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