In this Weekly Wrap, we’re looking at new services from DoorDash, AI in hotels and sales, Atlanta restaurant woes, and more.
DoorDash Gets In the Reservation Game
The Source: Restaurant Business Online
What You Need to Know:
The company on Monday unveiled a host of new services and technologies that have the potential to drive traffic to restaurants and make delivery more seamless, from the ability to book reservations in the DoorDash app, to a new automated delivery robot that promises to be a vast improvement on existing models.
The moves follow the acquisition earlier this year of SevenRooms for $1.2 billion, which brought the reservations and marketing provider into the DoorDash Commerce Platform. The addition of SevenRooms was designed to help restaurants build their in-store business.
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Soon consumers across the country will be able to book restaurant reservations using the DoorDash app or website, without any fee.
In addition, users will also be able to find deals and promotions for ordering in-store at restaurants on the DoorDash marketplace, using a “Going Out” tab.
And consumers will be able to earn rewards by booking through DoorDash.
So if diners book through the app four times in a row, for example, they might get a credit or a certain amount of dollars back.
The type of discount will likely vary. Some restaurants might offer a buy-one, get-one offer, for example.
But DoorDash will look mostly for restaurants to offer credits, because that’s the “most seamless,” said Parisa Sadrzadah, DoorDash’s vice president of strategy and operations.
If, for example, a coffee shop was participating and a guest claimed a $10 reward through the DoorDash app for an order in-store, the restaurant would pay the credit to that customer—though, for a while, DoorDash will fund the promotions to get restaurants started.
Our Take:
I’m only going to focus on the reservation and rewards portion of this, and I think in a year or two, expect to see more class-action lawsuits against DoorDash.
Why?
It’s not as if DoorDash has a stellar reputation with restaurants or consumers. They’ve already been sued, and lost, more than once for deceptive business practices. The tell comes in one line from their latest rollout:
“But DoorDash will look mostly for restaurants to offer credits, because that’s the ‘most seamless.’”
That says it all.
My favorite part is the phrasing — “the most seamless.” It’s another way of saying “the easiest for DoorDash to make money while calling it help.” This new “rewards” system may sound like a partnership, but it’s really a way to push more costs onto operators under the friendly banner of “driving traffic.”
I’m not saying it’s going to happen that way, but if precedent continues….well, that’s how it will be.
AI Integration Into Hotels
The Headline: “h2c Unveils Landmark Global Study on AI & Automation in Hospitality”
The Source: Hospitalitynet
What You Need to Know:
AI Adoption Surges: 78% of hotel chains are already using AI, and 89% plan to expand applications in the next 12–24 months. Chatbots are the most common use case today (42%), while Customer Data Management leads planned expansions (50%).
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Main Adoption Barriers: Lack of AI expertise (62%), unclear strategy (51%), and integration challenges (45%) are the top obstacles cited by hotel chains. Notably, the top adoption barrier is twice as big a challenge as organizational resistance to change (31%).
Strategy and Budget Limit Scale: Only 7% have a company-wide AI strategy, and another 8% align AI strategies at the department level. Only 11% of hotel chains have dedicated AI budgets, while 58% are tracking ROI (of those, 27% consistently), but most remain cautious: just 1% say AI is central to their business model.
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Human Touch Remains Central: The majority of hoteliers view AI primarily as an enabler that frees staff to focus on more strategic and guest-centric roles, rather than as a threat to jobs. However, within five years, more than four in ten hoteliers expect that reservations and call center functions, guest data management, revenue management, and digital marketing will be fully automated.
Key Investment Drivers: Seamless integration with existing hotel systems, reduction of repetitive manual tasks, and proven impact on revenue growth (70%, 69%, and 69%, respectively) are the top three investment decision factors, while ROI potential, data security/compliance, and guest experience personalization remain strong secondary drivers.
Our Take:
Like most corners of the hospitality industry, everyone sees the need to incorporate AI somewhere in their operation. They recognize the importance of human interaction — and the ability of AI to free up time so management can actually focus on the guest.
What’s interesting is that only 1% of hotel executives say AI is central to their business model.
Look, I’m not an “AI is going to save the industry” guy, and I’m definitely not an “AI is going to kill the industry” guy either. But in the case of hotels, AI can, and probably will, play a major role in keeping costs down. In my eyes, that makes it central to the business model, especially in states with high labor and occupancy costs.
Take Los Angeles, and the recently passed hotel and airport workers ordinance. The ordinance, which passed the Los Angeles City Council in May and applies to hotels with more than 60 rooms, will bump wages from the current $22.50 to $25 in 2026, $27.50 in 2027 and $30 in 2028.
