can surface before the guests arrive, so they can provide them better hospitality,” said Pablo Rivero, CEO of Resy and Tock and head of global dining at Amex.
Kelly Esten, chief marketing officer at Toast, said that guest info from Tock and Resy — things like reservation history, allergies and dietary preferences — will show up on Toast’s handheld devices (including its newest version with cellular connectivity) as a server greets a table and takes an order inside a restaurant.
“Hospitality is really about seeing and recognizing a guest and making them feel special,” Esten told me on Monday. Combining data from both companies, she said, lets restaurants capitalize on it.
This deal is the latest on a (short) list of high-profile partnerships and acquisitions from some of the biggest companies on my beat.
In April, OpenTable and Uber announced their own strategic partnership, promising to add new functionality to both companies’ apps this fall. Weeks later, DoorDash announced its $1.2 billion acquisition of reservations and customer relationship management platform SevenRooms to help restaurants understand “everything that’s actually happening about their guests and inside their dining rooms, as well as other channels,” according to DoorDash CEO Tony Xu.
All of these alliances want to offer restaurants unique data, insights, and functionality that no one company could do on its own. For Toast-Amex, the most exciting opportunity could be surfacing relevant data during a meal that helps restaurants act in real time, not just before guests arrive or after they leave.
Dining is big business for Amex.
American Express cardholders spent a collective $87 billion on dining in the US last year. During Amex’s July earnings call, chief financial officer Christophe Le Caillec assured investors and analysts that “restaurant spending continued to be very strong” in the second quarter even amid “softer” spending on air travel and lodging.
The company spent $400 million last year to acquire Tock, the reservations and ticketing platform serving 7,000 restaurants. In 2019 Amex bought Resy, then with about 4,000 restaurants on its platform, for a reported $200 million. (Resy has 20,000 partner restaurants today.) Amex already offers some of its cardholders exclusive reservations and priority notifications at popular restaurants on its platforms.
“This partnership is a natural evolution of our investment in this growing category,” said Alex Drummond, executive vice president and general manager for American Express membership portfolio services, in a statement. (Drummond also expects the pairing “to help usher in a new era of dining.” No pressure.)
Mostly, diners want meaningful experiences, Resy’s Rivero said, and restaurants want to provide them.
“If we’re able to deliver specific tools to drive even more specific hospitality at the restaurant by surfacing certain information or certain benefits… that is what we’re trying to imagine,” he said.
Amex cardholders might see even more benefit. “We have so much information on our card members,” Rivero added. “If they allow us to pass on some of that information and provide more exclusive experiences at the restaurant level, that could transform their personalized experience.”
It’s going to take a minute (or a few months).
Restaurants (and diners) can expect new products and features from a Toast-Amex partnership in 2026, a familiar, if frustrating timeline for those of us excited to see some action.
“I can’t really get into all the specifics,” Rivero told me on Monday, “But what I can tell you is that this is going to drive unique value for the guests, for the restaurants, and for the cardmembers as well.”
Both Rivero and Toast’s Esten are hopeful that a meaningful integration will drive demand to restaurants, too.
“The way we think about it,” Esten said, “is if someone feels recognized, seen, taken care of, has a great guest experience in a restaurant, that's more likely to create a repeat guest.”
