We're Booking Reservations on DoorDash Now, Huh?

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Dear Pros,

Erika here. If you recently received an email from a favorite restaurant group encouraging you to book your next reservation on DoorDash and it made you do a double take, you're not alone. Folks have been forwarding me dispatches from Rezdôra and Unapologetic Foods (Semma, Adda, and Dhamaka, among others) announcing that they have switched reservation platforms. It's not to a hot, new upstart, but to the biggest delivery company in the country.

Delivery giant DoorDash, valued at nearly $70 billion, bought reservations service SevenRooms last June for $1.2 billion. Now, they've launched DoorDash Reservations. The company's chief operating officer Prabir Adarkar told F&W contributor Kristen Hawley that they were seeing plenty of first-time app users download DoorDash in order to book tables. The push into reservations is part of DoorDash's overarching plan to "insert itself into every restaurant transaction," Hawley writes. You can read her full breakdown of the situation here.

Ever since delivery economics were laid bare during the early days of the pandemic, I've felt a little queasy every time I open the DoorDash app. Is my tip actually going to the driver? Is the restaurant still turning a profit on these orders after DoorDash takes its cut? Don't get me started on the laundry list of fees attached to each order. All this fuels waves of outrage over the astronomical cost of delivery.

It already feels like everyone except DoorDash is getting squeezed in this equation. Now I'm going to fire up this same app to make a reservation, too? I don't love it.

Pros, what do you think? As consumers, are you hesitant to rely on a delivery app for one more restaurant interaction? Or, are you already booking reservations in DoorDash? Let me know at the email below.

Take care,
Erika