Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well. Open Table
Speaker 1: is a subsidiary of the publicly traded booking holdings. They've
Speaker 1: got great insight into what's going on when it comes
Speaker 1: to the restaurant industry. After all, pretty much knows in
Speaker 1: real time how many people are making reservations on the
Speaker 1: platform now versus pre pandemic, and they can see that
Speaker 1: data at a given moment. In fact, you can look
Speaker 1: at open table data on the Bloomberg terminal. We're very
Speaker 1: pleased to have with us this afternoon. Debbie Sue, CEO
Speaker 1: of open Table. She joins us via zoom from Stanford, Connecticut. Debbie,
Speaker 1: how are you. I'm doing well? Thank you. Well, I
Speaker 1: kind of know the answer to this question because I've
Speaker 1: tried to make reservations on open table and other apps
Speaker 1: on you know, a Tuesday night or a Friday night
Speaker 1: in Manhattan, and it is not an easy thing to do.
Speaker 1: Right now. Has the restaurant industry recovered and then some
Speaker 1: or is there just less to choose from post pandemic?
Speaker 1: The restaurant industry has definitely seen a pickup in demand,
Speaker 1: and we're still seeing that kind of post pandemic pent
Speaker 1: up demand where a lot of us have been cooped
Speaker 1: up in our houses or our apartments, UM, and there's
Speaker 1: this need to engage and meet with people and oftentimes
Speaker 1: over a meal. And so I think we're still seeing
Speaker 1: uh pent up demand and people going out. So that
Speaker 1: demand is really help steady, even in places in like
Speaker 1: New York where you just announced, like Goldman has requested
Speaker 1: everyone come back into the office. So New York is
Speaker 1: one of those cities where versus city like San Francisco,
Speaker 1: for example, people are coming back. You're seeing those those
Speaker 1: lunch time shifts starting to fill up, and so the
Speaker 1: city is definitely feeling more alive, and if certainly it
Speaker 1: is very difficult to get a reservation on a Friday night,
Speaker 1: you're also seeing a New York tourist activity and travel
Speaker 1: activity really coming back in a way that we haven't
Speaker 1: seen in the last two years. So all really encouraging
Speaker 1: signs for Manhattan. I swear I actually got an ID
Speaker 1: during this program asking me to grab lunch in the
Speaker 1: fall from UM a listener and a store. So I
Speaker 1: guess the REases lung. Yeah, I'm gonna go. Of course
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go. What do you, Alex, you know, making
Speaker 1: a reservation. I mean, I'm not making the reservation. Someone
Speaker 1: else can. But in any case, uh W. I am
Speaker 1: interested to situate this conversation in the broader economic landscape
Speaker 1: that we're living in, because all we talk about all
Speaker 1: day and of course this is on Bloomberg, so of
Speaker 1: course we would be talking about it. But we talk
Speaker 1: about inflation, we talk about recession fears, and you are
Speaker 1: seeing this pent up demand, like you say, but how
Speaker 1: resilient do you think that is in the face of
Speaker 1: some of those big issues that we talk about. As
Speaker 1: you mentioned, We're certainly in a challenging macro environment, and
Speaker 1: I think we're in unprecedented times here because we've not
Speaker 1: had a recession that's followed, you know, with a two
Speaker 1: year or central pandemic, and so we're seeing that demand
Speaker 1: continue to hold. And I think even once you know,
Speaker 1: people stop revenge eating is what we like to call
Speaker 1: it here, open table with the shape of work and
Speaker 1: return to work and what what that whole thing. I
Speaker 1: think the future of work or how work is is
Speaker 1: different post pandemic. I don't know if we're ever going
Speaker 1: to get back to a world of how it was
Speaker 1: before the pandemic. So we have a lot of people
Speaker 1: who work from home or have a hybrid situation where
Speaker 1: now going out to that meal is very much a
Speaker 1: planned event. Like it it's it's a bigger deal. And
Speaker 1: we're seeing that in shifts of behavior. Before we had
Speaker 1: a lot of walk ins for our restaurants. Um, we're
Speaker 1: seeing a channel shift for for that, you know, regular
Speaker 1: casual walk in, No people are now booking two or
Speaker 1: three days in advance. Hence, you know the common earlier
Speaker 1: being impossible to to find a reservation, it is because
Speaker 1: everyone's booking, everyone's looking forward to that restaurant at the meal.
Speaker 1: We used to think that bar seating was the most
Speaker 1: unattractive seat at a restaurant. We're seeing bar seat and
Speaker 1: go across like a increase to fold, because that's those
Speaker 1: are now very very desirable seats to sit at a
Speaker 1: restaurant because as you want to be in the fray,
Speaker 1: you want to be around people. And so I think
Speaker 1: it will be really hard to tell what's going to
Speaker 1: happen in this macro environment. But I remain very bullish
Speaker 1: on dining and I think people are going to continue
Speaker 1: to crave going out and they will save pockets of
Speaker 1: you know, their discretionary income for that event. Before we
Speaker 1: let you go, I want to get an update on
Speaker 1: the the Open Table business and how you're competing with
Speaker 1: other platforms like RESI for example. Give us an update there.
Speaker 1: We love competition here at open Table. I think it
Speaker 1: pushes us to be faster and more innovative. We are
Speaker 1: slugging it out with them and other players all the
Speaker 1: time at open Table. We really believe that we are
Speaker 1: a true partner for our restaurants. Uh. We stand by
Speaker 1: our product. We've continued to iterate UM during the pandemic
Speaker 1: and post the pandemic, making sure that we give restaurants
Speaker 1: all of the tools they need to be running their
Speaker 1: businesses productively, efficiently, effectively, especially given this macro environment. We've
Speaker 1: launched features like direct messaging where now you know, hosts
Speaker 1: don't have to just be on their phones s M,
Speaker 1: S NG and confirming or calling. You can do that
Speaker 1: directly through Open Tables products. So we're really looking at
Speaker 1: all the different ways that we can make UM from
Speaker 1: the diner's point of view and from the restaurant's point
Speaker 1: of view a more seamless dining experience. Debbie thirty seconds
Speaker 1: left just how to support restaurants too, given that we're
Speaker 1: on the other side of the pandemic, hopefully it's tough
Speaker 1: times that that this our industry has gone through some
Speaker 1: stuff in the last few years. The best thing you
Speaker 1: can do to support restaurants is to show up. Uh.
Speaker 1: No shows continue to be have always been a problem,
Speaker 1: but especially post pandemics, hugely, hugely disruptive to a restaurant's business.
Speaker 1: A few no shows a night can can be the
Speaker 1: difference maker of making a profit a night or not.
Speaker 1: So if you're not gonna make it, just cancel and
Speaker 1: tell the restaurants. I've noticed that some restaurants are charging
Speaker 1: for no shows, which I think is a fair policy.
Speaker 1: Debbie Sue se EO at open Table. We'd love to
Speaker 1: have you back and talk more when it comes to
Speaker 1: open table and find dining. She joins us via zoom
Speaker 1: from Stamford, Connecticut. Follow him on Twitter at open table.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg