Skift Take

Airbnb will use and is investing in a relatively small dining reservations platform to test out how Airbnb will mesh with complementary services. Along with Airbnb Trips, dining reservations could be only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

As Airbnb furthers its ambitions to expand into other sectors, the short-term rental site announced on Monday that it’s leading a $13 million Series A investment in Resy, a New York City-based dining reservations mobile app.

Founded in 2014, Resy is available in about 1,000 restaurants in 50 U.S. markets and states it has booked nearly 1.5 million seats per month for the past year.

In November, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told attendees at the Airbnb Open in Los Angeles during the Airbnb Trips announcement that, “Soon, you’ll be able to book restaurant reservations directly through the Airbnb app … Resy and us are going to work together where you can book a restaurant reservation in cities around the world. Reservations will also include information about when to go and how it fits into your schedule.”

Airbnb plans to integrate Resy into its own app in April. On Christmas, Chesky teased on Twitter that Airbnb is interested in getting involved in other areas of food and beverage.

Resy only operates in the U.S. and it is much smaller than the Priceline Group’s OpenTable, which also is primarily U.S.-based but has a network of 40,000 restaurants and is one of the world’s largest dining reservation apps.

Resy, which also builds customer relationship management software for restaurants, has also partnered with Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group to develop a customer reservations/resource management system.

This is Resy’s second round of funding after raising its $2 million seed round in July 2014. New investor First Data Corporation and existing investors Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Gary Vaynerchuk’s RSE Ventures also participated in this latest round.

smartphone

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: airbnb, dining, opentable, resy

Photo credit: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky speaking at the company's Open event in November in Los Angeles, where its partnership with Resy, a New York City-based dining reservations app, was first announced. Airbnb

Up Next

Loading next stories