Challenge

In 2022, Dorsia set out to create a new kind of reservation platform to help diners land hard-to-get reservations at the hottest restaurants. Unlike other reservation platforms, Dorsia requires members to secure a table by making a minimum spend commitment through Dorsia’s app. That customer’s final bill—including the deposit—is paid to the restaurant the day after the reservation, giving restaurants faster access to those funds, compared to the several days it might take for credit card charges to clear.

“Restaurants know that we will bring them higher-spending customers, and that they will get their money faster, while members can easily book impossible reservations,” said Daniel Pontes, Dorsia’s senior vice president of finance and operations.

From Dorsia’s conception, payments were the linchpin of its business model. The company needed a solution that would minimize onboarding time so restaurants could start accepting reservations sooner, while also allowing the platform to collect members’ initial reservation deposits and a secondary payment for the balance of the diner’s check.

Initially, Dorsia targeted restaurants in New York City and Miami, but the company knew its members would also want access to top restaurants in international hotspots like London, Dubai, and Monaco. This required a payment system capable of helping Dorsia navigate the complexities of varying interchange fees and foreign exchange rates as it expanded, as these fees could impact the profitability of transactions, particularly when members booked reservations outside their home markets.

In addition, Dorsia wanted a payment provider with a demonstrated commitment to continual innovation so the platform could continue to evolve, whether through reimagining its membership experience or moving beyond restaurant reservations to include access to other types of events.

Solution

Dorsia launched with Stripe, immediately taking advantage of Stripe Connect. With Connect integrated into its platform, Dorsia created branded onboarding flows that use built-in validation, formatting, and error handling to reduce friction, minimize user error, and maximize conversion.

By using Connect’s prebuilt onboarding flows and Payments API to integrate with customer POS systems, Dorsia avoided the complexity of building and maintaining custom payments functionality, which would have required months of additional development time. Connect’s integration with Stripe Payments allowed Dorsia to accept members’ reservation funds via a credit card on file or through Apple Pay. Dorsia then uses that same payment method to automatically collect a second payment to cover additional spending beyond the initial deposit, along with taxes and tips.

Through its direct integration with each restaurant’s POS system, the Dorsia platform automatically retrieves the final bill amount at the end of the meal and charges the member the balance without requiring them to present a payment method in person. Instant Payouts for Connect enabled Dorsia to schedule next-day automatic payments to restaurants after receiving members’ deposits and the balance of their dining bills.

Connect also supported Dorsia’s international expansion, which began in 2023 with the addition of restaurants in London and has continued through Europe, the Middle East, Mexico, and even the Caribbean tourist destination St. Barth. With a single integration, Dorsia can offer onboarding in multiple languages, accept payments in local currencies to minimize interchange fees and foreign exchange rates, and meet local payments compliance requirements.

In 2024, Dorsia again turned to Stripe as it transitioned from free memberships to a paid membership model. The company’s goal was to create a recurring revenue stream that would provide more cash flow and stability for the business while allowing it to offer new types of experiences for ultra-high-net-worth members. Using Stripe Billing, Dorsia was able to create several membership tiers ranging from a $175 basic annual membership to Dorsia’s Premium Plus membership priced at $25,000 a year. Billing also enabled Dorsia to offer special pricing for existing members and trial memberships that automatically convert into paid memberships.

In 2025, Dorsia expanded its offerings to include nightclubs and events such as music festivals. This shift beyond restaurants presents new payment and billing needs, including authentication tools such as 3D Secure to protect against fraudulent transactions and additional payment options such as ACH and crypto. “We have members spending $85,000 on a table who don’t want to pay that credit card fee. The ability to accept ACH and crypto are 2 of our members’ top requests that we plan to add to our app,” said Pontes.

Results

Connect reduces payout time by 60%

Dorsia uses Connect to pay out restaurants within 24 hours, which is 60% faster than the industry standard of 3 days. This payout speed strengthens Dorsia’s reputation as the reservation partner of choice for high-end venues seeking to accelerate cash flow.

Stripe helps Dorsia expand to 21 cities across 9 countries

Using Connect’s international coverage, Dorsia has been able to onboard more than 100 restaurants in those new markets over the past 3 years, bringing the total number of restaurants worldwide to more than 300.

“Adding a new market is so seamless with Stripe. We just turn it on and don’t have to think about it,” said Pontes.

Dorsia boosts revenue by roughly 400% in 2 months after launching paid memberships

The ability to add a pricing option that Dorsia calls “friends and family lifetime pricing” has helped the company to convert tens of thousands of its members from free to paid memberships within the first two months of offering paid memberships, quickly building a new, recurring revenue stream.