Digital loyalty card for restaurants

Take back the customers the platforms charge you for.

A single program is enough, provided you pick the right counter: stamps if your checks look alike, points on spend if they vary from one to three. The QR code is presented with the check, not when guests are seated.

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Last updated October 23, 2026.

The short answer

What kind of loyalty program works for a restaurant?

Before choosing a program, separate your two services. Lunch and dinner have neither the same frequency, nor the same ticket, nor the same customers — and a single program tuned to one of them necessarily lets the other down.

Lunch looks like a drop-in business: the same faces, several times a week, on a tight ticket. A stamp per visit works well there, with a threshold around ten — turn it into money before you lock it in: ten visits at €15 is €150 in sales before the reward. Dinner follows a different logic: fewer visits, a much bigger ticket, often a shared check. A points program tied to spend is fairer there.

The friction point is different from a shop’s: your customer is seated and has time, but your staff doesn’t. So the QR code has to sit where eyes already wander — the check presenter, a table tent — so that signing up doesn’t tie up a server.

The problem

Get out of dependence on booking platforms

You pay a commission on customers the platform keeps for itself. Put a QR code on the check and the contact becomes yours: the card goes into Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, and you decide when to write — on a Thursday evening, while the weekend dining room is still empty.

At the check
The QR code arrives with the bill. The customer scans while waiting for the card terminal, without a server having to explain anything.
For the table
Everyone gets their own card and their own progress, even on a shared check. The paper card, by contrast, went home in a single pocket.
For the restaurant
You can finally tell the Tuesday-lunch regular from the one-night customer. They are two lists, and two ways of bringing people back.

The paper card
Paying commissions on every cover, or handing out paper cards that end up in the trash, doesn’t help you build your own customer base.
With Cartia
You capture your guests’ contact details from the check. Your restaurant stays in their pocket, ready to be remembered.

The recommended program

How many visits before the reward at a restaurant?

Two reference points, not one: the listed price of the reward, which is what the customer thinks they’re getting, and its food cost, which is what you actually pay. In restaurants, the gap between the two is wider than in almost any other business — and that’s where your room to maneuver is.

Take a lunch regular with a €15 average ticket. A reward on the 10th visit covers €150 in sales. You give away a dessert listed at €6, with a food cost of €1.50 — replace with your own figures. The customer got back 4% of what they spent; you paid out 1%. The “one reward every N visits” format says neither: you have to do both calculations to know what you’re signing up for.

At dinner the math flips: fewer visits, a ticket three to four times bigger, and a check often split among several people who don’t all have a card. Points mode solves that last problem — whoever pays accumulates what they spent, however many covers the table has.

Visits or points: which to choose

Stamps / visits
Stamps, if your menu is short and uniform: lunch special, single dish, tight-ticket concept. The customer understands “the 10th free” without being told.
Points on spend
Points on spend, as soon as the €14 lunch and the €45 dinner share the same dining room. An identical stamp on both makes the dinner customer pay for the lunch one.

Look at the real gap between your smallest and your biggest check. Past a factor of two, take points.

Match the rewards to the amount spent

Points program (€1 spent = 1 point). 120 points = a house dessert or an aperitif free with the next meal.

Perceived value
€6.50 to €8.50
What the customer hears.
Real cost
~€1.50 to €2
What it costs you to produce.
In plain terms
The reward gives the customer a reason to come back for a full meal, raising the overall ticket.

10 visits at lunch
Two to three weeks for a lunch regular. Short enough that they remember to show their card.
Points mode at dinner
€1 spent = 1 point. Recognizes the table of four as much as the solo diner, which a stamp can’t do.
A dessert or a coffee rather than a discount
A money-off discount cheapens your prices. A free item keeps its perceived value and costs you only the ingredients.

What you can send next, from the Pro plan

Send a notification on Thursday at 6 p.m. to reveal the chef’s weekend specials and encourage a table booking.

The fall menu is outScheduled send on Thursday at 6 p.m. · whole customer list
Your dessert is waitingAutomation “When the card is full”
Lunch deal this weekSegment “Average customer” · fill the quiet lunches

Segments and sends: Pro and Business plans

Setting up

Set up your loyalty card at your restaurant

Decide the scope
Lunch, dinner, or both. If your two services have nothing in common, start with the one where you already recognize faces: that’s where the program will fill up fastest.
Choose visits or points
Visits if your tickets look alike, points tied to spend if the gap between a lunch special and a dinner is large.
Put the QR code on the check presenter
That’s when the customer is waiting, sitting still, with their phone already in hand to pay. A table tent works too, to catch people before the meal.
Validate at payment
The visit or the points are recorded from Cartia Counter, on a phone or in a browser, with no integration with your register.

