# Hospodality — Hospitality technology Source: https://www.hospodality.com · hello@hospodality.com ## Hospitality technology (181) ### EPOS and tills #### What an EPOS actually does An EPOS (electronic point of sale) is the till, but in a modern venue it is really the system of record for everything that gets sold. Every item rung in creates a line in a database: what, when, by whom, at which table, at what price, with which modifiers, and how it was paid. That record feeds the kitchen tickets, the end-of-day cash-up, the VAT figures your accountant needs, the stock deductions, the tips report and the sales mix the head chef uses to rewrite the menu. A cash register only counted money; an EPOS counts behaviour. The practical consequence is that the quality of almost every other report in the business depends on how cleanly staff use the till. If bartenders ring two pints as one open-priced item, your stock variance, your sales mix and your pour-cost maths all go wrong at once. When you choose or set up a system, think less about the screen and more about the data it produces and where that data needs to go: accounts, stock, payroll, bookings, loyalty. Most of the headaches venues have with tech come from the joins between systems rather than the systems themselves. - EPOS stands for electronic point of sale - The till is the system of record for sales, VAT and tips - Bad ringing habits corrupt stock and menu reports - Integrations between systems cause most tech pain #### Cloud versus local-server EPOS Older EPOS installations run on a server in the back office, with terminals on the floor talking to it over the venue’s local network. Cloud systems keep the master data with the provider and the terminals sync over the internet. In practice most current systems are hybrid: the terminals cache the menu and keep trading if the broadband drops, then upload the transactions when the connection returns. The questions that matter in service are blunt. What happens when the internet goes down at 8pm on a Saturday: can you still ring, print to the kitchen and take cards? Does the kitchen printer route through the cloud or directly across the local network? How long do offline card payments get held, and what is the limit before the terminal refuses them? Cloud systems win on remote reporting, menu changes from your phone and multi-site control. Local servers can be faster and less dependent on the line, but someone has to own the box, its backups and its updates. Whatever you run, test the offline behaviour on a quiet afternoon by unplugging the router, rather than discovering it mid-service. - Most modern systems are hybrid and cache data locally - Test offline mode deliberately before you need it - Kitchen printing may or may not depend on the internet - Local servers need someone to own backups and updates #### Building the menu in the till The menu build is the single most important set-up job in an EPOS and it is usually rushed. Every sellable item needs a sensible name for the screen, a separate name for the kitchen ticket, a price, a VAT rate, a course or print group, a reporting category and, if you track stock, a link to a recipe. Modifiers deserve as much thought as the items. A steak needs a forced cooking-temperature choice; a gin and tonic needs a choice of tonic that may carry a price; a burger needs optional extras and free removals. Forced modifiers stop servers sending incomplete orders to the pass. Screen layout matters for speed: put the twenty items that make most of your sales on the first page, group by how staff think rather than how the menu is printed, and keep button positions stable so muscle memory works. Avoid open-price buttons except for genuine one-offs, because they destroy reporting. Keep a naming convention so that reports sort sensibly, and archive rather than delete old items so historic sales remain readable. A clean menu build makes service faster, kitchens calmer and every report afterwards more trustworthy. - Kitchen ticket names can differ from screen names - Forced modifiers prevent incomplete orders - Put top sellers on the first screen in fixed positions - Open-price buttons wreck sales reporting - Archive old items rather than deleting them #### Print routing and courses Print routing decides where each item’s ticket goes: hot kitchen, cold section, pastry, bar, coffee station or a kitchen display. Getting it right is what turns a till into a service tool. Each item is assigned to one or more print groups, and items on the same order are split across stations automatically. Courses sit on top of routing. A server can send starters immediately and hold mains, then fire the mains when the table is ready, either with a dedicated course-call button or by sending a held course. Some venues prefer to send everything at once and let the pass call courses verbally; others rely on the till to pace the kitchen. Both work if everyone knows which system is in use. Common faults include drinks garnishes printing in the kitchen, desserts routing to the hot pass because someone copied an item, and a dead printer silently swallowing tickets. Most systems can reroute a station to a backup printer or display, and it is worth knowing how before a printer jams mid-service. Label each printer physically with its station name so that a temp can fix a paper roll without guesswork. - Each item belongs to a print group or station - Held courses let servers pace the kitchen - Know how to reroute a failed printer - Label printers with their station names #### Table plans and tabs on the till Table-service venues run their EPOS around a floor plan: each table is a button that opens a running bill, often colour-coded by status such as seated, ordered, mains fired or bill printed. The floor plan should match the real room, including table numbers that guests and runners can read, because a mismatch creates wrong-table deliveries. Splitting and merging are everyday operations: moving a party from the bar to a table, joining two tables, splitting a bill by seat or by item. Seat numbering lets servers record who ordered what so runners can place plates without auctioning them at the table. Bars use tabs instead, opened against a name or a pre-authorised card. Decide your house rules for tabs before the system forces them on you: whether a card must be held or pre-authorised, the limit before a top-up, and who can close an abandoned tab. A colour-coded plan also gives a manager an instant read of the room, showing which tables have been sitting without an order or have had a bill printed for twenty minutes without payment. - Floor plan numbers must match the physical room - Seat numbers help runners place plates - Set house rules for bar tabs before opening - Table colours give managers a live read of the room #### Clerk logins and permissions Every person who uses the till should have their own login, usually a PIN, swipe card, fob or fingerprint. Shared logins make it impossible to know who voided a drink, gave a discount or took a tip, and they quietly invite fraud. Permissions should then be layered. A bartender can ring and take payment; a supervisor can void after sending, apply set discounts and reopen a closed bill; a manager can do refunds, change prices, run end-of-day and see sales reports. The principle is that actions which take money away from the business need a second, more senior login and leave a named trail. Change PINs when staff leave and do not let managers lend their cards to cover a busy moment, because the audit trail then points at the wrong person. Most systems log clock-ins through the same login, which links till activity to rota and payroll. Review the permissions list at least once a year, since role changes and temporary promotions tend to leave people with more access than they need. - Shared logins destroy the audit trail - Voids, refunds and discounts need senior permission - Remove leavers’ logins on their last day - Review permission levels at least yearly #### Voids, refunds and discounts The three ways money leaves a bill each need different handling. A void removes an item, ideally before it reaches the kitchen; after it has been sent, the till should ask for a reason such as wrong order, customer changed mind, or kitchen error, and whether the item should still come off stock because it was made. A refund returns money after payment and should be tied to the original transaction and card. A discount reduces price for a reason, such as staff meal, complaint, promotion or loyalty. Set up named reason codes rather than free text, so that the end-of-week report can tell you that most voids are wastage from one section, or that one server gives far more complaint discounts than anyone else. Patterns matter more than individual events. A high void rate on