Resy Buys Rival Tock
Reservation giant Resy has acquired rival platform Tock, consolidating booking for over 25,000 restaurants, including Chicago's Alinea. The move significantly boosts the value of VIP dining credits and centralizes control over high-end reservations, a major shift for exclusivity management.
This consolidation is the culmination of separate, high-profile acquisitions. American Express bought Resy in 2019, while Squarespace, the website builder, acquired Tock in 2021 for over $400 million in a cash and stock deal. The two platforms were born from different philosophies in the same year, 2014. Resy was co-founded by Ben Leventhal of Eater.com and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk as a more restaurant-friendly alternative to OpenTable. Tock was created by Chicago's own Nick Kokonas, of the Alinea Group, to solve the costly problem of no-shows through a pre-paid "ticketing" system for reservations. Before the merger, the platforms had distinct footprints. As of early 2024, Resy provided booking for approximately 20,000 restaurants. Tock, while having a smaller restaurant base of over 7,000, established a strong niche in fine dining and also expanded significantly into wineries, with over 1,200 on its platform. Under the new structure, American Express will combine both networks under the Resy brand this summer. The Tock consumer app and website will be decommissioned, but its restaurant management software and features like pre-paid bookings and tiered experiences will be integrated into Resy's system. This move positions American Express to compete more directly with giants like OpenTable, which lists over 60,000 restaurants. The integration will also more deeply connect the expanded restaurant network with Amex cardholder benefits, such as the popular Resy dining credits, which will be extended to select Tock venues.
