Skift Global Forum 2015: Reserve's CEO on Its Contrarian Model for Dining Reviews

Reserve co-founder and CEO Greg Hong will speak about applying behavioral science to experience design at the Skift Global Forum on October 14 and 15 in Brooklyn, New York. See the complete list of amazing speakers and topics at this year’s event. For many tourists and locals it's second nature to open a dining reservations app to secure a table when deciding on a restaurant to try for dinner while on vacation or exploring your own neighborhood. Calling the restaurant to make a reservation isn't necessarily the norm anymore and this leaves restaurants wondering how they can provide a personalized and special experience when technology seemingly curbs opportunities for human interaction. Reserve, a dining reservations app startup, knew that technology could be deployed to enhance the dining experience. Reserve uses verified feedback from users that only the restaurants see. The app requires reviews after each dining experience and Reserve uses them to fine-tune recommendations for diners. Reserve also curates content using restaurants' and Reserve's own images rather than users' photos. Diners can split the check multiple ways without giving the wait staff a headache and the app stores payment information. The Reserve app went live in October 2014 and is in more than 270 restaurants across New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago. Skift recently sat down with Greg Hong, Reserve's CEO and co-founder, to talk about why he thinks its partner and review model is poised to disrupt the restaurant industry and to hear why he feels Reserve's app brings honesty and smarter technology back to dining in ways that work for both diners and restaurants. Skift: Do you want to talk about why you call the restaurants your partners and why you think about them like that? Greg Hong: Sure, I had a background in small business leading into Reserve and when I started talking with the restaurants I learned what