one shift may mean the kitchen is misreading tickets; repeated post-payment voids by the same login can be a sign of cash being pocketed. Review a void and discount report weekly, not only when stock looks wrong, and talk to people about patterns without assuming dishonesty. - Voids, refunds and discounts are different transactions - Use reason codes, not free text - Post-send voids should record whether the item was made - Review patterns weekly by login and shift #### End-of-day and the Z read Cashing up closes the trading day. The till prints or displays a summary, traditionally called a Z read, which totals sales by payment type, VAT, voids, discounts, tips and covers, and then resets the day’s counters. An X read shows the same figures mid-day without resetting. The manager then reconciles: counted cash against expected cash, card terminal batch totals against the card figure on the till, and any third-party payments such as vouchers or delivery platforms against their own reports. Differences should be recorded rather than adjusted away, with a note on likely cause. Common causes are unrung cash sales, cards taken on a standalone terminal but closed on the till as cash, and tips keyed into the wrong field. Integrated card terminals remove much of the mismatch because the amount flows from the till to the card machine. Keep the end-of-day routine short and identical every night, with a written checklist, because it is often done by a tired supervisor at 1am and mistakes compound across a week. - A Z read totals and resets the day - An X read is a mid-day snapshot - Record variances instead of hiding them - Integrated card terminals reduce mismatches #### VAT on the till In the UK, most food and drink consumed on premises is standard-rated for VAT, while some takeaway items, notably cold food, can be zero-rated. The rules around hot takeaway food, eat-in versus takeaway, and mixed supplies are detailed and periodically change, so the safe position is to set VAT rates in the till with your accountant, not from memory. The till needs each item tagged with the correct rate and, where the same item has different rates depending on eat-in or takeaway, a way to switch the transaction mode. Service charges have their own VAT position: a discretionary service charge has generally been treated as outside the scope of VAT, whereas a compulsory one is part of the price. Tips paid voluntarily are not part of your turnover for VAT. Vouchers and gift cards raise further questions about when VAT is due. The practical rule is to make your till’s VAT report match what your accountant files, check it each quarter, and re-check rates whenever HMRC changes guidance or you add a takeaway or retail offer. - Most on-premises food and drink is standard-rated - Some cold takeaway food can be zero-rated - Discretionary service charge is generally outside VAT - Set VAT rates with your accountant, not from memory #### Hardware on the bar and the pass EPOS hardware takes a beating: beer, steam, grease, heat, dropped trays and impatient fingers. Fixed terminals on the bar should be spill-resistant and mounted where a bartender can reach them without turning their back on guests. Tablets are cheaper and portable but need rugged cases, wall chargers and a plan for when batteries die. Kitchen printers are usually thermal or impact. Thermal printers are quiet and quick but their paper fades with heat, which is a problem next to a grill; impact printers are louder and slower but produce tickets that survive a hot pass, and many use two-colour ribbons to highlight modifiers. Cash drawers, barcode scanners and customer-facing displays complete the kit. Think about power and network too: terminals should be on protected sockets, cabling should be tidy and out of mop range, and the router should not live in a cupboard next to the glasswasher. Keep a spare tablet, a spare printer and a box of paper rolls on site. Hardware failure is more common than software failure, and a twenty-pound spare can save a Saturday. - Impact printers survive kitchen heat better than thermal - Thermal receipts fade with heat and time - Mount bar terminals so staff still face guests - Keep spare hardware and paper on site #### Handhelds for order taking Handheld ordering devices let servers enter orders at the table, sending tickets straight to the kitchen and bar instead of walking to a fixed terminal. In large rooms or gardens, that saves many steps per table and can shave minutes off ticket times. Many handhelds now take card payment too, so the bill is settled at the table. The trade-offs are cost, battery management, Wi-Fi coverage and service style. Dead spots in the room, often in basements, terraces or behind walk-ins, cause orders to hang, so survey Wi-Fi coverage before you buy. Some fine-dining teams dislike the look of a device at the table and keep handwritten checks with a terminal by the pass. A sensible rollout has charging docks with one more device than the busiest shift needs, a rule that devices go back on charge at the end of each shift, and a quick guide for new starters. Watch out for servers keying faster but checking orders less carefully; a habit of reading the order back to the guest before sending remains worth more than any device. - Handhelds send orders from the table - Survey Wi-Fi coverage before buying - Keep one more device than peak demand - Read orders back before sending #### Choosing an EPOS: the questions that matter Sales demos show the screen; the questions that matter are about the rest. What does it cost in total over three years, including hardware, software subscription per terminal, card processing, support and any per-integration fees? How long is the contract, what is the notice period, and can you take your data out in a usable format if you leave? Does it integrate properly with the systems you already run, such as bookings, accounts, payroll, stock, loyalty and delivery, and who maintains those integrations? What does support look like at 9pm on a Saturday, and is it a person or a ticket queue? Does it handle your actual service style, for example table service with courses, bar tabs, counter service, or a mixture? Ask to speak to a venue of a similar size and style that has used it for more than a year. Ask what happens offline. Ask who owns the customer data. Bundled deals where the card processing is tied to the EPOS can be good value but reduce your freedom to change either. Write your must-haves down before the demo, or the demo will write them for you. - Compare three-year total cost, not monthly price - Check contract length and data export - Ask about live support hours at peak - Bundled card processing reduces switching freedom - Speak to an existing customer of similar style #### Multi-site EPOS management Running more than one site multiplies every till problem. A central estate or head-office view lets an operations team push menu and price changes to all sites, compare sales and labour, and run group-wide promotions. The difficulty is balancing control with local flexibility. Head office wants consistent item names, categories and reporting so that sites can be compared like for like; site managers want the ability to add a daily special or eighty-six an item without raising a ticket. Most systems handle this with a master menu plus permitted local overrides. Set clear rules on what sites may change, such as specials and availability, and what they may not, such as core prices and VAT rates. Price changes across an estate need a scheduled time, usually before opening, so that a mid-service change does not split the day’s figures. Group reporting is only as good as the consistency of the data, so a shared naming convention and category tree is worth agreeing before the second site opens rather than retrofitting it across ten. - Master menus with local overrides suit most groups - Agree a shared category tree before site two - Schedule estate-wide price changes before opening - Define what sites may and may not change #### Reading the EPOS sales mix report The sales mix, or product mix, report lists what sold, in what quantity, at what revenue, over a period. Combined with recipe costs, it becomes the core tool for menu engineering. Start with the basic view: the top ten and bottom ten items by quantity and by gross profit, not by revenue. A high-revenue dish with a weak margin may be doing less for you than a modest seller with a strong one. Look at attachment rates: how many mains sell with a side, how many tables order dessert, how many pints are followed by a second. Compare day parts and days of the week, because a dish that dies at lunch may be popular at dinner. Watch for anomalies caused by till habits, such as a high count on a generic item where staff have been ringing different