Own the relationship, own the advantage

The customer you never meet: why owning the relationship is the next real advantage

There was a time when an operator knew every regular by name. You knew their table, their order, and the week they went missing. Today, a growing share of your customers arrive through an app, and the platform sitting in the middle knows more about them than you do. That is the quiet shift reshaping the market, and the operators who reverse it are building the most defensible advantage in hospitality right now.

The numbers are hard to ignore

In November 2025, Menulog left the Australian market after 20 years, and within months, commission rates on the remaining platforms moved up again. For most venues, the effective rate on delivery orders now sits between 25 and 30 per cent, often higher once fees and sponsored placement are added. Fewer platforms mean more leverage, and it is not sitting with you.

Now look at the other side of the ledger. Restaurants that build their own customer database grow at 5 to 10 times the rate of venues relying solely on marketplaces. Move a guest into a loyalty program and their likelihood of returning jumps from around 7 per cent to nearly 30 per cent. Loyalty members spend 12 to 18 per cent more than everyone else, and every dollar that comes through your own channel is full margin, not margin minus a commission. Australian diners are ready to meet you there too: 40 per cent say they would rather order through a venue's own app than a marketplace.

What is actually at stake

This is not really a story about delivery. It is a story about who owns the relationship. Every booking through an aggregator and every order through an app adds a customer to someone else's database. The platform learns what your guests order, when they order, and what makes them come back. Then it uses that knowledge to market to them, and not always on your behalf. Your food builds the habit. Someone else banks the insight.

The proof is already in the market

Look at the most digitally successful food business in the country. Domino's decided years before the aggregators arrived that it would never rent its customers to anyone. It built its own ordering platforms, kept every scrap of customer data and now takes the clear majority of its orders through channels it owns outright. Every one of those customers can be reached tomorrow, at no commission, with an offer built on what they actually order. That is not a technology story. It is an ownership decision, made early and defended ever since.

You do not need a Domino's budget to apply the same principle. A regional bistro that captures an email with every booking, sends one well-timed message a month and offers regulars first access to a winter menu or a wine dinner is running the exact same playbook at venue scale. The asset is the list, not the app.

The gap is the opportunity

Closing the gap requires intent, not enterprise technology. Capture an email or mobile number with every booking and every direct order. Put your own ordering link on packaging, receipts and social channels so the second order comes to you, not through a marketplace. Give guests a reason to book direct, whether that is a loyalty perk, priority seating or first access to events. Then use what you learn. A message that lands on a regular's birthday or marks their tenth visit does more for retention than any discount a platform will ever run.

Treat the platforms for what they are: marketing channels for finding new customers, not the home of your existing ones.

The bottom line for operators

Disruption will keep coming. Platforms will merge, fees will move, and algorithms will change. The venues best placed to ride it are the ones whose customers belong to them.

R&CA will keep advocating for fairer platform terms on behalf of the sector, but the strongest position is the one you build yourself, one captured contact at a time.

So here is the question worth asking this week: when your best customer decides to order again, whose database are they sitting in?

 This article reflects general observations and information gathered from across the hospitality industry. It is not intended as legal, financial or professional advice.