Michelin partners with Livebookings for new restaurant booking service
The partnership forms part of Michelin’s goal to ‘expand its online footprint in Europe and make online restaurant reservations core to its proposition’. The business therefore plans to ‘massively recruit’ bookable restaurants in all key European markets - so restaurants listed on the Michelin website will extend beyond those listed in its eponymous guide.
“Michelin has made this exciting move forward after a full evaluation of all options available,” said Michelin Travel Partner chief executive Alain Cuq.
“Livebookings’ proven, innovative technology is uniquely placed to provide the scale and flexibility we need to propose new value added services to the restaurants and expand into new markets.”
'Perfect marriage'
The Michelin Restaurants UK website will launch later this year, featuring a complete integration of Livebookings’ reservations and bookings technology. The long-term, international deal also sees a minority investment from Michelin into Livebookings.
Livebookings’ chief executive Colin Tenwick added: “Today’s announcement marks the perfect marriage of technical innovation in restaurant management with one of the most recognisable brands in the world.
"The investment from Michelin means that we can continue to invest and develop our platform - we will be doubling the size of our sales force within the next two years.
“We are extremely proud to be providing such a successful and well-recognized company with our market-leading platform.”
Marketing potential
In return for the reservations system integration, Michelin will resell Livebookings’ product suite - which comprises restaurant availability management, booking solutions and customer relationship management - to some of the listed restaurants in selected territories.
Livebookings operates a global restaurant reservations and marketing service which delivers up to 1.5m diners every month to over 9,000 restaurants. Its reservations tools enable restaurants to provide diners with a free online bookings service, to manage those reservations efficiently and to collect valuable customer data.
Last week, the company’s head of UK marketing David Miller explained the various advantages that online bookings can have for restaurants,as part of our four-part Special Featurewhich looked at the use of technology before, during and after a customer’s arrival.
A specific date and URL for the new Michelin Restaurants UK website has not yet been confirmed.
