Australian hospitality technology company me&u has launched an AI-native reservations platform, combining bookings, voice AI and functions management into a single system, as it moves to challenge the international players consolidating the restaurant reservations market.
The Sydney-based company, which processes more than one million orders a week across more than 6,000 venues in Australia, the UK and the United States, says the new platform is designed to replace the fragmented, pre-AI systems currently used by most restaurants, pubs and bars.
The launch lands amid intense global competition for hospitality data and loyalty. DoorDash recently paid US$1.2 billion to acquire SevenRooms. American Express, which already owns Resy and Tock, is in the process of acquiring The Fork for US$700 million. OpenTable, meanwhile, has partnered with Uber to power in-app restaurant reservations through Uber Eats’ “Dine Out” feature.
For me&u, best known as a pioneering digital ordering platform with 28 million guest profiles, the move represents a significant strategic shift into powering the end-to-end guest journey, from phone calls and bookings through to orders, payments and post-visit marketing.
Solving the fragmentation problem
me&u founder and CEO Kim Teo said hospitality operators typically juggle five to seven technology partners that each interact with guest data, making it near impossible to build an accurate, single view of the guest.
“We built me&u Reservations to simplify and consolidate three separate products into one – a world first for the industry,” Kim said.
“For operators, system fragmentation holds them back from delivering the intended guest experience consistently – a guest who has hosted their engagement party at a venue could visit three months later and appear in the system as a first time guest, or someone who needs an accessible spot doesn’t have one allocated when they arrive because the phone and table management system can’t automatically handle that request.”
Kim said the product had been developed hand in hand with some of Australia’s leading operators.
“me&u Reservations has been created alongside a few of Australia’s best operators, using their direct feedback, to resolve that fragmentation – a real pain point for venues – and to do it ten times faster than legacy technology. It’s a single product built with AI at its core, rather than as a feature bolted on after the fact,” Kim said.
She also took aim at the wave of acquisitions reshaping the category, arguing the financial backing of card issuers and delivery platforms could work against operators’ interests.
“The incumbents being snapped up by financial services companies and delivery giants presents an opportunity for us – the business models of these companies thrive off consumer loyalty of card holders or delivery services users. We believe it will be difficult for them to stay completely focused on building the best technology for maximising operator revenue, margins and guest loyalty to a restaurant brand,” Kim added.
What the platform does
The new me&u platform brings together three functions operators typically source from separate vendors: reservations management, a Voice AI system that handles phone bookings, enquiries and waitlists, and functions and events management. All three operate within a single data environment, and the platform was co-designed with the company’s enterprise restaurant and pub customers, with an emphasis on remaining simple enough for independent and small operators to use.
me&u Reservations is already live at Aria, the Sydney fine-dining institution owned by the Solomon family’s Solotel group and chef Matt Moran.
Solotel CEO Elliot Solomon said there was nothing else like it on the market.
“An AI-enabled product that could handle both bookings and event management while also giving a venue a single view of the customer and one source of truth from a data perspective. It eases admin time so we can focus on our guests instead.”
“Our portfolio spans 16 venues from local community pubs to fine-dining restaurants. It’s the little things – knowing a guest’s name, where they like to sit, what they like to drink and eat – that make them feel seen and taken care of.”
Solomon also pointed to the speed of the rollout across Solotel’s venue portfolio.
“What’s been most surprising is the pace. We started talking to me&u around the end of last year and six months later the product had been built and rolled out across our group. We basically co-designed the product – if we wanted something in the product, the team would say it’s going to be built in a day, or built in a week. It’s felt like a genuine partnership, and the rollout has been relatively seamless and really intuitive. Aria, our most complex venue, is an iconic fine-dining institution where we want to give guests the best of Australia. If it can work at Aria, it can work anywhere. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to transform their guest experience,” Solomon said.
Built AI-native from the ground up
me&u says the key point of difference from competitors is that the platform was built AI-native rather than having AI layered onto existing infrastructure. Every interaction, whether a phone reservation, a table order or a function enquiry, feeds into a unified guest profile that improves over time.
The company argues this is backed by scale no reservation-only platform can match: more than a million real transactions flowing through the me&u ecosystem each week, and guest profiles covering more than 28 million diners, with 73 per cent of adult Australians having used me&u at least once. In practice, this means that when a returning guest books a table, staff can be shown their drink preferences, dietary requirements and visit history before the guest arrives.
“The number one priority for the best hospitality operators is guest experience – we believe an all-in-one guest-facing tech stack, built by a team who serve operators, is what the industry desperately needs and wants,” Kim said.