dishes under one button. The sales mix also guides prep. If a dish averages a predictable number of sales on a Friday, the kitchen can prep to that number rather than to instinct, cutting both waste and running out. - Rank items by gross profit, not revenue - Attachment rates show upsell performance - Compare day parts and days of the week - Generic buttons distort the mix - Use averages to set prep levels #### Labour as a percentage of sales on the till Many EPOS systems track staff clock-ins alongside sales, which lets a manager see labour cost as a percentage of sales by hour, shift or day. This is one of the most useful live figures in the building. On a slow night, it shows when to send someone home; on a busy one, it shows whether the extra server was justified. The figure depends on accurate data. Hourly rates must be set correctly in the system, including holiday pay accrual and employer costs if you want a full figure, and clock-ins must be honest and prompt. Salaried managers can be included at a daily cost to give a truer picture. Be wary of treating the percentage as a target to hit every hour, because labour that looks expensive during a quiet first hour often pays for itself when the room fills. Look instead at patterns: which shifts consistently run heavy, whether the rota matches the sales curve, and how the actual figure compares with the forecast used to build the rota. Over weeks, those patterns tell you where to change the rota. - Live labour percentage helps decide early finishes - Accurate rates and clock-ins are essential - Include employer costs for a true figure - Look at patterns, not single hours ### Payments and card terminals #### Integrated versus standalone card terminals A standalone card terminal is a separate device: the server reads the total from the till, types it into the card machine and then marks the bill as paid on the till. An integrated terminal receives the amount directly from the EPOS and reports the result back automatically. Integration removes typing errors, stops the classic mistake of keying a total of 4.50 as 45.00, and makes reconciliation far easier because the till and the card batch should agree. It also allows tips entered on the terminal to flow back into the tip report. The cost is that integration ties the terminal to particular EPOS and payment provider combinations, and if the integration breaks, staff need a fallback. A sensible venue keeps at least one terminal that can run standalone for emergencies and trains supervisors in the manual fallback procedure. When comparing providers, ask whether the integration is certified and maintained by both parties, and how tip prompts, split bills and pre-authorisations work through it, because these are where integrations most often fall short. - Integrated terminals receive the amount from the till - Integration prevents keying errors - Tips on integrated terminals flow into reports - Keep a standalone fallback for outages #### How card processing fees work Every card payment carries costs that are split between several parties. The interchange fee goes to the cardholder’s bank, the scheme fee goes to the card network, and the acquirer, the business that processes payments for you, adds its own margin. Providers present this in different ways. Blended pricing charges a single percentage for most cards, which is simple but can hide the true cost. Interchange-plus pricing passes through interchange and scheme fees at cost and adds a stated margin, which is more transparent but produces more complicated statements. Commercial cards, cards issued outside the UK and some premium cards usually cost more to accept than ordinary UK debit cards. On top of transaction fees there may be terminal rental, monthly minimums, PCI compliance fees, chargeback fees and charges for faster settlement. To compare offers fairly, take a real month of your transactions with its mix of debit, credit, contactless and foreign cards, and ask each provider to price that exact month. A headline rate quoted on a slide rarely survives contact with a real card mix. - Interchange goes to the card-issuing bank - Interchange-plus pricing is more transparent than blended - Commercial and non-UK cards usually cost more - Price a real month of transactions when comparing #### Settlement and cash flow from cards Settlement is when card money actually lands in your bank account. Many acquirers settle the next working day; some offer same-day or faster settlement for a fee, and others hold funds longer, particularly for new businesses or those with a history of chargebacks. For a small venue, the difference between next-day and three-day settlement can matter a great deal on a Monday when the weekend’s takings are needed for a supplier payment. Read the agreement for reserves or rolling holds, where the acquirer keeps a percentage of takings as security against refunds and disputes. These are more common for businesses that take deposits for future events, such as wedding venues, because the acquirer carries the risk if the venue closes before the event happens. Reconcile settlements against the daily card batch: the deposit will be net of fees in some arrangements and gross with a monthly invoice in others, and the format changes how your bookkeeper matches the figures. Settlement delays around bank holidays catch many operators out, so plan payments around them. - Settlement is when money reaches your bank - Faster settlement may cost extra - Deposit-taking venues may face rolling reserves - Fees may be deducted daily or invoiced monthly #### Contactless, chip and PIN, and wallets Most card payments in UK hospitality are now contactless, from either a card or a phone or watch wallet. Physical contactless cards have a single-transaction limit, raised to 100 pounds in 2021, above which the terminal asks for chip and PIN. Card issuers also apply cumulative checks, so a card may occasionally ask for a PIN even below the limit. Mobile wallets authenticate the user on the device, typically by face, fingerprint or passcode, so the contactless limit does not apply in the same way and larger amounts can usually go through on a phone. For staff this produces a familiar moment at the end of a big dinner: the tap is declined and the card has to be inserted. Train teams to say calmly that the card needs inserting rather than implying a problem with the guest’s account. Keep terminals charged and within reach of the table so the change from tap to insert does not mean a walk back to the bar. Card readers that also accept wallets on watches should be held flat and close, which takes some guests a second attempt. - The UK contactless card limit has been 100 pounds since 2021 - Cumulative checks can trigger a PIN request below the limit - Mobile wallets authenticate on the device - Teach staff a calm script for insert prompts #### Pre-authorisation for tabs and deposits A pre-authorisation reserves an amount on a guest’s card without taking it. Bars use it to open tabs, hotels use it at check-in for incidentals, and some restaurants use it for no-show protection. When the bill is final, the venue completes the transaction for the actual amount, which may need to be within a tolerance of the authorised figure, or releases the hold. Holds expire after a period set by the card schemes and issuers, which varies by card type and merchant category, so a pre-auth taken on Friday may lapse before it is captured if it is left too long. Guests sometimes see the held amount as a pending charge and assume they were billed twice, which is worth explaining at the point of taking it. Pre-auths need to be closed properly at the end of the night: an abandoned tab with a lapsed hold can become uncollectable. Check whether your EPOS and card terminal handle top-ups to a pre-auth when a tab exceeds its limit, and set a house rule on when to top up rather than letting tabs drift. - A pre-auth reserves funds without charging - Holds expire, so capture promptly - Guests may see holds as pending charges - Close or release every pre-auth at end of night #### Chargebacks and disputes A chargeback happens when a cardholder disputes a transaction with their bank and the money is pulled back from the merchant. In hospitality the common causes are no-show and cancellation fees the guest did not expect, disputes over service charges, card-not-present deposits, alleged fraud on stolen cards, and duplicate charges from staff error. The acquirer will notify you and give a deadline to respond with evidence. Strong evidence includes the booking terms the guest accepted with a timestamp, confirmation emails, the itemised receipt, the signed or PIN-verified transaction record and any correspondence. Responding late usually means losing by default. To reduce chargebacks, make cancellation