One BonusA loyalty program for a restaurant
Updated 31 August 2026
A restaurant is visited a few times a year with a large bill, which rules out stamps and makes a points balance too slow to matter. What works is a level worth holding, plus a coupon timed to when the table is due back.
Levels, because the visit is rare
Between two visits a stamp card gathers dust and a points balance sits at a number too small to spend. A level does not decay — it is a status the customer holds, and people protect a status.
Three levels is enough. Put the first threshold just above what a normal regular already spends in a year, so most of your regulars arrive at level two without changing anything.
What a level should actually give
The benefits guests value in a restaurant are rarely the expensive ones. A table held ten minutes longer, a glass on arrival, first sight of a new menu, or a booking taken when the room is full — these cost little and read as being known.
A percentage off the bill is the weakest option, because it turns a relationship into a price and it is the one thing a competitor can copy the same afternoon.
Filling the nights that need filling
Every restaurant has a dead night. A coupon sent to people who have been in before, valid only Monday to Wednesday, moves covers into the gap without cutting the price on a Saturday.
On One Bonus the coupon is claimed on the member account and consumed once at the till, so it cannot be photographed and passed around, and the response is a real number afterwards.
Common questions
What kind of loyalty program suits a restaurant?
Levels and coupons. Visits are too infrequent for stamps or for a points balance to grow into anything, but a status worth keeping and a well-timed offer both work on a guest who comes a few times a year.
Should a restaurant discount the bill for loyal guests?
Rarely. A percentage off turns a relationship into a price and is trivially copied. Priority booking, a glass on arrival or early access to a new menu cost less and mean more.
How do I fill quiet weeknights?
Send a coupon valid only on those nights to guests who have already been in. On One Bonus it is claimed on the member account and used once, so you get a genuine response rate rather than a guess.
Build levels your regulars keep
Read next
- By industryA cafe, a pharmacy and a car wash need different programs. Visit frequency, basket size and margin decide the mechanic — pick your trade and see the fit.
- CafeA coffee shop is visited daily and sells cheaply, so a stamp card beats points. How many stamps to ask for, what the free cup costs you, and how to run it without paper.
- BakeryBread is bought on the way home, every day, in cash. A stamp card on a phone survives what a paper card does not, and it tells you which hour of the day sells.
- Bar and pubA bar lives on regulars and on quiet weeknights. Reward the visit rather than the spend, and use coupons to move the nights that need moving.
- Grocery storeA grocery basket is frequent and varied, which is exactly what a points rate is for. How to set the percentage, and why the checkout queue decides the design.
- ShopA small shop cannot ask people to install an app for it alone. Joining a network means the card is already in the pocket before the first purchase.
- Clothing storeFashion sells in bursts and goes quiet between them. Levels hold the gap, and a coupon timed to a new arrival beats a permanent discount that trains people to wait.
- Beauty salonA salon knows exactly when a client is due back. Reward the return within the window, and see which master keeps clients and which loses them.