How SevenRooms innovated on the humble dinner reservation

How SevenRooms innovated on the humble dinner reservation

SevenRooms is one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the business services category.

BY Jay Woodruff

When one of the most famous restaurants in the world, Noma in Copenhagen, announced last year it would be closing its doors at the end of 2024, much ink was spilled over the death of fine dining. Apparently that memo never reached the more than 10,000 restaurants that rely on the booking and reservations platform SevenRooms, which has clocked about a billion guests since launching in 2011. 

Last May, SevenRooms launched a Pre-Shift feature that aggregates guest and reservation data for the evening, and lets managers filter and search by various parameters, providing details on who’s coming in to dine. It’s customizable, so the kitchen can focus on guest dietary restrictions while a sommelier can identify the wine aficionados. 

In the fall, SevenRooms added the ability for restaurants to alert their most valuable guests and regulars of real-time table availability via SMS. Last year’s platform enhancements generated more than $572 million in revenue for SevenRooms clients. In March, Danny Meyer’s private equity firm EHI made an investment (amount not disclosed) in the company, and two months later Marriott International selected SevenRooms as the preferred technology provider for its 8,500 properties worldwide.

Explore the full 2024 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, 606 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. We’ve selected the firms making the biggest impact across 58 categories, including advertising, artificial intelligence, design, sustainability, and more.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jay Woodruff is a senior editor at Fast Company and leads the annual Best Workplaces for Innovators program. Prior to joining Fast Company, he was an editor at Entertainment Weekly and Esquire and helped launch the quarterly DoubleTake 

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