Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: But we do want to turn now to the world
Speaker 2: of restaurants here, particularly here in New York City. With
Speaker 2: Restaurant Week beginning, a lot of folks now trying to
Speaker 2: scramble to secure reservations at the most popular restaurants, and
Speaker 2: of course one of the websites that benefits most from
Speaker 2: that is Open Table. Please to say that the CEO
Speaker 2: of Open Table joins us right now, Debbie su to
Speaker 2: talk about the trends in eating out. Always a fun
Speaker 2: conversation with you, Debbie, and always nice to get a
Speaker 2: read here whether we're still going out there and spending
Speaker 2: money at some of these restaurants here. Are you seeing
Speaker 2: those trends pulled up?
Speaker 3: Great to be here, Remaine, and thanks for having me back.
Speaker 3: We are still seeing that trend hold up gunning. Demand
Speaker 3: is continuing to hold. June was actually up three percent
Speaker 3: year over year. July is flat. July historically, in a
Speaker 3: lot of cities, is a little bit slower. You're in
Speaker 3: New York City. New York tends to kind of empty
Speaker 3: out in the summer. So I'm always here to encourage
Speaker 3: people to go out and support your local restaurants and die.
Speaker 1: Certainly that's something that people are you know, would like
Speaker 1: to do once they have set aside the budget for
Speaker 1: eating out these days. I'm curious to get your take
Speaker 1: on what we've been reading about lately, which is reservation bots.
Speaker 1: When reservations open up for restaurants, it's automated, it's on
Speaker 1: the website, and then right away they disappear, and then
Speaker 1: they show up at a third party website where they're
Speaker 1: sold at a premium. What does Open Table do to
Speaker 1: prevent bots from flooding the zone?
Speaker 3: The bots issue can be very disruptive to our restaurant partners.
Speaker 3: So at Open Table, we are doing everything we can
Speaker 3: to help restaurants drive and blocking bots are Identifying bots
Speaker 3: is one of those things. We were one of the
Speaker 3: first initial supporters of the Anti Piracy Bill here in
Speaker 3: New York, and that is to basically penalize these third
Speaker 3: party operators who are making a profit on selling these
Speaker 3: these reservations that they've secured through bots. And it's not
Speaker 3: quick for us staurants because you know, you get these
Speaker 3: bots in, they book everything, they're not able to sell everything,
Speaker 3: so in some cases you have last minute no shows,
Speaker 3: which are really really bad for restaurants. Restaurants don't know
Speaker 3: exactly who's coming in because the reservation was booked by X,
Speaker 3: but Y ends up showing up. So it's it's it's
Speaker 3: terribly and the worst part actually is that the restaurants
Speaker 3: are not benefiting from that sale. So right, these third
Speaker 3: party systems or platforms are not sharing in that revenue.
Speaker 3: So's it's not great for restaurants. And we've heard across
Speaker 3: the board, especially in New York City, how disruptive it
Speaker 3: can be to their operations.
Speaker 1: Is one solution, then for people to put down a
Speaker 1: credit card number or pay a deposit essentially when they make.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right, that's exactly right. So at open table
Speaker 3: our restaurants can offer a deposit, they can put on
Speaker 3: a credit card hold, so if the diner ends up
Speaker 3: no showing or canceling last minute, that the credit card
Speaker 3: would get charged.
Speaker 2: So what does when we talk about just that kind
Speaker 2: of this whole process, Debbie. I mean, there's been some
Speaker 2: people that have kind of been discouraged. I mean, whether
Speaker 2: it's an inability to get a reservation or feeling like
Speaker 2: you're just going up against a robot, or even this
Speaker 2: idea of leaving a credit card. Some people bristle at
Speaker 2: that because they feel like if at the last minute
Speaker 2: they need to back out, sometimes they get charged. Is
Speaker 2: there a sense here that diners have gotten a little
Speaker 2: weary with this whole process.
Speaker 3: I do think that's true in this narrative of the
Speaker 3: impossible to get reservation. I just don't think that's actually
Speaker 3: what's happening, although there is a story in this narrative
Speaker 3: out there. In any given city. Let's take New York City,
Speaker 3: there's probably a dozen restaurants where it is really hard
Speaker 3: to get a reservation, right where bought activity is rampant,
Speaker 3: where the restaurant is consistently filled even on Tuesday, Wednesday,
Speaker 3: Thursday nights. But in most cases, there are so many
Speaker 3: amazing restaurants in New York City, A handful of them
Speaker 3: really really hard to get. But everyone else, like you
Speaker 3: can see availability if you change your dining time. So
Speaker 3: if you're a mom of young kids like me, my
Speaker 3: preferred time is five thirty, which I know makes me
Speaker 3: super uncool because most people like dining from seven to nine.
Speaker 3: But I'm happy to take that five to thirty slot.
Speaker 3: At Strange July, you know, or at Oscar to get
Speaker 3: a seat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're preaching to the choir. Tabby, I've been I've
Speaker 2: been doing the early Bird special since I.
Speaker 3: Was you know, like that. So yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3: And so what open tables about. We want to be
Speaker 3: about democratizing dining and giving access to all diners. And yes,
Speaker 3: there's a handful of reservations or a handful of restaurants
Speaker 3: that are about roping off access, But for us, we
Speaker 3: want to be opening doors. We want to be having
Speaker 3: our restaurants being discovered by as many diners as possible.
Speaker 1: Debbie, very quickly here, what's the pitch you make to
Speaker 1: restaurants to work with you. I'm thinking of Dent Typhoon,
Speaker 1: the Taiwanese restaurant which just opened in Manhattan after years
Speaker 1: of lots of fans in the New York area urging
Speaker 1: for one, and they're using their own reservation system rather
Speaker 1: than something like Open Table, and their own reservation system
Speaker 1: leaves something to be desired. What's the single most important
Speaker 1: thing you say to them?
Speaker 3: We lead with product and we lead with listening. So
Speaker 3: what are the needs that ding Typhon specifically needs from
Speaker 3: their table management system? Is it control and guest flow,
Speaker 3: is it right looking for ways to get more guests
Speaker 3: in right, which, in dan Typhone's case, I think is
Speaker 3: true since there's always a line out the door and
Speaker 3: any ging typhone I've ever been to in my life. Okay,
Speaker 3: so we lead with product, What do you need? How
Speaker 3: can we meet those needs and help you run your
Speaker 3: restaurant to the best you know in terms of efficiency
Speaker 3: or productivity, to give you that time, to free up
Speaker 3: your time to offer those amazing hospitality moments that dan
Speaker 3: Typhone definitely offers.
Speaker 1: Debbie, really appreciate your joining us today. Debbie Sue is
Speaker 1: CEO of Open Table