10 key features to look for when choosing a POS system for your hotel restaurant

Is your hotel’s current point-of-sale system meeting the needs of your property and your guests?

Your hotel POS directly impacts operational efficiency, profitability and the guest experience. Unlike a standalone restaurant, it’s not just about taking orders and payments on site, but creating a cohesive, memorable experience that’s convenient and seamless for the guest. 

In this guide, we’ll explore the key hotel POS features that can bring the most value to your hotel, plus tips on selecting the right POS system for your property. You can also check out the video below and learn more about POS systems from Lightspeed’s Jody Hewitt.

Here’s why you need a robust hotel POS 

A hotel restaurant POS plays a crucial role in enhancing the guest experience, optimizing food and beverage (F&B) operations, and boosting hotel revenue. Here’s why you want to invest in an integrated, feature-rich POS solution. 

You want to save time 

Time is one of your most valuable resources, and most costly expenses. Managing multiple revenue centers—such as restaurants, snack bars, rooftop or poolside bars—without a unified system is time-consuming, error-prone, and leads to a fragmented experience for the guest. For every minute you or your staff spend simply trying to connect the dots, it’s costing you money—both directly and in lost opportunities. 

Let’s put this into perspective: imagine your hotel has a bustling restaurant that generates $1,750 in revenue per service hour. For every 10 minutes your staff spends dealing with a bottleneck, you’re potentially losing more than $290 in revenue. Over the course of a week, month, year…. that adds up to a lot of lost revenue due to inefficient workflows.

You want to make money

As a hotelier, your primary goal is to increase revenue. Relying on outdated or disconnected systems can lead to missed opportunities and lost income. Here’s how your hotel POS can help you grow revenue:

Maximize sales across outlets

Your guests want to move freely from your rooftop bar to the restaurant to the pool—and they don’t want to pay a bill at every stop. With all your F&B outlets connected in one system, upselling across revenue centers is seamless, making it easier for guests to get what they want (and for you to charge them for it).

Easily identify opportunities and losses

A good hotel POS will give you real-time data at your fingertips, letting you spot trends quickly—like your busiest times, best-selling items and top performing staff—so you can make better decisions to control costs and increase revenue. 

Reduce costly errors

Remember the last time a billing mistake caused a guest complaint? Or that a bill wasn’t correctly posted to the room folio and the guest was never charged? With connected systems, every transaction is immediately and accurately recorded, keeping operations running smoothly and your guests happy.

Get more bookings

83% of consumers say positive reviews on third-party booking websites and social media are an important factor when choosing a hotel. Happy guests mean repeat business and positive reviews, both of which are key to driving more bookings.

You want to satisfy your guests

In today’s competitive hospitality industry, guests have high expectations, and any inconvenience can impact their overall satisfaction. A frictionless experience from check-in to check-out is crucial to keeping them happy. ​​Here’s how your POS helps increase guest satisfaction:

Unified guest experience

By connecting all your hotel’s service points, a robust POS ensures that guests receive the same high level of service across your entire property.

Effortless transactions

Most guests just want to get on with their day and don’t want to spend all day with your staff. By speeding up transactions at every touchpoint, you make it easier for them to pay and move on, boosting sales and satisfaction in the process.

Personalized service

With access to guest preferences and history, your staff can tailor their service to meet individual needs, creating a more personalized and memorable experience.

Another reason you need a robust hotel restaurant POS? According to Hospitality Tech’s 2023 POS industry trends report, integration is one of the key features driving POS purchases—which means your competitors are already switching to better solutions. 

10 key features to look for in a hotel POS

Here are the top 10 features you should prioritize when choosing a POS system to manage your hotel restaurant:

1. Integration capability

The most important feature for a hotel POS is the ability to integrate with your PMS, which ensures that charges from the restaurant, bar or any other service point are accurately posted to the guest’s folio. Seamless integrations with other management softwares, like your CRM or accounting software, is also very important (unless you want to spend days on time tracking and payroll). 

2. Cloud-based

A cloud-based hotel POS offers the flexibility to manage your hotel’s operations from anywhere with an internet connection. No need to be on-site to check in on your operations, and your system is always up-to-date and can easily scale as your business grows.

