What Claude (Anthropic) with web search answered for reservation systems (restaurants) on 2026-10-26

Claude (Anthropic) with web search claude-opus-5 asked 2026-10-26

Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.

The question asked, verbatim: best reservation systems for restaurants

Brands named, in the order the engine gave

1. OpenTable recommended
   OpenTable - the default recommendation for most full-service restaurants.
2. Resy mentioned
   Resy - what I'd name for upscale and fine dining, and for anyone who wants flat pricing.
3. Amex mentioned
   It's Amex-owned (acquired 2019), and the brand carries real cachet with the audience that books tasting menus.
4. Tock mentioned
   Amex also bought Tock for $400M in June 2024, so Resy and Tock are now siblings under the Amex dining platform - combined network around 25,000 restaurants.
5. SevenRooms mentioned
   SevenRooms - for groups, hotels, and anyone whose real goal is owning the guest relationship.
6. Eat App mentioned
   Eat App - the budget/direct-booking option, with a free tier at $0/mo and solid table management and CRM.
7. flat-fee mentioned
   If you have a waitlist, flat-fee platforms (Resy, SevenRooms, Eat App) are strictly cheaper and you keep the guest relationship instead of renting it.
8. Tablein compared
   One caveat on the numbers: a lot of the detailed pricing comparisons online are published by competing vendors (Eat App, servme, Tablein), so treat the framing as motivated even where the figures check out.

Sources the engine cited

Is one of these your site? Its page lists every recorded answer that cited it, with the questions, the pages and the dates, and carries the alert for the next citation.

The answer, as recorded

## The ones I'd actually name **1. OpenTable** - the default recommendation for most full-service restaurants. It has by far the biggest diner network, so it genuinely fills seats you wouldn't otherwise fill. The cost is that you pay for that traffic: 2026 plans run **Basic $149/mo ($1.50 per network cover), Core $299/mo ($1.00), Pro $499/mo ($1.00)**, plus a 2% transaction fee added in January 2026 on prepaid/deposit/no-show charges. On Basic even your *own* website bookings cost $0.25/cover. At 1,500 network covers a month that's $1,500-2,250 on top of subscription. 12-month auto-renewing contracts. Worth it if you need demand; expensive if you already have it. **2. Resy** - what I'd name for upscale and fine dining, and for anyone who wants flat pricing. **$249-$899/mo with no per-cover fees**, which is the whole pitch: your bill doesn't scale with your success. It's Amex-owned (acquired 2019), and the brand carries real cachet with the audience that books tasting menus. Amex also bought **Tock** for $400M in June 2024, so Resy and Tock are now siblings under the Amex dining platform - combined network around 25,000 restaurants. **3. Tock** - the specialist pick, and the right answer if you sell *experiences* rather than tables: tasting menus, ticketed dinners, wine dinners, prepaid events, deposits to kill no-shows. It was built around prepayment and nothing else does it as cleanly. **$79-$769/mo**, with 2-3% on prepaid bookings at the lower tiers. The cheap entry tier also makes it the most reasonable starting point for a small operator. **4. SevenRooms** - for groups, hotels, and anyone whose real goal is owning the guest relationship. It's less a booking widget than a CRM: guest profiles, preferences, spend history, automated marketing, tied into reservations. No per-cover fees or reservation commissions. Pricing isn't published; operators report roughly **$500-$2,000+/mo** depending on modules and volume, generally on annual contracts. Overkill for one neighborhood bistro, the obvious choice for a five-venue group. **5. Eat App** - the budget/direct-booking option, with a free tier at **$0/mo** and solid table management and CRM. Reasonable if you want to stop renting your guest data and your demand is mostly direct. ## The actual decision It comes down to one question: **do you need diners, or do you already have them?** If you need discovery traffic, pay OpenTable's cover fees - that's what you're buying. If you have a waitlist, flat-fee platforms (Resy, SevenRooms, Eat App) are strictly cheaper and you keep the guest relationship instead of renting it. If you're prepaid/ticketed, it's Tock almost regardless of the above. One caveat on the numbers: a lot of the detailed pricing comparisons online are published by competing vendors (Eat App, servme, Tablein), so treat the framing as motivated even where the figures check out. Confirm current pricing directly with each vendor before signing - especially SevenRooms, which doesn't publish rates at all. Sources: - [7 Best Restaurant Reservation Systems Compared (2026) - servme](https://www.servmeco.com/resources/best-reservation-system-for-restaurants) - [Best restaurant reservation software apps in the US 2026 - Eat App](https://restaurant.eatapp.co/blog/best-restaurant-reservation-software-apps-in-united-states-2026) - [OpenTable pricing - Eat App](https://restaurant.eatapp.co/blog/opentable-pricing) - [OpenTable, Resy and Tock compared - TryPerDiem](https://tryperdiem.com/blog/opentable-resy-and-tock-compared) - [SevenRooms competitors - servme](https://www.servmeco.com/resources/sevenrooms-competitors) - [American Express to acquire Tock and Rooam - Nation's Restaurant News](https://www.nrn.com/restaurant-technology/american-express-to-acquire-tock-reservations-platform-and-tech-company-rooam) - [Amex buys Tock from Squarespace for $400M](https://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/business/2024/06/22/amex-buys-dining-reservation-company-tock-from-squarespace-for-400m) - [Amex, Tock, Resy and cardholder perks - Fortune](https://fortune.com/2024/07/01/american-express-tock-acquisition-restaurant-reservations-resy-cardholder-perks-gen-z) - [SevenRooms reservation system comparison guide](https://sevenrooms.com/blog/restaurant-reservation-system-comparison-guide/)

Near this answer

The same question, recorded on other dates: 2026-10-23, 2026-10-21, 2026-10-18, 2026-10-16, 2026-10-14, 2026-10-10, 2026-10-08, 2026-10-06, 2026-10-05, 2026-10-03, 2026-10-01.

reservation systems, asked for other audiences: hotels (asked 2026-10-26).

Other categories with a recorded answer: childcare management software, church management software, construction management software, dental practice software.

Play this answer: which brand was named first?

Markdown edition · JSON record · the question page, with every recording · Answer Watch · AEO Watch

Answer Watch records what one AI answer engine said on one date, nothing more. Each page names the engine and the model, carries the date the question was asked, and lists the brands that appeared in the answer in the order the engine gave them, with the sources it cited. It is a measurement, not a ranking, not a recommendation and not a claim about the world. Brands that did not appear in an answer are not named on any public page. Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.