Dive Brief:

• Restaurant reservation apps OpenTable and Quandoo announced a partnership on Tuesday which allows Quandoo restaurant partners to be booked on OpenTable, and OpenTable partners will be listed on Quandoo in the coming months, according to Big Hospitality
• The initial integration includes 10,000 restaurants in the U.K,. Germany, Australia, Italy and Singapore. The partnership will eventually broaden OpenTable's portfolio to more than 56,000 restaurants globally, and increases Quandoo's restaurant partners to more than 23,000. 
• Also on Tuesday, American Express completed its acquisition of restaurant booking app Resy. The two brands plan to introduce exclusive perks for Amex card members later this month. 

Dive Insight:

These two announcements indicate a new iteration in the reservation platform space — one which used to include functionality devoted simply to restaurant bookings — that has since evolved into broader applicability. Now, apps like OpenTable and Resy are more of a one-stop-shop for users, adding features such as surveys, restaurant management systems, and just last month, delivery. 

These added utilities serve as a way for OpenTable and Resy to win favor from their restaurant partners, which pay a monthly fee to appear on the sites. OpenTable said its new integration provides diners with more choices and a better searching and booking experience over Google or Apple, or even Instagram or Facebook. Instagram added Quandoo in-app restaurant bookings last year. The better experience comes from OpenTable's verified reviews, images and menus, according to the company. 

These utilities also better insulate the booking companies from the growing competitive threats that come from marketplace delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub. OpenTable and Resy could be looking for ways to stay top of mind for diners as restaurants invest more into their own branded sites in an effort to regain control of customer relationships and their customers' data in a third-party environment. 

These complementary relationships are becoming more common in the competitive space. In recent years, OpenTable lost some of its market domination in online reservations to Resy, which targeted trendier, up-and-coming restaurants. Quandoo VP Pierpaolo Zollo said the objective with the OpenTable partnership is to grow the largest marketplace in the hospitality industry.

That's certainly not the only potential benefit. Both collaborations will bring more exposure to restaurant partners. With Resy, for example, Amex cardholders will for a limited time be able to rack up 500 points per booking for up to three bookings, and gain access to special restaurants and other events. With these types of incentives available to the 53 million Amex cardholders in the U.S., Resy should theoretically experience an uptick in reservations, which would inevitably benefit its restaurant partners.