Airbnb Now Lets Users Book Restaurant Reservations

Airbnb customers in 16 cities will soon be able to book restaurants through the lodging-reservations service. The short-term vacation rental company made the announcement today that it’s officially partnered with restaurant reservation system Resy. Airbnb invested $13 million in Resy last January.

Since Resy only operates in the United States, that’s where the roll-out will focus, with a new restaurants tab appearing in the app. As reservations are made, they will be added to an in-app itinerary and map. An added feature allows diners to text restaurants about their reservation directly and within the app.

At a press event, Resy CEO Ben Leventhal [disclosure: Leventhal was one of the co-founders of Eater] confirmed his company would be moving towards international operations by the end of this year. This means that Airbnb customers booking lodging in Paris, for instance, will soon be able to confirm restaurant reservations without having to pick up the phone.

“Restaurants and food are how cities show themselves off. Internationally, it will be so simple, already translated into other languages,” Leventhal said, noting alongside Airbnb’s VP of Trips Joe Zadeh that curated restaurant experiences would also be coming to Airbnb.

“I think Airbnb has a similar viewpoint in terms of quality and integration on the ground,” Leventhal said. For Resy’s restaurant partners, the new partnership will “offer them one of most potent sources of new customers around the world.”

This isn’t the first merger of a travel site with a restaurant reservation system — in 2014, reviews site TripAdvisor acquired French reservation website Lafourchette, followed by several more in 2015, although they’re not thoroughly integrated into TripAdvisor’s site and do not work via the company’s app.

• Reservations App Resy Gets a Big Investment From Airbnb [E]
• Airbnb now lets you book restaurant reservations in the US [The Verge]
• TripAdvisor Will Soon Be Making Your Restaurant Reservations [E]
• Restaurant Reservation Service LaFourchette Gobbled Up By TripAdvisor For ~$140M [TechCrunch]