Open Table Data Shows Dining Demand Returning

at open table data on the Bloomberg terminal. We're very pleased to have with us this afternoon. Debbie Sue, CEO of open Table. She joins us via zoom from Stanford, Connecticut. Debbie, how are you. I'm doing well? Thank you. Well, I kind of know the answer to this question because I've tried to make reservations on open table and other apps on you know, a Tuesday night or a Friday night in Manhattan, and it is not an easy thing to do.

Right now. Has the restaurant industry recovered and then some or is there just less to choose from post pandemic? The restaurant industry has definitely seen a pickup in demand, and we're still seeing that kind of post pandemic pent up demand where a lot of us have been cooped up in our houses or our apartments, UM, and there's this need to engage and meet with people and oftentimes over a meal. And so I think we're still seeing

uh pent up demand and people going out. So that demand is really help steady, even in places in like New York where you just announced, like Goldman has requested everyone come back into the office. So New York is one of those cities where versus city like San Francisco,

for example, people are coming back. You're seeing those those lunch time shifts starting to fill up, and so the city is definitely feeling more alive, and if certainly it is very difficult to get a reservation on a Friday night, you're also seeing a New York tourist activity and travel activity really coming back in a way that we haven't seen in the last two years. So all really encouraging signs for Manhattan. I swear I actually got an ID during this program asking me to grab lunch in the

fall from UM a listener and a store. So I guess the REases lung. Yeah, I'm gonna go. Of course I'm gonna go. What do you, Alex, you know, making a reservation. I mean, I'm not making the reservation. Someone else can. But in any case, uh W. I am interested to situate this conversation in the broader economic landscape that we're living in, because all we talk about all day and of course this is on Bloomberg, so of

course we would be talking about it. But we talk about inflation, we talk about recession fears, and you are seeing this pent up demand, like you say, but how resilient do you think that is in the face of some of those big issues that we talk about. As you mentioned, We're certainly in a challenging macro environment, and I think we're in unprecedented times here because we've not had a recession that's followed, you know, with a two year or central pandemic, and so we're seeing that demand

continue to hold. And I think even once you know, people stop revenge eating is what we like to call it here, open table with the shape of work and return to work and what what that whole thing. I think the future of work or how work is is different post pandemic. I don't know if we're ever going to get back to a world of how it was before the pandemic. So we have a lot of people who work from home or have a hybrid situation where now going out to that meal is very much a

planned event. Like it it's it's a bigger deal. And we're seeing that in shifts of behavior. Before we had a lot of walk ins for our restaurants. Um, we're seeing a channel shift for for that, you know, regular casual walk in, No people are now booking two or three days in advance. Hence, you know the common earlier being impossible to to find a reservation, it is because everyone's booking, everyone's looking forward to that restaurant at the meal. We used to think that bar seating was the most

unattractive seat at a restaurant. We're seeing bar seat and go across like a increase to fold, because that's those are now very very desirable seats to sit at a restaurant because as you want to be in the fray, you want to be around people. And so I think it will be really hard to tell what's going to happen in this macro environment. But I remain very bullish on dining and I think people are going to continue to crave going out and they will save pockets of

you know, their discretionary income for that event. Before we let you go, I want to get an update on the the Open Table business and how you're competing with other platforms like RESI for example. Give us an update there. We love competition here at open Table. I think it pushes us to be faster and more innovative. We are slugging it out with them and other players all the time at open Table. We really believe that we are a true partner for our restaurants. Uh. We stand by

our product. We've continued to iterate UM during the pandemic and post the pandemic, making sure that we give restaurants all of the tools they need to be running their businesses productively, efficiently, effectively, especially given this macro environment. We've launched features like direct messaging where now you know, hosts don't have to just be on their phones s M, S NG and confirming or calling. You can do that

directly through Open Tables products. So we're really looking at all the different ways that we can make UM from the diner's point of view and from the restaurant's point of view a more seamless dining experience. Debbie thirty seconds left just how to support restaurants too, given that we're on the other side of the pandemic, hopefully it's tough times that that this our industry has gone through some stuff in the last few years. The best thing you

can do to support restaurants is to show up. Uh. No shows continue to be have always been a problem, but especially post pandemics, hugely, hugely disruptive to a restaurant's business. A few no shows a night can can be the difference maker of making a profit a night or not. So if you're not gonna make it, just cancel and tell the restaurants. I've noticed that some restaurants are charging for no shows, which I think is a fair policy.

Debbie Sue se EO at open Table. We'd love to have you back and talk more when it comes to open table and find dining. She joins us via zoom from Stamford, Connecticut. Follow him on Twitter at open table. This is Bloomberg