Zero friction during service

At the counter
The customer’s pass is scanned at payment, at the table or at the counter — while the card terminal does its work.
In the Wallet, not in an app
The card sits next to the bank card, in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The customer scans the QR code, fills in a short form, and adds it — there is no app to install.

In your business, concretely

Three different customers, one page — and one program

The reflex would be to create a page per variant: neighborhood restaurant, lunch canteen, Saturday-night table. In the field, it’s the same establishment doing all three, often in the same week. What changes isn’t the trade, it’s the return rhythm and the size of the check — and a single program can cover all three if the counter is well chosen.

The real decision point is elsewhere: at what moment does the customer take out their phone. In the dining room, the check is the only moment they’re seated, available, and when service isn’t decided by the second. A QR code on the table during the meal gets forgotten; the same QR code brought with the check or the payment terminal is seen by everyone.

The regular lunchThe customer comes several times a week, spends little, and returns on their own. They’re the one who fills a card: build the threshold on their rhythm.
The neighborhood restaurantBack every two or three weeks, average check, strong sensitivity to being recognized. Here the card serves as much to be recognized as to earn the reward.
The occasionBirthday, big table, Saturday night out. They won’t fill a stamp card within the year. With points, their spend still counts — and you know they exist.
What the card doesn’t doIt doesn’t fill tables on its own. From Pro, you can write to customers already signed up for a quiet evening; you write it, you target it, and you send it.

The calculation

How many extra covers would cover the subscription?

With the assumptions below, 2 extra covers in the month would cover the monthly cost of the Pro plan. It’s a coverage threshold, not a revenue forecast.

Adjust my assumptions

Covers per day40covers

Days open / month26days

Average ticket24€

Gross margin68%

If 10% of visits repeat one more time thanks to the card · €16.32 margin per cover

With these assumptions, the break-even point is

2 covers / month

Beyond this threshold, the margin generated would cover the cost of the Pro plan. Formula: plan price ÷ (average basket × gross margin) = €29.90 ÷ €16.32.

+1,248covers over the year
€2,496more revenue each month, with this assumption
€0.98per day for the Pro subscription

Create my free card

Illustrative estimate, not a revenue promise. Starting assumptions at your restaurant: average ticket €24, 68% gross margin, 26 days open per month. Cartia measures neither your revenue nor your return on investment: replace these values with your own.

Frequently asked questions

Replacing the paper card at your restaurant

How do I set up a loyalty card in a restaurant?

You create your program online, print the QR code, and place it on the check presenter, the table tent, or at the host stand. Each visit is then validated at payment from a phone or a browser. Your customers install no app.

Visits or points: which should a restaurant choose?

Visits work when your tickets look alike, typically a lunch special. Points work when spending varies a lot from one customer to the next, typically at dinner, or when a single check covers several diners. Decide before you launch: the mode is fixed when the program is created; only the threshold and the rewards can be changed afterward.

Can I reward customers after a certain number of meals?

Yes. You set the threshold in visits or points and the matching reward — free dessert, a coffee, a discount on the check. Each customer’s balance is tracked automatically and the reward triggers once the threshold is reached.

Does it work with my register?

The program works alongside your register, with no integration needed. Validating a visit or a reward happens from a browser or a phone. So you can change registers without reopening the loyalty question.

Do my customers have to install an app?

No. They scan the QR code on the table or the check, join the program from their browser, then add their card to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.

How much does a loyalty card for a restaurant cost?

Cartia is free up to 50 customers at one location, no credit card required. After that, the Pro plan is €29.90/month, tax included, with unlimited customers and a 14-day free trial (credit card required to start it). No setup fees.

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Digital loyalty card for restaurants

What kind of loyalty program works for a restaurant?

Get out of dependence on booking platforms

At the check

For the table

For the restaurant

The paper card

With Cartia

How many visits before the reward at a restaurant?

Visits or points: which to choose

Match the rewards to the amount spent

Perceived value

Real cost

In plain terms

10 visits at lunch

Points mode at dinner

A dessert or a coffee rather than a discount

What you can send next, from the Pro plan

Set up your loyalty card at your restaurant

Decide the scope

Choose visits or points

Put the QR code on the check presenter

Validate at payment