In 2019, American Express acquired Resy, a digital restaurant reservation booking and management platform. Now the credit card issuer has announced that it’s acquiring Tock, a competitor to Resy.
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Amex acquiring Tock for $400 million
Amex will be acquiring Tock from Squarespace for $400 million. For those not familiar, Tock is a reservation, table, and event management technology provider.
American Express describes this as building on the company’s previous investments in dining, travel, and entertainment, and expanding the brand’s suite of digital tools for restaurants and merchants to better serve their customers, the number of restaurants offered through Amex channels, and the ways that card members can access these experiences.
Here’s how Howard Grosfield, President of U.S. Consumer Services for American Express, describes this acquisition:
“Restaurants are one of our largest Card Member spending categories within Travel and Entertainment, with $100 billion in volume in 2023. We’ve been offering unique dining benefits, exclusive access, and special experiences to our Card Members for years through Resy and Global Dining Access by Resy. Now, we can connect even more premium customers with the most exciting restaurants, while providing merchants and restaurants more technology to help their businesses thrive. We will be able to offer restaurants the tools to deliver more personalized hospitality, facilitate pre-paid experiences like tasting menus, and provide more convenient ways for customers to pay the bill.”
Meanwhile here’s how Pablo Rivero, Vice President of American Express Global Dining, describes the strategy:
“From our acquisition of Resy in July 2019 through year-end 2023, we’ve increased the number of engaged diners by 3x, increased the number of restaurants by 5.4x and driven solid growth in diners seated. Restaurants value access to our premium, high-spending customer base and to Resy’s technology to help run their businesses. These acquisitions will enhance our dining platform and help us continue to support the industry’s growth.”
What does Amex’s dining play mean for card members?
The credit card business is both competitive and high margin, so card issuers are pretty aggressive in terms of their investment in perks. We also see that card issuers are increasingly focused on “lifestyle” perks, beyond just traditional travel benefits.
Just about all the major card issuers have had partnerships with dining platforms over the years. By acquiring both Resy and Tock, Amex certainly has an advantage on the dining front, since those are two major platforms.
What I’m more skeptical of, though, is the extent to which these acquisitions change card member behavior. For example, Amex acquired Resy almost five years ago. I have a bunch of Amex cards, and I also use Resy all the time for reservations. But I’m not actually sure what Amex’s ownership of Resy means for me?
Admittedly I could do a bit more research, but the point is that if I’m not sure what the advantage of this is, then odds are that the average Amex customer isn’t either.
I know card issuers sometimes try to have special dining experience events for cardmembers. Personally that doesn’t really appeal to me. I’d love to have access to more reservations or some other perks, but I haven’t found any material benefits with any of these dining and credit card collaborations.
But perhaps I’m in the minority on this, and just need to do my research, so I’d love to hear from OMAAT readers on this. Probably part of the issue is that dining “events” with celebrity chefs have no appeal to me. I also like to eat at 5PM, and would rather go to a restaurant with quality food over a place that is a scene (which, living in Miami, those are typically polar opposites). So perhaps I’m the problem, and not any of these partnerships. 😉
Bottom line
Amex is acquiring Tock for $400 million, following the company’s 2019 purchase of Resy. I can appreciate the value of giving card members exclusive access to dining, so I’m curious to see what the long term play is here. Amex will be in a powerful position when it comes to control over dining platforms.
What do you make of Amex acquiring Tock, and the card issuer’s general dining investments?
For AmEx they can charge restaurants more for Resy/Tock service if they can drive more traffic to the restaurants. AmEx is doing this by adding Resy credits to the "coupon books" on a number of AmEx cards. This is about AmEx profitability and creating a sort of ecosystem not about adding real value to card members.
Dear AMEX:
While I appreciate your offer of allowing me the opportunity to book costly prepaid non-refundable reservations, I'll have to decline by saying "No Tock You".
Anyone know what this is going to do to Chase Dining (officially)? That was/is powered by Tock when I last had a CSR a few months ago. I'm guessing that partnership now has an expiration clock on it as I don't imagine Chase and AmEx want to share information on their premium customers - AmEx knowing what CSR customers are doing via owning Tock and Chase knowing what all Tock / Resy (once they complete...