terms clear at booking and again in the confirmation, use a trading name on card statements that guests will recognise, avoid manual card-keyed transactions where possible because they carry more fraud risk, and refund promptly when you are in the wrong. Keep a simple log of chargebacks by reason, since a cluster around one booking channel or one type of event often points to a fixable process problem. - Chargebacks reverse a payment after a bank dispute - Missing the response deadline usually means losing - Booking terms with timestamps are strong evidence - A recognisable statement name reduces disputes #### Pay-at-table Pay-at-table means the guest settles the bill at the table rather than at the bar or by handing over a card. It can be done with a portable card terminal that pulls the bill from the till, with a handheld that combines ordering and payment, or with a QR code printed on the bill that opens a payment page on the guest’s phone. Each speeds up the end of the meal, which matters on a busy night when the slowest part of a table turn is often waiting for the bill and then waiting for change. Portable terminals keep the card in the guest’s sight, which is good practice and reassuring. QR payment lets guests split the bill themselves and add a tip without asking anyone, but some find it impersonal and it puts a phone on the table at the moment you want them to leave happy. Many venues offer both. Whatever you use, make sure the payment closes the bill on the till automatically; otherwise a manager spends the end of the night reconciling paid but open tables. - Portable terminals keep cards in the guest’s sight - QR payment allows self-splitting and tipping - Payment should close the bill on the till automatically - Slow bills often limit table turns more than kitchens #### Splitting bills without chaos Large tables increasingly want to split the bill several ways, by item, by seat or evenly. Done badly, it ties up a server and a terminal for ten minutes while the rest of the section waits. Most EPOS systems can split by equal shares, by seat if seat numbers were used at ordering, or by moving items between sub-bills. Integrated terminals then take each share in turn. QR pay-at-table tools let guests pay their own share from their phone, either by selecting their items or by paying a fraction. Practical tips: record seat numbers when ordering so splitting by seat is possible; ask early in the meal whether the table will want to split, especially for groups; set a house policy for very large groups, for instance a cap on the number of separate payments or a single bill for set menus; and make sure service charge is applied proportionally on each share. Be careful with shared items such as bottles of wine and sides, which are the usual sources of argument, and let the table decide rather than guessing. - Seat numbers make splitting by seat possible - Ask large tables early whether they will split - Apply service charge proportionally to each share - Shared bottles and sides cause most split disputes #### Cash handling in a card-first venue Many venues now take very little cash, and some have gone card-only. Card-only removes cash counting, safe drops, banking trips and a category of theft, but it excludes some guests, can look unwelcoming to older or cash-budgeting customers, and leaves the venue unable to trade if the card network or broadband fails. If you do take cash, keep the routine tight: a fixed float per till, counted and signed at the start and end of each shift, regular drops to the safe during busy periods so drawers never hold too much, and two people present for the final count. Cash tips need their own handling, recorded and paid out fairly under your tipping policy. Banking cash has become harder as branches close; many operators use a post office counter, a cash collection service or deposit machines. If you go card-only, say so clearly at the door and on the website, train staff to handle the occasional cash-only guest politely, and have a clear plan for outages that does not involve turning everyone away. - Card-only removes cash handling but excludes some guests - Use fixed, signed floats per till - Make regular safe drops during busy periods - Card-only venues need an outage plan #### Gift cards and vouchers Gift cards and vouchers bring cash in up front and pull guests in later, but they are a liability until redeemed and need careful handling. Paper vouchers are easy to forge and hard to track. Digital gift cards, sold online and redeemed via a code or QR on the till, can be tracked by balance, used in part, and reported on for outstanding liability. Points to settle with your accountant include when VAT is due, which depends on whether the voucher is single-purpose or multi-purpose, and how to account for unredeemed balances. Experience vouchers sold through third-party marketplaces are a separate case: the marketplace takes a commission and the guest may arrive expecting a set menu or room type you no longer offer, so keep the redemption terms and any blackout dates clear. Check expiry rules carefully, and avoid unnecessarily short expiry, which generates complaints and can attract consumer law scrutiny. Make sure the till can look up and redeem a voucher at speed so the end of a good meal is not spent hunting for a code. - Unredeemed vouchers are a liability on the books - VAT treatment depends on single or multi-purpose vouchers - Digital codes can be tracked and part-redeemed - Short expiry periods generate complaints #### Payment outages and fallback Card outages come from several sources: venue broadband failing, the payment provider having a problem, a card scheme incident, or a single terminal crashing. The response differs. If only your internet is down, a terminal with a mobile data SIM or a phone hotspot may keep trading. Some terminals can take offline payments and submit them later, but these carry a risk that a card is declined when finally processed, and providers usually cap offline value. If the provider itself is down, every terminal on that provider stops, which is an argument for a second provider on at least one device in larger venues. Write a one-page outage card for the bar that covers how to switch the router to backup, how to tether a terminal, when offline mode is allowed and up to what amount, whether to take cash, and the provider’s support number. Tell guests early that cards are down before they order, rather than after a three-course meal. Many experienced operators keep a modest cash float precisely for these nights. - Outages come from broadband, provider, scheme or device - Mobile data can keep terminals running - Offline payments risk later declines and are capped - A one-page outage card speeds up the response #### Digital receipts Digital receipts, sent by email or text, reduce paper rolls and provide a channel to the guest. Many terminals and EPOS systems offer them at the end of the payment, and guests who order via QR usually receive one automatically. The benefits are cost, less paper waste and an easier route to receipts for business guests claiming expenses. The trap is data protection. An email address collected to send a receipt is personal data; using it later for marketing needs a lawful basis, which in practice means the guest must have been told and, for most electronic marketing to individuals, given consent or at least a clear chance to opt out under the soft opt-in rules, depending on context. Do not quietly add receipt emails to a newsletter list. Keep a printed option for guests who prefer it, and make sure business guests can get a VAT receipt that shows your VAT number, the VAT charged and the date, which is what their finance team will ask for. Thermal paper receipts can be discarded in general waste in most areas but are hard to recycle. - A receipt email is personal data - Marketing to receipt emails needs a lawful basis - Keep printed receipts available - VAT receipts must show the VAT number and VAT charged #### Tips flowing through the payment system Most tips in UK venues now arrive on cards, either prompted on the terminal, added to the bill, or included in a service charge. The payment system must capture each tip separately from sales so it can be distributed and reported correctly. Integrated terminals usually send tip amounts back to the EPOS, linked to the server who took the payment, the table and the time. Standalone terminals often record tips only in the card batch, which then has to be matched manually. Under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, which came into force on 1 October 2024, employers must pass on all qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges to workers without deductions, distribute them fairly, have a written policy available to workers, and