Thanx runs the program. Loyalist knows the guest.
Thanx runs a structured rewards program with tiers and offers, and for a brand whose guests are happy to enroll it does that well. Loyalist’s difference is a record nobody has to join: it builds from the check and the booking, recognizes the regular who never signed up, and briefs the floor, not just the members.
Thanx
A loyalty and rewards platform.
- 01You want a structured rewards program with tiers and offers as the center of your retention plan.
- 02Your guests are willing to enroll, carry a card or use an app to earn something.
- 03The team you have to run it is a marketing team, not a floor team.
Loyalist
The AI platform that turns guest data into revenue.
- 01You want one profile per guest, built from all your guest data, and personalized campaigns and automations that drive revenue off it. Nobody has to enroll.
- 02You want your best guests covered whether or not they ever joined. A six-year regular is as visible as a member, which a program cannot see at all.
- 03You want the floor briefed as well as the inbox. One person who owns guest relations runs it, the floor never logs in, and recognition reaches them through the reservation note and the pre-shift report.
Thanx and Loyalist, axis by axis.
Both drive repeat visits. The split is enrollment: a program the guest joins, or a profile that builds whether they join or not.
| Axis | Thanx | Loyalist |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | A loyalty program: earning, tiers and offers. | Every visit, check, booking, review and event on one person, so your best guests are visible whether or not they enrolled. |
| Who it is for | Restaurant brands investing in a rewards program. | Full-service groups, from one room to fifty locations. |
| Recognition model | The guest opts in and earns. | A reverse punch card. Loyalist tracks, the team recognizes, and the guest carries nothing to earn it. |
| Reaches the floor | Marketing channels. | Notes and tags write back into your reservation book, so the host greets a regular by name before they ask. |
Where the two overlap, and what usually happens next.
Keep the program and add the record underneath it. Thanx stays the system of record for points. Loyalist becomes the one for the guest, including the regulars who never joined anything.
- Guest profiles, segments and the campaigns that run off them
- Email and SMS campaigns to behavioral segments
- Automated journeys that fire on guest milestones
- Points, rewards and the enrollment flow behind them
- See the revenue a campaign drove, counted at the visit itself
- Guests who never joined a program, with their history intact
- Private dining booked by contract, landing on the guest record
- Notes and tags written back into the reservation book before service
- Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews in one inbox with replies drafted
- Event intake forms, floor blocking and phone routing in the same platform
What you get with Loyalist.
- Recognize the regular who never joined. The record builds from the check and the booking, so a six-year regular is as visible as a member. A program can only ever see the people who joined it.
- Ask nothing of the guest. Recognition happens between a guest and a person. Thanx needs the guest to enroll, carry a card or use an app to earn something.
- Hold the whole guest, not the member. Tripleseat, Perfect Venue, Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor all land on the same record as spend and bookings.
- Brief the floor, not just marketing. Notes reach the reservation book and a pre-shift report names who is booked tonight. Thanx assumes a marketing team runs it.
- Count revenue at the visit. Results are counted at the visit the campaign produced rather than at the reward redeemed.
Simple, guided migration
Our onboarding team does it with you, start to finish. You keep Thanx running until you decide otherwise, and there is no engineering project on your side.
- 01
Connect your existing software platforms
Your POS, reservation platform, ordering, events and reviews. Nothing to build on your side.
- 02
Let Loyalist clean up your data
Your history loads into the guest profiles you already have, cleaned of duplicates before anything merges.
- 03
You brief the floor
Notes and tags write back to your book, and the first pre-shift report lands before service.
Why operators love Loyalist.
I have a better idea of who my guests are — who my best regulars are, who has not been back in a while, who loves wines, who comes to special events.
Cedric Nicaise The Noortwyck Within two weeks the return on marketing outreach through Loyalist was so undeniably strong that there was no way we weren’t going to enroll the third restaurant.
Elizabeth Sharp Glendale Hospitality Working with Loyalist has been a game changer for us.
Kyra Burner Major Food Group Top restaurant groups use Loyalist daily:
Can I keep Thanx and add Loyalist?
Yes. Loyalist sits above whatever program you run and unifies the guest record underneath it. Membership standing from a loyalty platform can live on the same profile as spend, bookings and reviews.
Is Loyalist a loyalty program?
Loyalist is a CRM and loyalty platform built on recognition rather than points. There is no card to punch and nothing for the guest to carry. The tracking happens on your side.
When is Thanx the better choice?
If a points and rewards program is the strategy, and you have the marketing team to run it, a loyalty specialist will do that job well. That is a different product from this one.
When is Loyalist the better choice?
When your best guests will never sign up for anything. They get recognized anyway, with nothing to carry and nothing to join, and the people running it are the people already running the rooms.
Which is better for a restaurant group, Thanx or Loyalist?
If you want a points program run well, Thanx. If you want the regular who never joined one, Loyalist, and keeping both is reasonable because they sit at different layers. What the record underneath adds is reach and proof. Every guest has a profile whether or not they enrolled, and a win-back journey brings back 10 to 30 percent of the lapsed guests it reaches, with 30 percent being the top performers.
Can Loyalist run points or rewards?
No, and it is not trying to. Loyalist is the guest record, not the program. Where a loyalty platform is on our integrations hub, membership standing lands on the same profile as spend, bookings and events.
How does Loyalist recognize a regular who never signed up?
From what your systems already capture. Every check, booking, review and private event writes to one profile, so a guest who has come monthly for six years exists whether or not they ever entered an email address. A program can only ever see the guests who joined it.
Does Loyalist replace our loyalty app?
No. The floor is where Loyalist does its work: notes and tags written back into the reservation book and a pre-shift report before service. Nothing there asks a guest to download anything.
Evaluate Loyalist against Thanx with an AI agent and see which one fits your business better.
