Since announcing the DoorDash acquisition of SevenRooms, we’ve heard from a number of restaurant partners with questions about guest data and in particular, whether anything has changed around ownership of first-party data.
We want to be clear:
Restaurants continue to solely own their first-party guest data. That hasn’t changed.
Restaurants fully own and control the guest data that comes from their first-party channels, including:
- Reservations made through the SevenRooms booking widget on their website
- Bookings from Google listings and Google Reserve
- The many other first-party reservation integrations SevenRooms supports
There is no transfer of ownership or sharing of this data with DoorDash—it remains with the restaurant, just as it always has.
What makes our approach different from other platforms
Many reservation platforms use restaurant guest data to strengthen their own consumer marketplaces. Our approach is fundamentally different.
Guest data collected through your first-party channels does not flow back to DoorDash to power its marketplace. The value stays with you, where it belongs.
At the same time, restaurants can benefit from DoorDash's scale and insights without giving up ownership of their guest relationships.
What’s new: DoorDash insights, added to SevenRooms
By bringing DoorDash and SevenRooms together, restaurants can now see a more complete picture of their guests across both in-restaurant and online experiences.
Restaurants now automatically have access to proprietary DoorDash-specific signals to guest profiles, like whether someone is a Local or a highly engaged Elite Orderer. This proprietary DoorDash data gives our customers an unmatched level of insight on their guests and new ways to identify high-value customers.
For the first time, restaurants can learn something meaningful about a guest even before their first visit. Knowing who your locals and potential regulars are helps you deliver better hospitality and build loyalty faster.
If you use DoorDash’s first-party online ordering products, you can now connect online ordering activity directly to the guest profile including what guests order and how much they spend over time.
Just like with reservations, you can create custom tags based on ordering behavior and use those tags for hospitality or marketing. This opens up new ways to connect reservations and online ordering like inviting your best delivery customers to dine in, or recognizing loyal guests wherever they engage with you.
Having first-party reservations and first-party ordering data in one place gives restaurants a clearer, more useful view of their guests.
As we continue to mature the partnership and integration between SevenRooms and DoorDash, we look forward to finding new opportunities to grow the data we arm our restaurant partners with.
How we handle third-party reservations
Reservations that come from DoorDash Reservation Marketplace are treated the same way as other third-party reservation providers that we integrate with.
Restaurants can access guest information for operational purposes, and can use that data for marketing when a guest opts in. This is an industry standard, and one we respect.
Built for choice and trust
We believe restaurants should have real choice both first-party and third-party options and clear rules around how guest data is used. Restaurants keep ownership of their first-party data, gain more insight into their guests, and benefit from seeing reservations and ordering together in one place.
Our goal is simple: help restaurants grow and build stronger guest relationships, on their terms.
Allison Page, Head of Product & Co-Founder, SevenRooms