Anyone know what this is going to do to Chase Dining (officially)? That was/is powered by Tock when I last had a CSR a few months ago. I'm guessing that partnership now has an expiration clock on it as I don't imagine Chase and AmEx want to share information on their premium customers - AmEx knowing what CSR customers are doing via owning Tock and Chase knowing what all Tock / Resy (once they complete the likely coming integration) customers are doing as Chase's quid pro quo for partnering with Tock to begin with.
Based on articles I read about Resy, it has grown a lot since Amex took it over, and has been a successful deal for them so far. I imagine they think they can build on it with Tock.
Versus prior generations, Millennials and Gen Z seem to eb spending more on restaurants and travel as a percent of income. Amex and havers have said this. The more Amex can capture of that spend (Amex network...
Based on articles I read about Resy, it has grown a lot since Amex took it over, and has been a successful deal for them so far. I imagine they think they can build on it with Tock.
Versus prior generations, Millennials and Gen Z seem to eb spending more on restaurants and travel as a percent of income. Amex and havers have said this. The more Amex can capture of that spend (Amex network fees, Resy fees, tock fees, etc), and the more they can get people to spend on their cards and occasionally revolve, it all makes sense for them. Why do you think Amex now makes revolving now standard for the Amex Platinum card.
Rumor has it that Patrick Bateman is still trying to get a table at Dorsia.
@Ben - as an Amex Platinum holder, Resy actually benefits you in that the Amex Platinum Concierge can often get you into a restaurant on the Resy platform even if it's fully-booked. I'll acknowledge, however, if you're eating at 5pm you may not have much difficulty getting your reservation in the first place!
I live in a small town and there's never any restaurants in any of these dining clubs. Even Reno didn't have much when I lived there. It's really for major cities.
The best Amex perk with Resy is early notification of waitlist. Some restaurants are impossible to get a reservation so you basically have to be ready with Resy alert. And I can tell you that perk alone is worth it for the platinum card.
Yes … but again, as Ben said and which I agree with, in many cities (especially Miami and LA), restaurants for which you have to place yourself on a waitlist are probably not the best places to EAT but rather just overpriced kitschy places that TikTokers go to show they “are out.”
Definitely not NYC. The best places are impossible to get in, unless you include availability in your definition of best.
100% with you, Ben.
I love food, but not getting a table at a restaurant...isn't a problem I have. Like, ever.
I also couldn't care less about celebrity chef meet-and-greets and things like that, so I'm right there with you, this has exactly zero appeal to me.
The global dining access is very useful in NYC to have early access to certain restaurant reservations and priority notification (which usually yields a table at a popular spot). I admit at first I didn’t even realize what a benefit it was until a non platinum friend tried to make a reservation and we discovered the huge discrepancy.
The one benefit I’ve seen on rare occasion with Amex on Resy (other than randomly some point multiples) is access to some select tables, which are colored differently in the app, that’s the only way to tell. It has got me tables at a few highly booked places at reasonably short notice on a few occasions that friends without Amex didn’t see as options when they looked.
I agree with you in that since the acquisition of Resy, I've seen no benefit to being owned by Amex or being an Amex card member. Not sure how Tock will make that any different other than make another monopoly on this market. What's next OpenTable?
OpenTable is already owned by Booking.com
This is just another flex by Amex to try and control the dining reservation space. The majority of wealthy individuals that dine at high end restaurants overwheingly use Amex cards. This just allows Amex to slap their branding all over Tock and Resy.
Yikes. Potential bad news for Chase? When you book pre-paid menus through Chase, you get 10x points OR you can use URs to pay for said dinners. Wonder what's going to happen to that feature.
Chase sapphire reserve, i mean.
Given the range of restaurants on the Resy platform, it has turned out to be a nothing-burger. Perhaps Amex is trying to expand that range with this acquisition. But, will prepaid reservations (subject to forfeiture) become a thing? That is, breakage on top of breakage. We're seeing Amex trying to bolster Resy by adding dining credits to some cards. I'll lay odds that existing dining credits shift to Resy -- say, with the Amex Gold refresh. Adios.
Prepaid reservations, or a sizeable deposit that's non-refundable in the event of a late cancellation or no-show, have been a thing at restaurants for some time now, particularly those that have a small number of tables and/or a dining experience that lasts for a few hours or more. A no-show table of six at a restaurant that seats thirty for a twelve-course tasting menu is a huge loss. If everyone has prepaid, they're much more...
