A referral program where every dollar buys a real visit.
The Flavorites affiliate program is reward-only performance marketing. Your biggest fans recommend your restaurant; when their recommendation turns into a customer standing at your counter, your staff verifies it with a QR scan — and only then does your budget move.
How a bounty works
You set one number: the bounty — a fixed dollar amount you're willing to pay for a verified customer visit. The bounty covers the referrer's reward and the Flavorites platform fee, so there are no separate charges, subscriptions, or per-click costs. You fund a prepaid campaign wallet, and every verified visit draws exactly one bounty from it.
Because the wallet is prepaid, your spend is capped by design. A campaign can only activate when the wallet covers at least one bounty, and it pauses itself the moment the balance falls below the bounty.
| Restaurant type | Suggested bounty per verified visit |
|---|---|
| Counter service & casual spots | $4–$8 |
| Casual dining | $8–$12 |
| Upscale dining | $15–$25 |
These are starting points — you can set any bounty from $4 up, and change it as you learn what a new customer is worth to you.
Who gets to refer you
Referrals only come from people who have saved your restaurant as one of their Flavorites. That single rule changes the character of the program: recommendations come from genuine fans with their name attached, not anonymous coupon sites. On top of that, you choose the audience per campaign:
- All fans — the default. Anyone who Flavorited your restaurant can refer it.
- Minimum follower count — limit referrals to fans with real reach.
- Private list — run an invite-only campaign for specific regulars, local creators, or friends of the house.
Who counts as a rewardable customer
By default, any referred customer qualifies — great when you want more traffic, period. If you'd rather pay only for growth, enable first-time-only mode: a customer earns a reward only on their first verified Flavorites visit to your restaurant, once ever. You can also require a minimum order subtotal, entered by your staff at verification, before a visit qualifies. Either way, one reward per table or receipt, the customer and referrer must be different people, and your own employees can never earn rewards at your restaurant.
Verification is physical, not digital
Digital ad networks count clicks. Flavorites counts customers. The referred customer arrives with a QR visit pass — one-time use, tied to your restaurant, valid for 7 days. Your owner or authorized staff scans it in Flavorites Business and enters the order subtotal. Nothing is verified unless someone on your team, in your restaurant, says so.
The money flow, honestly
- Fund: you top up your campaign wallet by card through secure Stripe checkout ($100 minimum).
- Reserve: when a visit is verified, the bounty is immediately reserved from your wallet.
- Pending: the reward stays pending for a 72-hour dispute window. You can dispute anything that looks wrong before money moves.
- Release: after the window, the referrer's reward becomes available and the platform fee is settled.
- Payout: Flavorites pays referrers in weekly batches through Stripe Connect, including tax reporting support. You never handle payouts.
Behind the scenes, every single balance change — funding, reservation, release, payout — is recorded as a balanced double-entry ledger transaction. Your wallet history is a complete, auditable record.
What the program deliberately is not
- No discounts: your menu prices are untouched; the reward goes to the referrer, not off the bill.
- No POS integration: nothing to install, nothing to reconfigure at the register.
- No checkout changes: customers pay you exactly as they always have.
- No percentage commissions: a fixed bounty means predictable cost per customer, whatever they order.
Program defaults at a glance
| Rule | Default |
|---|---|
| Minimum bounty | $4 |
| Minimum wallet top-up | $100 |
| Customer eligibility | All customers (optional first-time-only mode) |
| Referrer eligibility | Fans who Flavorited your restaurant |
| Visit pass validity | 7 days, one-time use |
| Dispute window | 72 hours |
| Rewards per table | One per table or receipt |
| Referrer payouts | Weekly, via Stripe Connect ($25 minimum) |
| Low balance behavior | Campaign pauses automatically |
Turn regulars into your sales team.
Set your bounty, fund your wallet, and let the people who already love your food do the marketing.