Restaurant.com Replaces One-Off Deals With Paid Membership

customer retention giftify paid membership recurring commerce recurring revenue restaurant.com subscription pricing subscription strategy Oct 15, 2026

The dining-deals business is moving to $14 monthly and $99 annual memberships on October 27, changing how customers access restaurant discounts while preserving their previous purchases.

Restaurant.com is changing how customers buy dining discounts. Starting October 27, customers will pay $14 a month or $99 a year for access to offers at participating restaurants, replacing the familiar approach of purchasing individual deals whenever they want one.

Parent company Giftify announced the change October 13 as part of a plan to build recurring revenue and encourage customers to use Restaurant.com more regularly. The change is focused on Restaurant.com's consumer business, which represents a relatively small share of revenue compared with its established corporate sales operation.

How the New Membership Will Work

Restaurant.com currently sells individual restaurant discount certificates and multi-use dining passes. Under the new model, members will choose restaurant offers through the website or app without paying separately for each one. They can use as many participating offers as they want while their membership is active, although individual restaurants may set restrictions on particular deals.

The company will offer two plans:

Membership	Price
Monthly	$14
Annual	$99

Automatic renewal will be optional. Customers can choose whether their membership renews automatically when they sign up and can change that setting through their accounts.

Customers will now be paying for access to dining discounts rather than purchasing individual discounts they can keep. Offers selected through the membership program can only be used while membership is active. If a customer lets their membership end, any unused membership offers will no longer be available.

For someone who regularly eats out and uses Restaurant.com, that could be an attractive arrangement. Customers who only look for discounts occasionally may be less interested in paying for access they won't use every month.

What Happens to Existing Customers?

Restaurant.com says customers won't lose the certificates they purchased before the October 27 transition. Those certificates will remain valid without a membership and won't expire. Customers can continue using them as originally intended or exchange unused certificates for points toward a membership.

Existing points can also be used to pay for memberships. Customers with enough points may be able to cover the entire monthly or annual fee without making an additional payment. Any remaining points stay in their accounts and don't expire.

This gives customers some flexibility as Restaurant.com changes its purchasing model. People who have already spent money on certificates can keep what they bought, while those interested in membership have a way to put unused purchases and credits toward the new program.

Giftify's annual financial filing also identifies potential liabilities involving unredeemed certificates and dining passes, depending on how applicable gift-card and unclaimed-property laws are interpreted.

Restaurant.com's Largest Business Is Corporate Sales

One of the more interesting aspects of the announcement is how Restaurant.com currently makes its money.

According to Giftify's second-quarter 2026 financial filing, 97% of Restaurant.com's gross revenue came from business-to-business sales, with approximately 3% coming directly from consumers. Corporate sales also dominated the business in 2025, accounting for approximately 85% of gross revenue that year.

Restaurant.com sells discount certificates and dining passes to businesses that use them for customer rewards, loyalty programs, employee recognition and promotional incentives. Its corporate products are also used to encourage customers to renew subscriptions and memberships. Giftify reports a Restaurant.com customer database of approximately 6.2 million people.

The membership launch is aimed at building a stronger direct consumer business alongside those established corporate sales. Giftify believes the new model could also make Restaurant.com products more attractive to businesses purchasing dining rewards, since recipients could receive access to ongoing offers instead of a single discount.

What remains unclear is how corporate products and pricing will change, or whether businesses will be able to purchase memberships directly for their customers and employees.

The Business Still Depends on Participating Restaurants

Restaurant.com's relationships with participating restaurants will remain important to the new membership model. Giftify believes members who use the service more frequently could bring restaurants additional visits, while a wider selection of attractive offers could give diners more reasons to maintain their memberships.

The question is whether those additional visits will be worthwhile for restaurant partners. Giftify hasn't disclosed whether their commercial arrangements will change, and more frequent discount use could affect restaurant economics. The company also hasn't released membership conversion targets or forecasts showing how the change might affect recurring revenue and profitability.

Insider Take

Restaurant.com is asking customers to change a familiar buying habit. Instead of purchasing a dining discount when they need one, customers will be asked to pay for ongoing access. For frequent diners, the membership may be attractive. For someone who only uses Restaurant.com occasionally, the old arrangement may have been more appealing.

The real question is whether enough customers will prefer membership to buying individual deals. Restaurant.com's consumer business is small compared with its corporate incentives operation, so Giftify has an opportunity to develop a different kind of customer relationship. But customers who previously purchased a deal whenever they wanted one will now need a reason to pay for access before they know when they'll use it.

There is also a financial wrinkle in how the program gets started. Customers can use existing points to pay for memberships, and automatic renewal is optional. Those accommodations may make the transition easier for customers, but initial membership sales won't necessarily translate into equivalent new cash revenue or automatically renewing customers. A growing membership count will only tell part of the recurring-revenue story.

Perhaps the more interesting opportunity is how the new consumer membership could fit with Restaurant.com's established corporate incentives business. Giftify already sells dining rewards to companies trying to attract and retain customers, including subscription and membership businesses. If the new model gives those corporate buyers a more attractive benefit to offer, it could create an additional source of demand for memberships.

That possibility hasn't been established, and Giftify hasn't explained how its corporate offerings will work under the new model. For now, the company is making a bet that continuing access to dining savings will appeal to customers accustomed to buying individual discounts. How many choose to pay, and then pay again, will tell us more than the initial membership launch.

For Subscription Insider Members

Restaurant.com's move to membership raises two questions for operators: How do you change the customer experience without creating confusion, and how do you know whether new memberships are building a healthy recurring-revenue business? These resources help teams examine both.

Subscriber Journey Mapping & Audit Guide (Includes Worksheet)

When a business changes what customers buy and how benefits work, the details of that transition can affect trust. This guide and worksheet help teams map what subscribers are told, what they experience after signup, and where confusion or friction can develop. Use it to review how a change in offers, access or account benefits will work from the customer's point of view.

Subscription Growth Quality Framework: Beyond Subscriber Adds (Includes Scorecard)

Restaurant.com could attract members who pay with existing points or choose not to renew automatically. That makes membership signups an incomplete measure of success. This framework and scorecard help operators evaluate growth through retention, engagement, revenue quality and long-term subscriber value, so they can judge whether new members are becoming lasting, profitable customer relationships.

Sources

Giftify. Giftify Announces Conversion of Restaurant.com to Membership-Based Model. October 13, 2026.
Restaurant.com. Membership Plans, Pricing and Customer FAQs. Accessed October 15, 2026.
Restaurant.com Support Center. How Will I Switch to Membership?. Updated October 8, 2026.
Giftify. Form 10-Q for the Quarter Ended June 30, 2026.
Giftify. 2025 Annual Report, Form 10-K.