Check diners in

Checking a diner in is the only loyalty action your staff perform. The diner shows a 4-digit code, you type it, you tap once. That single tap punches your punch-card and stamps their Foodie Passport if you're a Foodie Passport partner.

Checking in is about earning. Spending a reward is separate and needs nothing from you beforehand — see When a diner uses a reward below.

How to check someone in

1. Open Loyalty cards → Check in. A tap tag on your counter does this without anyone lifting a finger — the keypad is for when one isn't to hand.
2. Ask the diner for their code. They get it by scanning your QR code — it's on the check-in card at the top of your restaurant's page. It's live for an hour.
3. Type the four digits. Their name comes up — nothing has been written yet.
4. Tap Check in. Every punch they're owed fires at once, and you'll see what they earned.

If you're a Foodie Passport partner, the confirm screen also shows the perk you give, so whoever is at the counter recognises what a diner is owed. It's a reminder, never a button.

Why the name is shown first

Nothing is written until you confirm who it is. A mistyped code that happens to hit another live code at your restaurant would otherwise stamp the wrong person — and a wrong Foodie Passport stamp blocks that diner from stamping you again for their whole passport page, with no undo. Reading the name back takes a second and removes the whole class of mistake.

Punches you don't have to do anything for

Put an AskFoodie tap tag on the counter and a diner taps their phone on it — the punch lands with no staff involvement at all, same 6-hour rule, same cards, nothing for your staff to learn. The keypad is for the times a tag isn't to hand. See Set up your tap tags.

Diners can start collecting before they sign up

A tap works even for a diner with no AskFoodie account. Their stamp is held on their phone — up to 3 visits at your restaurant — and the moment they sign in, every one of them lands on your card at once. On the fourth visit the tag asks them to sign in before it'll keep collecting.

This is deliberate: asking a first-time walk-in for their email before they've earned anything is what loses them. By the fourth visit they've shown your card is worth something to them, which is a much better moment to ask.

For you, nothing changes — you'll simply see diners arrive already part-way through a card. Three things follow from it:

• Those visits are real. Each one is a separate tap at your counter, at least 6 hours apart. A diner can't tap five times on the way out.
• A card can fill on the day they sign up. If a diner banked visits over several trips, signing in can complete their card immediately and mint the reward. They earned every one of those visits at your counter.
• Held visits can be lost. If a diner clears their browser or changes phones before signing in, unsaved visits go with it. There's nothing you can restore, so it's worth encouraging the sign-in prompt if they ask.

When a diner uses a reward

Spending is the diner's action, not yours, and it doesn't need a check-in. A check-in happens at the counter when they pay; a reward is spent at the table when you take the order. Asking for one before the other would refuse every reward on the visit it was earned for.

What actually happens:

1. The diner opens the reward and holds their phone up to you. The screen names the reward, the fine print, and — for a Foodie Passport reward — the perk you give.
2. You say yes or no. If you can't honour it right now, nothing has been spent: they close the screen and it's still theirs.
3. They tap Use it now. Only then is it spent.

It then shows on your side as a banner naming the diner and what they're owed, on whichever owner page you're on, and drops into the Rewards used today list on your Activity page (reach it from the dashboard tile).

• Done clears the banner. It's a dismissal, nothing more.
• Decline returns the reward to the diner — use it if they left before you could serve it, or something was wrong with it. You can decline until the end of your restaurant's day (at least 3 hours after it was used).

A diner can use one reward per visit here, whichever programme it came from. Once one is used at your restaurant, every other reward they hold is dimmed for the next 3 hours — a punch-card reward and a Foodie Passport reward are two promises, but one bill for you.

Good to know

• Any staff member can check diners in. It's shift work, not configuration — no manager needed.
• One punch per diner per 6 hours, per restaurant. A regular who comes back after lunch and again at dinner earns twice; the same sitting earns once.
• There's no list of live codes. Staff type blind, because the diner choosing to hand over their number is the whole check.
• Codes expire in an hour and are per restaurant — a code for one place never works at another.
• A check-in is for earning only. It no longer gates anything a diner spends, so there's no window to keep alive.
• One reward per diner per 3 hours here, whichever programme minted it.