A voucher that knows its worth

Fou du Goût has been a fixture in Lovendegem since 2009, with chef Thomas Cocquyt at the stove. The kind of restaurant you happily send people to. Which makes it the kind of restaurant that sells a lot of gift vouchers.

In spring 2020 the dining room stayed empty and the website suddenly became a till. What started as a stopgap grew into a full gift voucher system. It’s still running, and by now it’s smarter than most vouchers in your wallet.

A gift voucher is a present, and presents come in flavours. That’s why the voucher at Fou du Goût is hybrid. Bought online? You get a print-ready PDF in your inbox. Bought at the counter? The team prints it on the spot, or emails it straight away. And if you prefer something pretty, you get a QR code to stick on a nice card. No voucher that looks like a till receipt.

Whatever it looks like, every form hides the same voucher, with one unique code. The paper is wrapping. The value lives in the system.

On the website you pick 50, 75 or 100 euros, or your own amount. You fill in who it’s for and who it’s from, pay online, and the voucher lands in your inbox before your coffee goes cold. Live nearby? Pick up a luxury printed copy at the restaurant.

Why build it yourself when there are platforms for it? Because those platforms take their cut. When we built this in 2021, Resengo, Tablebooker and Tablefever charged an 8.5% commission on a gift voucher: 4.25 euros on a 50-euro voucher. On top of the subscription the restaurant was already paying for their platform.

In our system the cost came down to a flat 0.39 euros per voucher, whatever the amount. On a 100-euro voucher that’s 0.39 instead of 8.50. Add that up over a year of birthdays, holiday seasons and Mother’s Days, and you’re quickly talking hundreds of euros that simply stay in the restaurant. And in the kitchen.

Not everyone buys online. Want a voucher at the restaurant? You get it right away. The team picks the amount, fills in the names, notes how it was paid and which colleague sold it, and then chooses: print, email or a QR code for a card. Every voucher from the counter ends up in the same system as the ones from the website.

When the voucher comes back, the team scans the QR code with a phone. The app instantly shows whether it’s valid, until when, and how much is left on it. No retyping codes, no lists next to the till.

And when a guest scans their own voucher, curious to see what happens? Nothing happens. Redeeming only works with the team’s PIN. The voucher stays perfectly valid, and curiosity is rewarded with a little padlock.

A 75-euro voucher and a 45-euro bill? Then 45 comes off and 30 euros stay on the voucher, for next time. Nobody has to order a quick dessert just to use it up. Not that the chef would complain.

Vouchers are valid for one year. If the team scans an expired voucher, they see it right away, date included.

Behind the vouchers sits a dashboard. By year, by type (website or restaurant) and by status you see how many vouchers were sold, how many are still open, how many were used and how many expired, each with the amount. You can search by code, name or email too. Handy for the accounts, and for anyone who wants to know when vouchers sell best.

The site itself is deliberately plain: lots of white, a slim golden typeface and mostly photography. Land on the homepage and you see a plate first, words second. On a big screen image and text sit side by side, on a tablet they slide together, on a phone everything stacks without losing any of the atmosphere. The reservation button travels along everywhere.

Lunch and à la carte are managed by the restaurant itself. The menu changes with the season, and none of that has to pass through us.

A site that takes payments keeps asking for attention. In the summer of 2026 we renewed the entire technical foundation. Guests saw no difference: same site, same menus, same vouchers. Behind the scenes a pile of dead code disappeared and security was tightened.

Reservations still run through an external system today. Soon they move to the site too, on our own reservation system. A five-year-old website doesn’t have to be thrown away. Sometimes a new engine is enough.