Ho-Ho-Holiday Strategies to Keep Customers Coming Back
November 24, 2025
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The holiday season for restaurants is high-volume, high-stakes, and high-noise. Guests are juggling shopping lists and travel plans, while your teams are juggling operations, staffing, and endless demand for digital convenience. In this environment, loyalty can’t just be another campaign—it has to be a driver of both engagement and efficiency.
At 5&5, we’ve seen both. The brands that plan early, use data intelligently, and prioritize the guest experience don’t just survive the holidays—they win them. Here’s how our Loyalty Team approaches the season with practical strategies that help restaurants turn seasonal moments into lasting loyalty.
Plan Ahead: Start with the Calendar, Not the Crisis
The holiday rush exposes every weak link and vulnerability in your digital ecosystem. Promotions and offers that are not tested/QA’d across your POS, mobile app, and online ordering channels don’t just confuse guests, they erode trust. Locking in your promotional calendar early and running full-cycle testing could be the difference between seamless execution and last-minute firefighting. Guests may never see your internal planning, but they’ll absolutely notice when the experience feels polished and frictionless versus cumbersome and patched together.
Re-Engage with Intent
The best place to find holiday traffic? Guests who already proved they’ll show up this time of year. Look at your loyalty data, it’s already telling you things:
– Past holiday visitors: Invite them back with a “welcome to the season” message.
– Gift card buyers: They’re often shopping for others; tailor messaging to make it easy and rewarding.
– Frequent redeemers: Reward their engagement with exclusive offers to maintain engagement and interest.
– Holiday-only shoppers: Lower the barrier to return with a single-click reactivation offer.
Segmentation isn’t just a data tactic, it’s a hospitality one. It shows guests you understand their relationship with your brand beyond a generic email list.
Make It Personal, Not Promotional
By the time the holidays hit, your guests’ inboxes and texts are flooded with “exclusive offers” and “limited-time deals.” Most of it feels the same and gets ignored. What actually breaks through is relevance. The message that nods to a guest’s recent order, favorite item, or past visit instantly feels different: “You loved our Peppermint Latte last December, it’s back!” That’s not a blast… it’s a memory. It reminds guests that your brand sees them as individuals, not inbox entries. Loyalty isn’t built on louder promotions, it’s built on personal ones that feel like they were crafted just for them.
Remove Friction at Every Step
The holiday rush doesn’t leave much patience for complicated offers. If guests have to read the fine print twice or click through multiple screens, they’ll give up before redeeming. That’s why every step, from email to checkout, needs to feel effortless. Keep redemption rules short, clear, and guest-first. Test every flow before launch, not just for function but for feel. Does it work smoothly on mobile? Is the confirmation message reassuring? When redemption is seamless, guests stay engaged, and the experience reflects the spirit of the season: easy, warm, and welcoming.
Build Anticipation, Then Delight
The best holiday promotions don’t just launch—they build momentum. Tease upcoming offers so guests can plan when, how, and even how many times they can use them. And don’t underestimate the power of surprise & delights. Here are holiday loyalty tips from Ilyssa Perez, Loyalty Director at 5&5:
– A “12 Days of Offers” series during the holidays will build intrigue and keep guests coming back daily. By releasing a new, special offer daily, you can bring consumers along for the ride and increase social and website traffic by planning daily deal drops.
– Offering a limited-time bonus offer to encourage bounce-back visits is a simple tactic to extend holiday momentum and generate incremental sales into Q1.
– Surprise your most loyal guests. A small unexpected reward reinforces loyalty and builds emotional value at key moments.
These moments don’t just drive visits; they create stories guests share long after the season ends.
Loyalty: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
The holidays aren’t just another season, they’re the ultimate stage for guest engagement. Amid the omni-channel noise, brands that plan early, personalize intelligently, and act on their own first-party data will see stronger results. When you listen to what your customers’ transactions are already telling you, loyalty becomes a performance driver, not a promotion.
With the right partner to help you design, plan, test, and execute, your loyalty program can be more… It can be a competitive advantage that keeps guests coming back long after the season ends.
Give yourself the gift of a smarter loyalty strategy—partner with 5&5 to level up!
Tephie is a Marketing and Communications Specialist at 5&5 who thrives on crafting compelling stories and building connections through words. With a passion for the restaurant industry and creative problem-solving, she ensures every blog post resonates with readers while delivering actionable insights. She also plays a key role in creating and executing social media strategies that bring 5&5 to life. Outside of work, you’ll find Tephie brainstorming new ideas, exploring food trends, or adding fun energy to the team!
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