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.