keep records for three years. Workers can request information about tips. A clean payment-to-tip data trail is therefore no longer optional. Check that your terminal, EPOS and any tronc or tip-distribution software agree on the totals, and investigate differences promptly rather than letting them accumulate into a dispute. - Tips must be recorded separately from sales - The tipping law came into force on 1 October 2024 - Employers must keep tip records for three years - Workers can request tip information - Reconcile terminal, till and tip-software totals #### Surcharging and minimum card spends Since January 2018, UK businesses have been banned from charging consumers a surcharge for paying by most types of card, including ordinary consumer debit and credit cards. You therefore cannot add a fee because a guest pays by card, and you should not imply that a card payment costs more. Minimum card spends, such as no card payments under five pounds, are not prohibited by surcharge rules in the same way, but they can run against card scheme rules that apply to your merchant agreement, and they are increasingly out of step with guest expectations, especially in contactless-heavy venues. For low-value sales such as a single espresso, the right response to card costs is usually to price sensibly and negotiate fees, not to put up barriers. If you take commercial cards, the surcharge position can differ, so check with your acquirer before charging anything. Any fee you charge must be clearly shown before purchase, and avoid confusing it with service charges, which are separate and discretionary unless clearly stated as mandatory. - UK card surcharges on consumer cards were banned in 2018 - Minimum spends can conflict with scheme rules - Commercial card rules can differ - Show any permitted fee before purchase #### Open banking and account-to-account payments Account-to-account payments let a guest pay directly from their bank account, usually by scanning a QR code or tapping a link that opens their banking app to approve the transfer. They use the UK’s open banking framework and Faster Payments rather than card networks, so fees can be lower and money often arrives quickly. Some hospitality businesses use them for deposits, event invoices, large group bookings and supplier payments, where card fees on big sums add up. At the table they remain less common than cards, because the flow takes a few more taps, and guests are used to the reassurance of card protections. Refunds and disputes also work differently from card chargebacks, which is worth explaining clearly to guests. If you use account-to-account payments, choose a regulated provider, make sure the payment reference links the money to the correct booking or invoice in your system, and reconcile them separately from your card batch. They are worth considering as an option for large deposits rather than a replacement for card terminals. - They use open banking rather than card networks - Fees can be lower for large sums - Useful for deposits and event invoices - Refund and dispute processes differ from cards #### Hotel and venue card-not-present payments Card-not-present transactions, where the card is not physically in front of you, cover deposits, online bookings, phone bookings, event invoices and no-show charges. They carry more fraud risk than in-person payments, and in the UK most online consumer payments now require strong customer authentication, typically a check in the cardholder’s banking app, under regulations derived from the second Payment Services Directive. Venues should take card-not-present payments through a secure payment link or booking engine rather than writing card numbers on paper or keying them into a terminal from a phone call. Card details written in a diary or emailed are a serious PCI DSS problem and a fraud risk. If you must take a payment by phone, use a provider’s virtual terminal that keeps the card number out of your own systems, and never record calls that capture card details unless the recording system is designed to pause or mask them. Tokenisation, where the provider stores the card and gives you a reference, lets you charge a no-show fee later without holding the card number yourself. - Card-not-present payments carry higher fraud risk - Online consumer payments usually need strong authentication - Never write card numbers on paper or in email - Tokenisation lets you charge later without storing cards #### Choosing a card provider for a small venue For a small café, bar or restaurant, the choice of card provider often comes down to three models. Aggregators offer simple sign-up, flat percentage fees, cheap terminals and no long contract, which suits low volumes and new businesses. Traditional acquirers usually offer lower rates at higher volumes but with contracts, terminal rental and more paperwork. EPOS-bundled payments come with the till and are integrated by default, trading flexibility for convenience. Questions to ask any provider: the full fee schedule including monthly charges, chargeback and refund fees; settlement speed; contract length and exit fees; how tips and pre-auths work; offline capability; support hours; and whether terminals work over mobile data. Keep an eye on your volume, since the cheapest model at launch may become the most expensive once you are turning over substantial card sales. Review fees each year against a fresh quote, and use your actual card mix rather than a sample. Switching takes effort, but a meaningful fee difference on a busy venue’s annual card volume can pay for a new terminal several times over. - Aggregators suit low volume and new venues - Traditional acquirers can be cheaper at volume - Bundled payments trade flexibility for convenience - Review fees yearly with your real card mix ### Order-at-table and QR #### Order-at-table by QR code QR ordering lets guests scan a code on the table, view the menu on their phone, order and usually pay without waiting for a server. It spread rapidly during the pandemic and has stayed in pubs, casual dining, beer gardens, stadiums and hotel lounges, where it reduces queues at the bar and lets small teams cover large spaces. Done well, it boosts average spend, because the menu is always in hand, photos and upsells are prompted, and a second round needs only a tap. Done badly, it feels like a vending machine and makes guests do the staff’s job. The best setups treat QR as one option alongside a human: staff still greet, explain how it works, check the table and take orders verbally from anyone who prefers. Each code must map to the right table number on the EPOS, otherwise runners wander the garden with a tray. Keep the menu on the QR page in sync with the till, so that an eighty-sixed dish disappears immediately rather than being ordered and refunded. - QR ordering suits pubs, gardens and high-volume spaces - Staff should still greet and offer verbal ordering - Each code must map to the correct table - Menu availability must sync with the till in real time #### Designing a phone menu that sells A menu on a phone is read differently from a printed one. Guests scroll a single column, see perhaps five items at a time, and rarely go back up. That changes the design rules. Put the categories most people want first, often drinks in a pub, and keep category names plain. Use photographs only if they are good and consistent; a poor photo sells less than none. Keep descriptions short, since long paragraphs push other dishes off the screen. Allergen and dietary information should be easy to filter or find, not buried in a footnote. Upsell prompts, such as adding a side or upgrading a spirit, work when they are relevant and quick to dismiss, and irritate when they appear at every tap. Make modifiers clear: cooking temperatures, sauce choices and removals should be obvious and forced where needed. Finally, test the page on an old phone over a weak mobile signal in the actual room, because a menu that loads instantly on office Wi-Fi may hang in a basement bar or a rural garden with one bar of reception. - Phone menus are read in a single column - Order categories by what guests want first - Only use photos if they are consistently good - Test on an old phone with weak signal in the room #### Allergens in digital ordering Digital menus do not remove a venue’s duty to give accurate allergen information. In the UK, food businesses must be able to tell customers about the fourteen major allergens present in their food, and for non-prepacked food this can be given in writing or orally, but where it is not written up front there must be a clear signpost telling guests how to get it. A QR menu can display allergen icons or filters, but it is only as good as the data entered, and a recipe change in the kitchen that is not reflected online is a serious