Prepaid reservations, or a sizeable deposit that's non-refundable in the event of a late cancellation or no-show, have been a thing at restaurants for some time now, particularly those that have a small number of tables and/or a dining experience that lasts for a few hours or more. A no-show table of six at a restaurant that seats thirty for a twelve-course tasting menu is a huge loss. If everyone has prepaid, they're much more likely to actually show for the reservation.
“would rather go to a restaurant with quality food over a place that is a scene (which, living in Miami, those are typically polar opposites)”
Same here, Ben. It’s a shame new Miami restaurants are all “scenes” with meh food, or visa investment plays that are straight up horrible
Since you bring up quality, consider restaurants in Manhattan. Look at those on the Resy platform. Now, while Bilt Dining is not a reservation service, look at those within the Bilt Dining program. Night and day. Resy is laughable. Bilt Dining has many very high quality dining venues (and you receive more points).
Link your AMEX gold to Bilt. Then double dip for 7x: 4x (Amex) plus usually 3x (Bilt)
agree 100%, i'd rather have a very fresh and great Döner Kebap on the street (sorry US people, you don't have such good stuff when it comes to dining) and pay a decent amount for good food that fills me up, rather then sitting in a digital guided Restaurant, that is overpriced and if really fresh it's tremendously expensive, anywhere in the US, Resy is not even listing the HIGH END Restaurants globally, that really...
agree 100%, i'd rather have a very fresh and great Döner Kebap on the street (sorry US people, you don't have such good stuff when it comes to dining) and pay a decent amount for good food that fills me up, rather then sitting in a digital guided Restaurant, that is overpriced and if really fresh it's tremendously expensive, anywhere in the US, Resy is not even listing the HIGH END Restaurants globally, that really deserve the title, Restaurant with amazing food and service!
Example, both pics used in the post, look at the floor and on the tablecloth . . . :-o 70's style but i at least hope since the ambience is not impressive, the food at least is?
The entire digital thing in the US, is totally overrated!
Think of GREAT ambience and great food in Turkey, Thailand, Greece, Italy, Austria, Germany, France or Spain . . . non of that new AmEx service would do any good!
Wish AmEx would have rather invested in some Global service, like Concert Ticket Agents, Local Tour Operators, Airport Prepaid Car Parks . . . things that are a MUST for Travelers and bring great revenue to AmEx too and possible advantages to Cardmembers as well.
Citi, clearly ahead of time!
Equinox Gym credit . . . ? ;-) . . . a joke, right!?
We're not so much into the red-hot scene, but do enjoy places with a stellar reputation for a special occasion. Other than that we frequent solid neighbourhood restaurants that are owned and run either by a family or the chef, and would prefer to support those local businesses.
I agree. I use Resy, and have linked my AMEX card, but it doesn’t seem to change the experience.
The play is, that business is easy money for Amex. And Squarespace is being bought by private equity who generally like to trim the fat of a business. Tick has nothing to do with squarespace really.
The supposed advantage is that platinum cardholders get “priority notification” ahead of others. In NYC, probably hundreds of Platinum cardholders vying for the same table. I thought it was useless but just now recieved a notification that lasted long enough for me to book a place that sells out within 5 minutes of reservations for the day opening (Semma).
Tock is a non-changeable, non refundable, transferable reservation. I avoid it just like I avoid non-refundable,...
The supposed advantage is that platinum cardholders get “priority notification” ahead of others. In NYC, probably hundreds of Platinum cardholders vying for the same table. I thought it was useless but just now recieved a notification that lasted long enough for me to book a place that sells out within 5 minutes of reservations for the day opening (Semma).
Tock is a non-changeable, non refundable, transferable reservation. I avoid it just like I avoid non-refundable, non- changeable hotels.
If Amex had a clearing house to facilitate transfers , that would be value added. But for most of us, finding someone to take over a £250 prix fixe reservation in London is daunting.
Cancelation policy is set by the restaurant, not Tock. I've made plenty of cancelable reservations on Tock.
I guess it's just the ones I want to go to then - Atomix in NYC, Kitchen Table in London. Both top of the top restaurants.