3. Table management

Think of busy Saturday nights when your restaurant is packed. A POS with table management features helps your staff efficiently manage reservations, track table status and optimize seating, so you can turn tables faster and serve more guests. At a minimum, your hotel POS should enable you to do the following:

• Customize multiple floor plans to accurately reflect your seating plans
• Customize section layouts, tables, status views, and position numbers

4. Menu management

Whether you’re adding a new item or updating prices, look for a hotel POS that lets you easily make adjustments on the fly. Here are some key capabilities to look for:

• Ability to tailor your menu to your workflow with customizable screens and sequences
• Ability to configure multiple menus for different locations and types of service (dine-in, room service, etc.) and assign them to different devices
• Ability to push menu updates across multiple locations at once

5. Inventory tracking

Good inventory management is crucial for reducing waste and controlling food costs. With a hotel POS with real-time inventory tracking, you always know exactly what you have and when you need to restock. Really want to simplify your life? Look for these features:

• Alerts when the quantity drops below a predetermined amount
• Option to set up automated reordering of your most popular products to prevent stockouts

6. Mobile ordering

A modern hotel POS should offer flexibility in how and where you can take orders and payments, so you can cater to guests from wherever they are. Look for a POS solution that offers:

• Handheld POS. Mobile POS and payment systems let your servers take orders and payments directly from the table, eliminating bottlenecks at stationary POS stations and speeding up service
• Mobile ordering software. Room service anyone? With a mobile ordering solution, you can let guests order and pay from their room or table simply by scanning a QR code
• Flexible hardware. If your POS software runs on portable hardware like an iPad or tablet, you get way more flexibility and can set up mobile POS stations anywhere on the fly

7. Payment processing options

Hotels welcome guests from all over the world, and those guests want to pay with a myriad of card types and methods. It can be simple to let your guests pay how they want, where they want, with the right POS. Look for:

• Flexible payment options. Accept all major payment methods, gift cards, and credit cards, including swipe, tap, chip and pin, and contactless payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Offline mode. Keep processing transactions even if the internet goes down, so you never lose a sale
• Secure transactions. Make sure your hotel POS is PCI compliant to protect guests’ sensitive data (and your hotel’s reputation)
• Integrated payments. Offer guests more secure transactions and a seamless checkout experience, while you benefit from real-time data with every transaction 

8. Advanced insights and reporting

Data is a hotelier’s best friend. Look for a hotel POS with advanced insights into sales, staff performance and guest preferences. Bonus points for the hotel POS that offers:

• Reports by individual location 
• Consolidated reports across all revenue centers
• Reporting automation options

9. Multi-location capabilities

If your hotel operates multiple locations, look for a hotel POS that lets you handle them all from a single dashboard. This will make it a whole lot easier to track sales and inventory across locations, manage multiple menus and share customer data across all your revenue centers.

10. Top-tier customer support

Your business is more complex than most, so you need the best support available. Whether it’s a quick question about setup or an urgent issue during peak service hours, access to escalated customer support ensures your POS system runs smoothly and minimizes costly disruptions. 

Tips on choosing the right POS 

Choosing the right hotel POS system doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are some simple tips to help you find the perfect fit:

Understand your needs

First things first—get clear on what you really need from a POS system. Think about what’s most important for your property, whether it’s mobile ordering, advanced inventory management, or real-time data and insights. Make a list of your top priorities so you can focus on solutions that match your goals.

Consider your costs

Cost is important, but look beyond the upfront cost. Think about the overall cost—including setup, training and ongoing support. You may find that one solution is cheaper per month but it costs you $150 every time you need to call support.

In this case, is it actually cheaper than the solution that charges more per month but offers unlimited free support? The key is to find a hotel POS with great service, flexible pricing options and the ability to scale up or down as your needs change. 

Consult with your current tech partners/vendors

Your existing tech partners can offer valuable advice and might even have recommendations based on properties like yours. Plus, they can help ensure your new POS integrates smoothly with your current systems.

Trial and test different solutions

Once you’ve narrowed down your options, take them for a spin. Set up demos or trial periods to see how each system works in real life. This hands-on experience will give you a better sense of which POS is the easiest to use and best meets your needs.

By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to finding a hotel POS that fits your property perfectly. 

Transforming your hotel’s F&B operations with the right POS

A robust, integrated hotel POS system will help simplify operations, improve the guest experience, and empower you to grow hotel revenue—without the tedious busywork and frustration that comes with a limited and disconnected system. Take the time to understand where your inefficiencies and service bottlenecks are, and what features your POS will need to solve for them. 

Learn more about the unique features and benefits of a hotel restaurant POS.