risk. A good practice is to make allergen data part of the recipe record that feeds both the till and the menu, so one change updates everywhere. Digital ordering should also give guests a clear way to talk to a person about allergies, because a phone screen cannot answer questions about cross-contact or fryer sharing. Many venues add a note on the QR page asking guests with allergies to speak to staff before ordering, and flag allergy orders to the kitchen with a distinctive ticket marker. - UK rules cover fourteen major allergens - Digital menus must reflect current recipes - Give guests a clear route to speak to a person - Flag allergy orders distinctly on kitchen tickets #### Self-service kiosks Self-order kiosks are freestanding or wall-mounted screens where guests build and pay for their order. They are common in quick-service chains and appear in food halls, cinemas, stadiums and some casual dining. Their strengths are capacity at peak, consistent upselling, accurate orders with all modifiers captured, and multilingual menus. Their weaknesses are cost, a footprint that eats floor space, accessibility for people with visual impairments or limited reach, and an impersonal feel that does not suit every brand. Hygiene matters too: screens need frequent cleaning. Kiosks work best when the menu is highly modular, the pick-up process is clear, with order numbers on a screen and a defined collection point, and when staff are deployed to help rather than removed altogether. Put at least one kiosk at a height usable from a wheelchair and check how the interface works for people who cannot easily read the screen. If guests regularly ask staff to place orders on their behalf, the kiosk flow is too complicated and needs simplifying. - Kiosks add order capacity at peak times - They capture modifiers accurately and upsell consistently - Accessibility and floor space are real costs - Staff should help at kiosks, not disappear #### Mobile order-ahead and click and collect Order-ahead lets guests order and pay on a website or app before arriving, then collect at a set time. Coffee shops, bakeries, lunch counters and pubs with takeaway offers use it to flatten queues. The technology is simple; the operational design is the hard part. The kitchen or bar needs to see order-ahead tickets in the same queue as walk-ins, with a promised time, and the venue needs a way to throttle orders so that twenty people do not all order for 12:30. Most systems allow slot limits or adjustable lead times that a manager can lengthen during a rush. A clear collection point, ideally separate from the main queue, avoids the frustration of a guest who has paid queuing behind people who have not. Labels with the guest’s name and the time help staff hand over the right bag. Pause order-ahead during unexpected peaks rather than letting promised times slide, because a missed collection time annoys guests more than being told no. - Order-ahead orders should join the same kitchen queue - Slot limits stop everyone ordering for the same time - A separate collection point avoids double queuing - Pause order-ahead rather than miss promised times #### QR ordering and service charge QR ordering raises an awkward question about service charge and tipping. If the guest orders and pays on a phone, what service are they paying for? Many venues still add a discretionary service charge or prompt a tip on the payment page because runners, bartenders and kitchen staff still deliver the experience. Guests sometimes push back, particularly when they had to fetch their own cutlery. Be transparent. If a service charge is added automatically, make it visible before the final payment step and easy to remove, because it is discretionary. If you prompt for a tip, offer sensible preset options and a no-tip option without guilt-inducing wording. Since October 2024, UK employers have had a legal duty to pass on all tips, gratuities and service charges to workers without deductions, and to have a written policy on how they are distributed, so the money collected via QR must be traceable into your tip distribution. Check that the QR provider reports tips and service separately from sales, and that any fees taken on those payments are handled in line with the law and your policy. - Discretionary service charge must be easy to remove - Offer a clear no-tip option on prompts - UK tipping law took effect in October 2024 - QR tips must flow into your distribution records #### Hybrid service with QR and staff The most successful QR rollouts are hybrid. A host or server greets the table, explains that guests can order on their phone or with the team, and takes the first drinks order verbally to start the experience warmly. Later rounds come through the app. Staff use the time saved on order-taking to check back, clear, and sell specials in person. The till treats both routes identically, so tickets reach the bar and kitchen in the same format, and the floor manager can see all orders against each table. Hybrid service also protects against the failures of pure digital ordering: guests without a phone, low battery or weak signal, people who are not comfortable online, and groups who want advice. Measure the mix of orders by channel and by time; if digital orders drop off late in the evening, it may be that phones are dying or that guests prefer to chat. Avoid designing labour cuts around QR before seeing the real mix, because the staffing saving often turns out smaller than the uplift in spend and satisfaction. - Start with a human greeting and first order - Treat digital and verbal orders identically on the till - Measure the order mix by channel and time - Do not cut labour before seeing the real mix #### Room service and in-room ordering Hotels increasingly replace printed room-service menus with a QR code or a page on the guest’s TV or phone. The order flows to the hotel’s EPOS, where it is charged to the room via an integration with the property management system rather than paid by card. Key decisions include whether orders print in the main kitchen or a separate room-service station, how the system checks that the guest is genuinely registered to that room before posting a charge, and what happens to orders when the kitchen closes. Delivery times are critical; room service is judged on whether it arrives when promised and hot. Show a realistic time estimate at ordering and update it if the kitchen is busy. Breakfast pre-orders hung on the door the night before can now be taken digitally with time slots, which helps the kitchen plan. Check accessibility and language options, since hotel guests include many international visitors. Make sure in-room dining charges are clearly itemised on the folio, as unexpected tray charges and service fees are a common source of check-out disputes. - Room-service orders post to the room folio via the PMS - Verify guest registration before charging a room - Show realistic delivery times and update them - Itemise tray and service charges clearly #### Bar ordering apps in high-volume venues Large bars, clubs, festivals and stadiums use ordering apps to cut queues. Guests order and pay on their phones and collect from a pick-up point or get notified when the drink is ready. The challenge is throughput at the bar, not the app. Orders arrive in bursts at half-time or before the headline act, and a bar can drown in app orders while the walk-up queue grows. Successful operators dedicate one or more bartenders to app orders, display the order queue on a screen, batch similar drinks, and limit the menu on the app to quick builds. Some throttle orders by setting estimated wait times or temporarily closing ordering. Age verification remains the venue’s responsibility: if the app sells alcohol, staff must still check ID on collection where appropriate under the venue’s Challenge 21 or Challenge 25 policy. Make collection simple, with clear numbers on a screen, and keep cups ready so app orders do not wait for glassware. Measure average wait from order to collection; anything much beyond what a queue would take defeats the purpose. - Dedicate staff to app orders at peak - Limit app menus to fast builds - Age checks still happen at collection - Measure order-to-collection time #### Open-tab and pay-later digital ordering Some QR systems let guests open a tab on their phone, order several rounds, and pay once at the end, instead of paying per order. It mimics traditional table service and encourages extra rounds, since there is no friction at each order. It also introduces risks familiar from bar tabs: walkouts, abandoned tabs, and disputes over who ordered what in a group. Most systems mitigate this by taking a card at the start and pre-authorising an amount, then charging the final total. Decide whether one person in a group holds the tab or each