Resy
Restaurant reservation platform owned by American Express, merging with Tock in 2026.
On the record
Checkpoint: Tock-Resy platform merger completes, testing feature parity and restaurant retention
The call
Resy survives comfortably inside Amex's wallet but is losing the restaurant land-grab to OpenTable, Toast, and DoorDash while flat headcount signals a cost center, not a growth bet.
Resy is a restaurant reservation app owned by American Express that makes money by connecting diners (especially Amex cardholders) with restaurants and selling tools to restaurants for managing bookings and inventory. It is hard to replace because American Express cardholders like using it and many restaurants rely on Resy's booking system, but three much bigger companies have already built or bought their own versions: OpenTable (owned by Booking.com) added reservations through Visa in 2024, DoorDash bought SevenRooms for $1.2 billion in 2025, and Toast bundled reservations into its restaurant software. The one thing that could change the picture is whether Resy can charge a premium fee for letting AI assistants like Claude book tables through its system, which would strengthen its position, or whether that technology becomes so cheap and common that Resy becomes just invisible plumbing between customers and restaurants.
Why
01
AI pressure: Claude and other AI booking agents (Linq, Velaro). AI agents could book tables directly and skip Resy's app, but Resy struck its own Claude integration in April 2026 to stay the front door. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: OpenTable (Booking Holdings) with Visa, plus DoorDash's SevenRooms and Toast Tables. OpenTable copied Amex's card-tie playbook with Visa in 2024 and reportedly won back marquee restaurants like Estela and Vetri from Resy. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Amex cardholder base drives $100B in dining spend and touches 95%+ of U.S. Resy restaurants, making switching costly for venues.
What would change this call
Tock-Resy platform merger ships or slips past Summer 2026. Shows whether consolidation strengthens or destabilizes Resy's restaurant retention.
Amex alters or narrows the Resy Credit cardholder benefit. Would weaken the distribution moat tying Resy to Amex cardholder spend.
Numeric restaurant defection data from premium metros to OpenTable+Visa or Toast. Would confirm actual share loss beyond vendor anecdotes.
Amex alters or narrows the Resy Credit cardholder benefit. Would weaken the distribution moat tying Resy to Amex cardholder spend.
Numeric restaurant defection data from premium metros to OpenTable+Visa or Toast. Would confirm actual share loss beyond vendor anecdotes.
Key numbers
- Amex dining spend hit $100B
- OpenTable lists 55,000-60,000+ restaurants vs Resy's 16,000
- Resy headcount flat at 358 employees, 0% YoY growth
Named risks
- Amex could reduce or restructure the Resy Credit cardholder benefit, weakening its core distribution moat.
- Tock-Resy integration targeted for Summer 2026 could ship poorly and hurt restaurant retention.
- OpenTable-Visa partnership and DoorDash-SevenRooms acquisition intensify direct competitive pressure.
- Third-party AI agents and bots querying Resy's API unmonetized could commoditize its booking layer.
- Flat 2025-2026 headcount trend suggests consolidation mode rather than growth investment.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| OpenTable | losing to | OpenTable launched Visa card partnership in 2024, mirroring Amex-Resy distribution model |
| OpenTable | contesting | Comparison sites reported 2026 win-backs of restaurants like Estela and Vetri to OpenTable |
| DoorDash (SevenRooms) | gaining on | DoorDash acquired SevenRooms for $1.2B in 2025, adding delivery-platform distribution muscle |
| Toast | contesting | Toast bundles reservations with its POS installed base, a parallel distribution play as of 2026 |
| Tock (Amex sibling) | gaining on | Amex is merging Tock into Resy's platform, targeting Summer 2026 integration |
Questions people ask
- Who owns Resy?
- American Express has owned Resy since August 2019, when it closed an acquisition reportedly worth around $200 million. Resy operates as Resy Network, Inc., a wholly owned Amex subsidiary integrated into Amex's Global Dining ecosystem alongside sister platform Tock, acquired in 2024 for about $400 million.
- Is Resy profitable?
- Amex does not break out standalone Resy financials. Resy functions as a cardholder-benefit driver inside Amex's dining ecosystem, which generated $100 billion in card dining spend in 2024, with the Resy Credit benefit issuing over $19 million in NYC statement credits since February 2024.
- Could AI replace Resy?
- Resy proactively integrated its restaurant listings into Anthropic's Claude on April 23, 2026, positioning itself as booking infrastructure rather than being bypassed. However, third-party bots like Velaro and a Claude-powered Linq agent already query Resy's API directly to book tables, showing the front-door layer is porous to outside AI agents.
- Is Resy losing restaurants to OpenTable?
- Industry comparison sites reported in 2026 that OpenTable, which struck a Visa card partnership in 2024 mirroring Amex-Resy's model, won back notable restaurants such as Estela, Vetri, and SingleThread, though no verified numeric churn data from Resy or Amex confirms the scale of defections.
- What is happening with the Resy and Tock merger?
- American Express, which bought Tock for about $400 million in 2024, is merging it into Resy's platform with a targeted Summer 2026 integration milestone, aiming for a combined footprint of roughly 25,000 bookable venues across both brands.
- Who is Resy's biggest competitor?
- OpenTable, owned by Booking Holdings, is Resy's largest scale competitor, listing 55,000 to 60,000-plus bookable restaurants as of 2026 per Wikipedia and having launched its own Visa card partnership in 2024 to match Amex-Resy's distribution strategy.
Timeline
- 2026-Q2Tock-Resy platform merger targeted for Summer 2026, combining toward 25,000 venues
- 2026-04-23Resy restaurants become discoverable and bookable inside Anthropic's Claude
- 2025-10-29Resy launches CRM integrations with Loyalist and Fishbowl
- 2025-09-18Platinum Nights by Resy launches for Amex Platinum cardholders in NY, LA, Miami
- 2025-06-20Resy reports 90% cut in bot-driven no-shows in NY State via ML fraud model
- 2025DoorDash acquires reservation rival SevenRooms for about $1.2 billion
- 2024-12New York Restaurant Reservation Anti-Piracy Act signed into law
- 2024-07Resy Credit benefit expands to Amex Gold Card
- 2024-02Resy Credit benefit launches on Delta SkyMiles Reserve and Platinum cards
- 2024American Express acquires Tock for roughly $400 million; OpenTable strikes Visa partnership
- 2019-08American Express closes acquisition of Resy for roughly $200 million
Revision history
23 July 2026
First assessed. Defensible for now. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- American Express Aims to Expand Digital Dining Access & Experiences... (2019-05-15)
- Inside the credit card industry's quiet takeover of how you spend (2026-05-11)
- Resy Company Growth, Stability & Outlook 2026 (2026-04-03)
- Resy - Headcount, Funding & Open Jobs (2026-06-22)
- New Resy Benefits Are Added to American Express U.S. Consumer and Business Platinum Cards (2025-09-18)
- Restaurant Tech Comparison 2026 (2026-06-16)
- Reservation Systems Compared (with alternatives) (2026-03-25)
- Top 25+ Restaurant Booking Systems by Market Share (2026) (2026-04-30)
- Best Restaurant Reservation Software Software in 2026
- Resy and Tock Stand United in the Fight Against Reservation Fraud (2025-06-20)
- Reservations, Waitlists, Hospitality Tools
- Resy Restaurants in the U.S. Are Now Discoverable in Claude (2026-04-23)