Inside a restaurant dining room, the meal often ends before the guest is ready. Plates are cleared, conversation is flowing, and then the moment arrives. The check. The wait. The raised hand. The pause while a card disappears into the back of the house.
That friction is so normalized in hospitality that it is rarely questioned. But for Christine de Wendel, it became the problem worth solving.
The Friction Everyone Accepts
“No one likes to pay in restaurants,” Christine said. No one likes waiting. No one likes doing math at the end of a great night. No one likes wondering where their card went.
Every other consumer experience has been redesigned around convenience and control. Flights, rides, retail, entertainment. Hospitality lagged behind. Not because operators did not care, but because the tools were never built with the guest experience first.
For Christine, digital hospitality begins there. Technology should remove friction so service can shine.
The Origin Story
The idea for sunday came from inside restaurants, not a boardroom.
During COVID, Christine’s co-founder Victor Lugger was operating Big Mamma Group, one of Europe’s most design-forward restaurant groups. Menus went digital overnight. Contact mattered. Guests still wanted to dine out, just without the friction.
If guests were already scanning QR codes for menus, why could they not pay the same way?
Within weeks, more than 80 percent of guests chose digital payment. Not because they were forced to. Because it was easier.
That moment revealed something bigger. Payment was not just a transaction. It was an experience-defining touchpoint.
From Payment to Insight
As sunday expanded, the team uncovered an unexpected advantage. Most full service restaurants do not know who their guests are. Without reservations or loyalty programs, regulars remain anonymous.
By owning the payment experience, sunday created a bridge. Restaurants could finally understand who was dining with them and how experiences translated into engagement.
The results were measurable. Faster table turns. Higher tips driven by smoother UX. A dramatic increase in Google reviews prompted at the exact moment satisfaction was highest.
“What used to happen only at the extremes now happens in the middle,” Christine explained. Real guests leaving real feedback, effortlessly. QR codes often raise concerns about aesthetics. Christine understands that deeply. The restaurants she works with are intentional about design and atmosphere.
The solution was adaptation, not compromise. Brass plaques. Clean plexiglass blocks. Designs that blend into the table the way salt and pepper shakers do.
If done right, guests do not notice the tool. They remember the night.
Built for Operators
Scaling a payment platform leaves little room for error. Christine spoke candidly about the pressure of supporting restaurants during peak moments like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
That reality shaped sunday’s culture. Heavy investment in reliability. Real operations teams on the ground. Seamless integrations with systems like Toast, where onboarding takes minutes, not weeks.
Christine is outspoken about what she dislikes in restaurant tech. Overpromising. Underdelivering. Selling without supporting.
sunday’s answer has been focus. Land with a clear use case. Expand only when value is proven. Stay close to operators.
The Future of the Table
While sunday began with payment, it is not stopping there. Ordering is becoming a natural extension. Another round. Another plate. A frictionless yes.
Christine believes digital payment will soon be standard across the Western world. The question is not if. It is how thoughtfully it is done.
Digital Hospitality exists to explore moments where technology supports human connection instead of replacing it. Christine de Wendel is not trying to make restaurants more digital. She is trying to make them feel better to be in. When payment disappears into the background, what remains is what hospitality has always been about. Ease. Presence. And the desire to come back.
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