guest can join it, and how splitting is handled at the end. Staff need visibility of open digital tabs on the till, with the time of the last order, so a manager can spot a large tab that has gone quiet. Set a rule to close tabs automatically at the end of trading with a notification to the guest, and make sure any automatic closing adds only the charges already agreed. Pay-later digital tabs suit table-service bars more than high-turnover venues. - Pay-later tabs encourage extra rounds - Pre-authorise a card when opening a digital tab - Make open digital tabs visible on the till - Auto-close tabs at end of trading with notification #### Tableside tablets and digital wine lists Some restaurants and wine bars offer the wine list on a tablet rather than a printed book. A digital list can carry tasting notes, producer stories, maps, food-pairing suggestions, filters by style and price, and accurate availability linked to the cellar inventory, so a guest never chooses a wine that ran out last week. It can also be updated daily without reprinting. The downsides are cost, device management, glare in candlelit rooms and the risk that the screen replaces the conversation with a sommelier, which is often the point of a serious wine programme. Many venues use the tablet as a tool for the sommelier rather than a substitute: the guest browses, then talks. Keep the interface simple, with a fast way to see by-the-glass options and price ranges, and avoid burying prices. Make sure the device locks to the wine list app so guests cannot wander into settings. Linking the tablet to stock helps with cellar control, as each bottle sold depletes inventory and flags reorders. - Digital lists show live availability - They can be updated without reprinting - Use the tablet to support, not replace, the sommelier - Lock devices to the wine list app #### Accessibility in digital ordering Under the Equality Act 2010, service providers must make reasonable adjustments so disabled people are not put at a substantial disadvantage. A venue that relies on QR ordering or kiosks needs to think about guests who are blind or partially sighted, those with motor impairments, guests with learning disabilities, those who do not own a smartphone and older guests less comfortable online. Practical steps: always offer ordering in person; choose menu software that works with phone screen readers, has adequate contrast and text that can be enlarged; avoid key information only in images; make QR codes large and placed where they can be scanned from a wheelchair; and ensure staff know to offer help without making it a fuss. Large-print or braille menus remain valuable, and a printed menu kept behind the bar costs little. Test your digital menu with the accessibility features on a phone, such as a screen reader and enlarged text, and fix what breaks. Accessibility improvements tend to make the experience smoother for everyone, not just the guests who need them most. - The Equality Act 2010 requires reasonable adjustments - Always offer ordering in person - Menus should work with phone screen readers - Place QR codes within reach of wheelchair users - Keep a printed menu available ### Kitchen display systems #### What a kitchen display system replaces A kitchen display system, or KDS, replaces printed tickets with screens at each station. Orders arrive from the till, the kiosk, the QR menu and the delivery tablets in one queue, each with a timer counting how long it has been waiting. Cooks bump an item or ticket when it is done, and the expeditor screen at the pass shows which tables are complete and ready to go. The appeal is partly practical: no paper rolls, no tickets lost in the grill smoke or stuck to a wet rail, no unreadable handwriting on modifications. The bigger gain is data. Because every item is timestamped when it arrives and when it is bumped, the kitchen can see real ticket times by station, dish and hour, which is impossible with paper. It is not right for every kitchen. Very small kitchens with one cook and a printer may gain little, and chefs who rely on a physical rail to visualise the board can find screens harder to read at a glance. A KDS works best when the kitchen design, station split and menu are clear before the screens arrive. - KDS screens replace printed tickets - Every item is timestamped on arrival and bump - All order channels can land in one queue - Small single-cook kitchens may gain little #### Laying out KDS screens by station The value of a kitchen display depends on how orders are split between screens. A typical layout has station screens, such as grill, fryer, cold and pastry, that show only the items each station makes, and an expeditor screen at the pass that shows the whole ticket and which parts are complete. Some kitchens add a summary or all-day view that totals how many of each item are currently in progress, for example eleven burgers and six fish, which helps a grill cook batch. Mount screens at eye level, away from direct heat, steam and splash, and choose units rated for kitchen environments. Bump bars, which are rugged keypads, often outlast touchscreens operated with greasy fingers. Set colour thresholds that suit your menu: a ticket might turn amber at a set number of minutes and red later, but those numbers should come from your own realistic cook times, not a default. Avoid cluttering screens with long descriptions; show item, modifiers and allergy flags in large type, with table number and course clear. Walk through a busy service on paper first before finalising which items go where. - Station screens show only that station’s items - An expo screen shows full ticket status - All-day counts help cooks batch - Bump bars survive kitchens better than touchscreens - Set colour timers from real cook times #### Course pacing on a kitchen display Pacing courses is where a kitchen display can help or hurt most. Many systems hold mains on screen as greyed-out or hidden items until the server fires the course, or until the expeditor releases them. Others use timing rules: starters and mains are both sent, but mains only appear on the grill screen a set time after the starters are bumped. Some can calculate cook times per item and stagger the start so that a well-done steak and a quick fish finish together. These features are powerful but need careful set-up and a kitchen that trusts them. If timings are wrong, dishes appear too early or too late and cooks quickly learn to ignore the screen. Start simple, with manual course firing, then introduce automation once the team understands how tickets behave. Keep the expeditor in control of the pass. The screen is a tool for the person running the pass, not a replacement for them, and on busy nights the human call of hold on table twelve still matters more than any algorithm. - Mains can be held until a course is fired - Some systems stagger start times by cook time - Wrong timings teach cooks to ignore the screen - Start with manual firing before automation #### Allergy flags on kitchen tickets However orders arrive, allergies must reach the cook who makes the dish in a form that cannot be missed. On printed tickets that often means a dedicated allergy modifier that prints in red or in a box, or a separate allergy ticket. On a kitchen display it means a distinctive colour, an icon, a banner or a sound. The safest systems make an allergy modifier impossible to miss and impossible to bump without acknowledgement. The till and QR menu should capture which allergen, not just the word allergy, and ideally which guest, by seat number. Servers must still tell the kitchen directly; a display is a backstop, not a replacement for conversation. The kitchen process matters even more than the screen: separate boards and utensils, clean surfaces, checking compound ingredients, and the chef or a senior cook signing off the plate. Train every new starter on what an allergy flag looks like on your system, and test it periodically with a dummy order so that changes to the menu or software have not silently broken the flag. - Allergy flags must be distinctive and unmissable - Record which allergen and which seat - Displays back up, but do not replace, verbal communication - Test allergy flags with dummy orders #### KDS ticket-time data The data from a kitchen display is often more valuable than the screens. Average ticket times by hour, station and dish show where the kitchen struggles. A grill station that averages much longer than others on Friday evenings may need a second cook, a simpler garnish or a change to the menu. Dishes with consistently long times can be re-engineered or given prep changes. Comparing ticket times against covers shows how capacity behaves under load: many kitchens hold steady up to a point and then slow sharply, which tells the front of house how