American Express Launches New Mobile Reservation Platform

Need to Know 

• American Express has launched a new restaurant reservation software integration within its mobile app allowing platinum cardholders to schedule reservations, dine, and earn rewards points.
• The new functionality is powered by American Express’ recently acquired Resy, a consumer-facing reservation management platform.
• Resy works with approximately 4,000 restaurants across 154 U.S. cities and 10 countries, seating over 2.6 million diners a week.

Analysis

With the integration of Resy, American Express is expanding its mobile curated card holder offerings and responding to the top request through its well-known concierge service: dining. 

The integration means that Platinum cardholders will now have access to Resy’s index of over 4000 restaurants across 10 countries, as well as the existing American Express Dining Collection and other partners such as BookATable and SevenRooms. In total, cardholders can now access over 10,000 restaurants worldwide. 

More consumers are relying on their smartphones to manage reservations and review restaurants, so this new integration means they can now look to the Amex App for dinner recommendations and quick access to the world’s most sought after eateries. Dining is currently American Express cardholders’ biggest spending category. 

“American Express has always been a powerhouse in the dining space and we know American Express Card Members are passionate about great food. So, we are excited to begin providing them with elevated perks and access on Resy’s platform too,” said Ben Leventhal, co-founder and CEO of Resy after the Amex acquisition in August. 

Amex says that 84% of its card members now use the app or website to interact with the company, and it’s seen a 35% year-over-year increase in daily active American Express mobile app users globally, according to TechCunch. The launch of Resy in addition to American Express’ previous acquisitions of service-based apps Cake Technologies, Mezi, Lounge Buddy, and Pocket Concierge, rounds out the payments company’s mission of being a central part of their customer’s everyday lives. 

In addition to dine-in bookings, the NDP group reports that at the moment, six out of 10 digital orders are placed by mobile app. In an effort to stick their fork in the lucrative digital hospitality and restaurant market, other payments companies have followed suit by increasing their presence with exclusive experiences. Recently, Mastercard launched a permanent culinary collective offering “immersive, multi-sensory experiences” in New York called ‘Priceless’, only available to Mastercard cardholders. 

Access to the new Resy-powered in-app reservation tool rolled out to limited American Express cardholders this week and the company plans to make the took available to its larger base in 2020.