American Express Buys Reservation-Booking Company, Resy, As Part of Plan to Expand into Hospitality Industry

Dining perks have long been a benefit of use for American Express users, and now AmEx is taking “a new step into the industry--by buying the country’s biggest privately held restaurant reservation service,” according to an article in The New York Times .

Resy was one of the early players in the world of online reservation booking, “founded in 2014” and with “4,000 restaurants on its platform in 10 countries,” the article said. Resy offers services which “allow customers to book reservations and restaurants to manage them,” according to the article.

“It is part of the card company’s effort to expand in the hospitality industry, with earlier acquisitions like the travel-assistant app Mezi and the airport-lounge booking service LoungeBuddy ,” the article said.

According to the article, Resy’s co-founder and CEO, Ben Leventhal, said, “ Putting Resy and American Express together will give Resy valuable scale.”

The acquisition may position Resy to overtake its rival, the smaller but better known OpenTable.

Katie LaTour is a staff writer for 1851 Franchise and Estatenvy. She has experience in copywriting, editing and translation, and has written content for brands including Coca-Cola, Ivivva and Ray Ban's. She holds a Master of Arts in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University and a B.A. in English and Spanish from the University of Dayton. Presently, Katie is working on a poetry collection and building a platform for Chicago creative professionals to share best practices.