People often ask us, how we came up with the idea for Eat and Play Card. Here’s the short story:

In 2008, one of our founders was on holiday in Florida with his girlfriend. The first stop of their holiday was Orlando. Throughout those five days, they were inundated with coupons – everywhere they went they found coupons – the same crappy coupons over and over again. The offers were often “cheap” and the places generally had no appeal. “Why are businesses wasting their money on these things” they thought? “Who could possibly be motivated to visit a restaurant that offered a “free chef’s appetizer” (what even is that?!), a free glass of wine, or $1.50 off? They were baffled.

The 2nd stop was Key West. During one dinner on an elevated terrace at a restaurant at an intersection with busy Duval Street, they watched people go from place to place, looking at menus out front and trying to decide which one to visit. Eventually they would decide but imagine how much faster that decision could have been if even just one of those restaurants offered 20% off.  It was then that the seed was planted.

What followed in 2009 was months of research online and in person. This included spending weeks speaking with businesses and countless tourists on the streets of Orlando and attending two large industry events to meet with resellers, hear their thoughts, and learn the business. They listened to what people said and set out to design Eat and Play Card to avoid all the things they disliked most about coupons and other discount programs. Now, more than 10 years later, Eat and Play Card is still going strong and has helped over one million people have better, more affordable vacations.