The Future of Hospitality Is Personal

In my hometown in Maplewood, New Jersey, my family and I are frequent visitors of a cozy French bistro named Restaurant Lorena’s. My usual order is salmon tartare or moules frites with a glass of their rosé cava. The food is excellent, but the feeling is what brings us back—the sense that someone noticed us, remembered us, and cared enough to make the next visit familiar. They somehow make every visit seem like we’re returning to friends instead of simply dining out.

As I read The Regulars Report, written in partnership with Toast, I found myself thinking about Restaurant Lorena’s. The report puts data behind something operators have understood for decades: guests don’t become loyal because of a single great meal. They become loyal because of experiences that make them feel recognized, remembered, and welcomed back.

That’s the thinking behind Resy x Toast Digital Chits, our newest integration with Toast. We’re bringing Resy guest profile information directly into Toast POS devices, giving restaurant teams on the floor the information they need to create more personalized experiences and cultivate new devoted regulars.

Recognition Is Becoming the New Loyalty Currency

One statistic in the The Regulars Report captures what I believe is one of the biggest opportunities in hospitality today. Nearly half of diners, 48%, say being remembered by name or by their usual order is what makes them feel most valued, yet only 30% say they consistently experience that level of recognition.¹

That gap represents an opportunity for every restaurant. Personalized moments build lasting loyalty. It’s the server who remembers an allergy without asking, the host who welcomes a guest back after months away, or the manager who knows a couple is celebrating an anniversary before they even sit down. Those moments tell guests something important: we know you.

The business impact is significant. According to the report, just 7% of guests account for as much as 50% of a restaurant’s order volume². Those regulars don’t simply dine more often. They become advocates, bring friends, and create the steady demand that every restaurant depends on.

Guest Data Only Creates Value When Teams Can Act On It

One of the things I’ve learned during my time at Resy is that restaurants already know a tremendous amount about their guests by leveraging Guest Notes and Tags. They know who’s celebrating a birthday, who requests the same table every visit, and who has allergies, dietary preferences, or favorite wines.

The challenge isn’t collecting that information, but rather making sure it reaches the people creating the guest experience. Too often, important guest notes get siloed at the host stand and never reach the dining room floor. As a result, opportunities to create meaningful moments can easily be missed, especially during a busy dinner rush.

That’s the problem we aim to solve with Resy x Toast Digital Chits. Rather than asking restaurant teams to learn another platform, Digital Chits brings Resy guest profiles directly into Toast devices, surfacing guest preferences, visit history, special requests, and other context where service is actually happening.

Here’s an example of how this comes to life: Let’s say I want to celebrate a friend’s birthday at Restaurant Lorena’s. When I book the reservation on Resy, I can select the birthday occasion and leave a note that we’re celebrating. With Digital Chits, our server already has my birthday note on his handheld Toast device. I don’t have to slip away from the table to quietly ask someone to put a candle in a dessert while my friend pretends not to notice. Dessert arrives with a candle at just the right moment, and my friend is genuinely surprised. It’s a small detail, but those are often the moments people remember most.

Technology didn’t create the celebration. It simply helped the restaurant deliver it seamlessly. To me, that’s a much more meaningful use of technology than collecting more data. The value isn’t in knowing more about guests. It’s in helping restaurant teams act on what they already know.

Technology Should Make Hospitality More Human

One of the biggest misconceptions about technology is that it somehow competes with hospitality, but I’ve always believed the opposite. The best technology removes friction, saves time, and gives restaurant teams more opportunities to focus on what matters most: the people sitting in their dining room.

The Regulars Report reinforces something I believe deeply. The future of guest loyalty won’t be defined by who collects the most customer data. It will be defined by who uses guest insights to create more meaningful human experiences. That’s exactly what we’re working toward with Resy x Toast Digital Chits. By putting the right guest context in front of the right people at the right time, we can help restaurants deliver more personalized hospitality without asking them to sacrifice the human touch.

I keep coming back to Restaurant Lorena’s because it reminds me that my favorite dining experiences are rarely defined by a single dish or a beautifully designed dining room. They’re defined by how a restaurant makes me feel.

I don’t think technology will ever replace that feeling, and it shouldn’t try to. But I do believe it can help more restaurants create it consistently. The restaurants that embrace tools that strengthen human connection, rather than distract from it, will be the ones building lasting relationships with their guests and, ultimately, creating more regulars to help their businesses thrive.

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Toast Data Methodology

The Regulars Report 2026 relies on a hybrid data methodology to capture transactional realities, reservation behaviors, and consumer sentiment.

1. Consumer Sentiment: Gathered via a Pollfish survey fielded on April 2, 2026, surveying 1,500 U.S. adults who dine out or order in at least twice a month. The survey data is stratified to ensure a representative sample of modern dining behaviors across varying demographics.
2. Toast Platform Data: Sourced from aggregated, anonymized transactions across all Toast POS locations in Q1 2026, analyzing order frequency, channel performance, and retention rates. All restaurant types were included in this analysis.