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Restaurant loyalty program in Jeddah: from the Corniche to Obhur

Jeddah lives by the sea and late at night: restaurants and cafés fill up after maghrib and stay busy past midnight, and part of the crowd is visitors passing through on the way to Makkah. Dawwerni gives you a gamified loyalty program with no app: the customer scans a QR on the table or receipt, plays a short game and wins a reward for the next visit. Example: a Corniche seafood restaurant puts the QR in its menu, and a family on a Thursday dinner comes back the next week for a free dessert.

At a glance

Active areas

The Corniche and waterfront, Tahlia Street, Al Rawdah, Historic Jeddah (Al Balad), North and South Obhur

Customer mix

Jeddah families and young locals, visitors transiting to Makkah, waterfront tourists, weekend visitors from nearby cities

Most useful modules

Photo QR menu in Arabic and English, table reservations from the menu, promo screens, gift cards, Salon Pro

Peak times

From maghrib until late, weekends, and humid summers that push traffic into the night and into air-conditioned venues

Languages

Arabic and English interface; menu in Arabic, English and French from one place

Setup

Remote in Arabic or English by video call and WhatsApp, about 10 minutes

The Jeddah market: sea, late nights and a different crowd every evening

Jeddah is not Riyadh: the city leans towards the night and the sea. On the Corniche, families sit on the waterfront after maghrib and then look for a nearby restaurant or café. Tahlia Street lines up restaurants, cafés and fashion stores that stay open late. Al Rawdah has speciality coffee shops and sweet shops with regular neighbourhood customers. In Al Balad (Historic Jeddah), visitors stroll between the old houses looking for coffee, a traditional meal or a gift. And Obhur has resorts, water activities and restaurants that fill up on weekends.

So on the same night you serve two kinds of customer: the Jeddah resident who could come back every week, and the passing visitor you may never see again. The usual mistake is to give both the same offer. With Dawwerni you give the visitor a pleasant moment and an optional, honest review invitation, and you give the resident a restaurant loyalty program with points or stamps worth coming back for.

The modules that matter most in Jeddah, and why

Photo QR menus for seafood restaurants

A seafood customer wants to see the dish before ordering: the fish, the cooking style, the size. The digital menu shows photos and prices in Arabic and English, with calorie and allergen fields, and you change the catch-of-the-day price in seconds instead of reprinting. A "play & win" banner on top leads guests to the game while they wait for the kitchen.

Table reservations for weekend dinners

Corniche and Obhur restaurants are full on Thursday and Friday nights, and families would rather book a good table than wait outside in the humidity. Guests reserve from the menu itself; you accept, assign a table and seat them on arrival. The cashier knows who is coming and the visit lands in the customer profile.

Gift cards for sweet shops and Al Balad

Jeddah is a gifting city: boxes of sweets, perfume, speciality coffee. A gift card for shops is sold at the counter or sent by WhatsApp; its page shows the balance and a QR, it can be used in several goes and is never spent twice. Very handy before Eid and holidays when people buy for relatives.

Promo screens for air-conditioned venues

In the humid summer people prefer to sit inside. A TV in the window or the dining room shows an animated menu and quiet-hour offers with the game QR, scheduled by time of day: breakfast, lunch, late evening, Ramadan.

Jeddah seasons: humid summer, Ramadan and holidays

Jeddah campaigns should follow the rhythm of the city, not a generic calendar:

• Summer: daytime is hot and humid, so traffic moves to the night and indoors. Run an "after isha" offer and keep the screen game on until closing.
• Ramadan: the peak runs from iftar to suhoor, and many Makkah-bound visitors pass through Jeddah. Switch on the Ramadan theme, a suhoor screen playlist and the English menu.
• School holidays and weekends: families on the Corniche and in Obhur. A Summer or Kids game theme and a prize valid for a return visit within two weeks.
• Eid: the gift card and sweet-box season. Send a WhatsApp campaign from your own number a few days before.
• City events and seasons: more visitors than usual on the waterfront and in Al Balad. English menu, an optional review invitation, and a second-visit reward.

The visitor on the way to Makkah: serve them without neglecting locals

Many Umrah visitors land at Jeddah airport or pass through the city before or after Makkah. That visitor may not return to the same shop, so do not hand out a heavy discount. A short game with simple prizes (water, Arabic coffee, a small dessert) redeemable the same day works better, with an optional invitation to follow you on Instagram and leave an honest review. The prize is never tied to the review.

Put Jeddah residents on points or a stamp card instead, with VIP levels (Silver, Gold, VIP) and an automatic birthday reward. That builds a steady base that fills the quiet weekdays. Estimate what lost customers cost you with the free lost-customers calculator.

Cashier and invoices in Jeddah

If you already use a POS such as Foodics or Loyverse, Dawwerni connects to it and receipts turn into points or stamps automatically. Without a POS, Dawwerni POS runs on a tablet or phone, prints 58 or 80 mm thermal tickets, and can print the phase-1 ZATCA QR on simplified invoices. It is not a certified phase-2 (integration) solution, so check your phase-2 obligations with your accountant.

For seafood kitchens that cook to order, the kitchen display (KDS) on a tablet shows tickets as New, In progress and Ready, which helps on busy Thursday nights.

A 4-week local plan for a Jeddah business

Prices: Standard 750 SAR and Premium 900 SAR per year, with a 7-day trial. General details on the Saudi Arabia page; if you also run a branch in the capital, see the Riyadh page.

1. Week 1: remote setup call, a photo QR menu in Arabic and English, and a mystery doors game with three simple prizes.
2. Week 2: QR on tables, receipts and an Instagram story, plus one sentence the cashier says to every customer.
3. Week 3: switch on weekend reservations and send an "after isha" offer by WhatsApp from your number to your CRM.
4. Week 4: check the dashboard: how many Jeddah customers came back? Replace a weak prize and prepare gift cards before the next Eid or holiday.

Real-life examples in Jeddah

Dawwerni modules that fit in Jeddah