Operators in L.A. are on edge, some are outright panicking. And honestly, I get it. It’s already one of the hardest markets in the country to operate in, and an extra $7.50 an hour in labor costs over three years is going to hurt.
As much as it pains me to say it, AI might actually save some of these operators — yes, at the expense of workers.
So in this particular case, AI should be central to their business model. The diner owner in Houston or the bar owner in Boise? Probably not. But in markets where labor and overhead costs are crushing, operators are going to lean in hard. And soon.
Stripe Payments Collab with Chat GPT
The Headline: “Stripe pushes agentic AI sales via chat”
The Source: Payments Dive
What You Need to Know:
Payments processor Stripe is introducing a new technical protocol for agentic artificial intelligence, teaming with ChatGPT parent OpenAI to allow people to buy Etsy goods directly from their chat session.
The new “agentic commerce protocol” announced Monday comes two weeks after Google debuted a competing agentic AI protocol, with the companies racing to provide payments infrastructure to enable a new era of commerce where automated bots select and purchase items online within shoppers’ preapproved parameters.
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Consulting firm Edgar Dunn & Co. projected in a May report that the value of AI-driven commerce could jump to $1.7 trillion by 2030, from $136 billion this year. PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said in July that agentic commerce “will drive the biggest transformations since the advent of e-commerce,” with 25% of online sales from AI agents by 2030.
Merchants will pay “a small fee” for completed purchases through ChatGPT, OpenAI said. A Stripe spokesperson declined to reveal any details of the fee structure or the company’s commercial arrangement with OpenAI.
“For shoppers, it’s seamless: go from chat to checkout in just a few taps,” OpenAI said in its press release Monday. “For sellers, it’s a new way to reach hundreds of millions of people while keeping full control of their payments, systems and customer relationships.
Our Take:
The article focuses on Stripe’s push into “agentic AI”, essentially AI systems that can act independently to complete tasks like executing sales or processing payments. Right now, it’s aimed squarely at retail and e-commerce platforms. But make no mistake — this will impact restaurants sooner than most operators realize.
Whether it comes through one of the delivery apps (DoorDash, Wonder) or through partnerships with reservation systems like Resy or OpenTable, it’s only a matter of time before this technology makes its way into hospitality.
When it does, operators are going to have to get smart about a few key questions:
Who’s partnering with the AI engines?
What are they promoting on those platforms?
How can you, as an operator, capitalize on it?
And maybe most importantly — what’s it going to cost?
There’s a lot of speculation and development happening in this space. Some integrations are probably just months away; others could take a year or more. But one thing is certain — operators need to stay informed and ready. Because when these tools hit the hospitality side, the ones who already understand how to leverage them will have a serious head start.
Atlanta Restaurant Woes
The Headline: “Chefs worry rising food prices could be recipe for disaster for metro Atlanta restaurant industry”
The Source: CBS News
What You Need to Know:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics say the food index, which tracks changes in food prices around metro Atlanta, is up 3.5% compared to last year. From June to August alone, it rose 1.2%.
Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs saw the biggest price spikes, up 7% over the last 12 months.
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"I'm changing the menu at any given time. You know where we were doing a quarterly list change with the seasons, now we change with necessity," said chef Deborah VanTrece, the James Beard-nominated owner of Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours and Oreatha's at the Point in Cascade Heights.
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With weekly meals served down 20%, VanTrece says Atlantans are dining in, but at home. That's bad not only for her restaurants, but for Atlanta's entire restaurant community and the staff who make up the heart of the industry.
"There's a general consensus among, you know, the small restaurant owners throughout the city — something's happening and it's very wrong, and we don't know how we're gonna survive it," she said. "You know, we just come in every day and hope for a miracle."
Our Take:
In all the bleak coverage about tariffs and inflation, it’s easy to get caught in the noise. But this piece gets to the core of it — operators are being forced to adapt, not just react.
The bigger conversation we should be having is:
How do we evolve?
What do we need to do to innovate?
How do we offer value without killing our margins?
How do we get more butts in seats without giving away the house?
And how do we stay vigilant about cost increases and how they affect our COGS?
The answer isn’t to give up. And it’s not to blame the administration’s policies — truthful as that may be. The answer is to be more present and more aware of our operations. To think further ahead. To anticipate instead of react. The operators who pay attention, who build systems that let them adjust pricing, portioning, or vendor contracts quickly, are the ones who will make it through.
Market pressures suck, and they’re real. They’re not fabricated or fake news. We can either sit around and complain, or we can prepare and act.