As Co-founder of SevenRooms, Allison Page is Rewriting The Rules of Hospitality
Interview Nargess Banks
“Our mission has always been to empower hospitality operators, not replace them. We set out to help them understand their guests better, build stronger relationships, and deliver more personalised experiences that feel thoughtful and human – never transactional,” Allison Page
Allison Page is helping reshape hospitality and technology from the inside out. As co-founder and chief product officer of SevenRooms – the hospitality platform recently acquired by DoorDash in a $1.2 billion deal – she has placed data and design at the centre of how restaurants and hotels connect with their guests. Over the past decade, Page has shown how technology can enhance rather than replace human connection, shifting the industry from transactional service to personalised engagement. She is now one of only 25 women globally to have built and sold a company for over $1 billion – a milestone that signals change for women in tech as well as for the future of hospitality.
We caught up with Page to understand more about her drive and vision.
What was the original idea behind SevenRooms, and how has that vision evolved as the company scaled?
My co-founder and I first met working in investment banking, bonding over our shared cubicle wall, hundred-hour workweeks and a shared desire to build something of our own. We often frequented many of the restaurants around our office and that’s when we uncovered a personal pain point: why were our experiences at these restaurants so vastly different when staff recognised us versus when they didn’t know who we were? If a general manager or host we knew was working on an evening we tried to walk in, we were always able to get a table or bar seats, but if they weren’t working, we were persona non grata.
We realised restaurants had no scalable way to capture or act on customer knowledge – it was all stored in the minds of staff. We felt there had to be a better way, which became the starting point for SevenRooms.
How did the concept then evolve?
Our early product initially started as a CRM for high-end hospitality operators – little more than a glorified spreadsheet, but just enough to catch the attention of operators who understood the value of data. From there, we grew and evolved. Reservations, table management, marketing, operations – all integrated into a single platform that builds rich guest profiles automatically.
Today, SevenRooms helps restaurants identify their most valuable guests and deliver personalised service at scale, all built with one core tenet: knowing your customer drives better hospitality. From restaurants and hotel F&B outlets, to rooftops, pools and nightclubs, we now serve many of the world’s most recognisable hospitality venues.
Hospitality is rooted in human connection, which is the polar opposite of technology. How did you approach building a tech product that enhances rather than replaces that experience?
Our mission has always been to empower hospitality operators, not replace them. We set out to help them understand their guests better, build stronger relationships, and deliver more personalised experiences that feel thoughtful and human – never transactional.
Our technology automates data collection and analysis so operators can focus on delivering the best in-person experience to their guests. Whether it’s knowing someone prefers a corner table or remembering their favourite wine, we make that kind of service scalable across locations and throughout the globe.
One of our core differentiators is that we’ve always been on the side of the restaurant. In an industry where many platforms prioritise their own brand, we’ve stayed focused on enabling the restaurant. The types of questions we were trying to solve were: “How do we make it easier for restaurants to understand who their customers are?”, “How do we help them build better relationships with their guests?” and “How do we help them make more money while doing it?”
“It’s a testament to the fact that we built something that meaningfully changed the way hospitality operators think about guest relationships and how they run their businesses. The fact that we created the market-leading product, the one being imitated, speaks volumes,” Allison Page
You’re one of only 25 women globally to have built and sold a company for over $1 billion. What does this milestone mean to you, and what does it say about where the tech and hospitality industries are headed?
It’s an incredible milestone, both personally and for the business. It’s a testament to the fact that we built something that meaningfully changed the way hospitality operators think about guest relationships and how they run their businesses. The fact that we created the market-leading product – the one being imitated – speaks volumes.
But it’s also a stark reminder of how far we still have to go. The fact that I’m one of just 25 women globally to have reached this kind of milestone underscores the structural challenges women still face in tech and entrepreneurship. We need more pathways, more representation and more support systems to ensure this kind of success isn’t an exception.
What have been some of the key challenges in reshaping both industries from the inside, and how have you navigated moments of resistance or doubt?
One of the biggest early challenges was earning the trust of restaurateurs. Coming from finance, we were outsiders at the time, and needed to prove that our intent was different from other players in the space. From day one, our approach has always been different from our competitors. We believe that operators should have control over how they grow and cultivate their guest relationships, without limits, helping them grow their businesses on their terms.
Convincing operators of that required real persistence. We met with operators face to face, invested time in education and continued pounding the pavement to bring our solution to as many operators as we could. It took years to prove that we were building a tool for them, not around them, but once we earned that trust, it became one of our greatest strengths.
Looking back, what product or design choice are you most proud of – something that really shifted the way your clients operate?
I’m proudest of the product philosophy we’ve stayed true to from the start – focusing on what’s in the best interest of the restaurant at the centre. Even when it meant less short-term revenue for us, we always optimised for what’s best for the operator, and everything we’ve created was through this lens.
You can see that philosophy present across the board. For example, our guest-facing tools are branded by the restaurant, not SevenRooms. Some competitors use those interactions to promote their own brand or to reward diners that are loyal to the third-party platform, rather than the restaurant itself.
Now that SevenRooms is part of DoorDash, where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth, evolution or impact?
Our acquisition by DoorDash represents a big opportunity to scale our impact. DoorDash brings incredible reach and resources as we aim to bring our restaurant-first approach to a much broader set of dining experiences, and serve the full spectrum of hospitality. Our goal remains the same: empowering hospitality operators to grow revenue and profit, build deeper guest relationships and streamline their operations – and impact more restaurants on a global scale.