many covers to book in each slot. Be careful how you use the figures. Timestamps measure from order arrival to bump, and cooks sometimes bump early to clear the screen or late because they forgot, so look at broad patterns rather than individual tickets. Never use ticket times as a crude performance stick against individuals; use them to fix systems, menus and staffing. Share the data with the kitchen, because chefs who see it tend to start using it themselves. - Ticket times by station reveal bottlenecks - Capacity often drops sharply past a threshold - Bump habits distort individual timings - Use data to fix systems, not blame individuals #### Delivery and takeaway orders on the KDS When delivery platforms, click and collect and dine-in orders all hit the same kitchen, a display system can bring them into one queue rather than separate tablets and printers. That matters because the kitchen can then see true load and plan accordingly. Delivery tickets usually need different handling: packaging, sauces in pots, cutlery and a promised collection time when a rider will arrive. Many displays mark channel by colour or label and show the rider’s expected arrival. Orders for delivery should be timed so food finishes just as the rider arrives; finishing too early means soggy chips, too late means a rider waiting and a lower platform rating. Platforms increasingly provide rider tracking, which some integrations pass to the display. If delivery tablets are not integrated, staff must re-key orders into the till, which causes errors and delays; integration middleware can solve that. Watch the impact on dine-in service: a surge of delivery orders can slow tickets for guests already seated, so many kitchens set a cap or pause delivery when the room is full. - One queue shows the kitchen its true load - Delivery tickets need packaging and timing cues - Re-keying from tablets causes errors - Pause delivery when dine-in service is under pressure #### Digital menus on kitchen screens and recipe cards Kitchen displays can show more than tickets. Some systems can display a recipe card or plating photo when a cook taps an item, which helps new starters and keeps presentation consistent across shifts and sites. This is especially useful in multi-site groups and in kitchens with frequent menu changes. The recipe card should match the costed recipe used in stock control, with the same portion weights, so that what the cook plates is what the menu was costed on. Keep cards short: components, weights, plating order and a single clear photo. Put allergen information on the card too, linked to the master record. A shared recipe library also helps when a dish is updated, because the change appears on the screen immediately rather than relying on printed sheets taped to the wall. The risk is that cooks rely on the screen rather than learning the dish; use it as a training aid and a reference, not a crutch, and have the head chef or sous sign off new dishes in person before they go live. - Recipe cards on screens help new starters - Cards should match costed portion weights - Updates appear instantly across sites - Use cards as training aids, not crutches #### Kitchen printers versus screens in a hybrid setup Many kitchens run a hybrid: screens on the main line with printers at secondary stations such as pastry or the bar, or a printer at the pass for a physical copy that travels with the plates. Others keep printers as a backup that can be switched on if screens fail. A hybrid can combine the best of both: data and timers from screens, with paper for portability. The risk is confusion, with tickets bumped on one system but not the other, so define clearly which is the master record. Some chefs like a printed chit that goes on the plate rail as the dish leaves, giving runners a table number and seat positions. Others want everything on screen. Whatever you choose, make sure a failure of one route is visible immediately: a screen that silently stops receiving orders is worse than a printer that runs out of paper, because the printer at least goes quiet in an obvious way. Test failover regularly, and train staff to notice when orders stop arriving unexpectedly during service. - Hybrid setups combine screens and printers - Define which is the master record - Printed chits can travel with plates - Silent screen failures are dangerous; test failover #### Ticket rails, screens and expediting culture Technology changes how a pass works, but the expeditor role remains central. On paper, the head chef or sous reads tickets aloud, calls away courses, and arranges tickets on the rail in order; the physical arrangement is itself a planning tool. On screens, the same person watches the expo view, coordinates stations and calls the pass. Some chefs adapt quickly and appreciate the clarity; others find it harder to see the shape of service on a screen than on a rail. A good transition keeps the calls: the expeditor still says the order out loud, cooks still respond, and communication remains human. Screens should support, not silence, the conversation. Train cooks to bump only when the dish actually leaves their station, not when they start it, so the data and the expo view remain accurate. Agree in advance who can recall a bumped ticket and how, because mis-bumps are inevitable at peak. After the first few weeks, ask the brigade what to change; small tweaks to layout and timing make a large difference to acceptance. - The expeditor role stays central with screens - Keep verbal calls alongside displays - Bump only when the dish leaves the station - Agree how to recall mis-bumped tickets #### Kitchen display hardware and environment Kitchen screens face heat, steam, grease, cleaning chemicals and knocks. Consumer tablets and TVs fail quickly in that environment. Look for screens with suitable ingress protection ratings for splash and dust, fanless designs that do not suck in grease, and mounts that keep them away from direct heat sources such as salamanders and fryers. Bump bars are often more reliable than touch, particularly for cooks wearing gloves or with wet hands. Screens should be bright enough for the lighting and readable from the cook’s normal working position; large fonts help. Consider cabling routes, power and network, ideally with wired connections for reliability, since Wi-Fi in kitchens suffers interference from stainless steel and equipment. Cleaning routines should include screens, using products that will not damage coatings. Keep spare units, or at least know the provider’s replacement time, and have printers available as a fallback. A dead screen at the start of Friday service needs a procedure, not improvisation. - Choose screens rated against splash and dust - Fanless designs avoid drawing in grease - Bump bars suit gloved or wet hands - Wired connections beat kitchen Wi-Fi ### Reservations and table management #### Reservations systems and the book The reservations book used to be a paper diary on the host stand. Digital reservation systems now take bookings from a website widget, social media, phone, email and third-party platforms into one diary, and send confirmations, reminders and requests for feedback automatically. Their core value is controlling how the room fills. A good system lets you define services, such as lunch and dinner, with opening times, slot lengths, maximum covers per slot, table combinations and turn times by party size. It holds guest notes, such as allergies, regulars and special occasions, and can flag returning guests. The weak point is usually configuration. If turn times are set too short, the kitchen is flooded at 7:30; if too long, the room sits half-empty. If table combinations are not set up, a party of six cannot be booked even though two fours could be pushed together. Treat the set-up as a joint job between the general manager and the head chef, and review it after a few weeks of real service rather than leaving defaults in place. - Digital diaries pull bookings from all channels - Turn times and slot limits control flow - Table combinations must be configured - Review set-up with the head chef after real service #### Pacing covers to protect the kitchen Selling every table at 7:30 is the classic way to break a kitchen. Reservation systems let you pace the room by limiting covers that can start in each slot, typically every fifteen minutes. A kitchen that can comfortably handle, say, twenty new covers in a quarter-hour should never be sent forty, even if there are tables free. Pacing is set by slot and can differ by day, with tighter limits on nights when the kitchen is short-staffed. Walk-ins should count against the same pacing, which means hosts need to see the live picture and sometimes ask walk-ins to wait for a drink at the bar. Large parties need special treatment, because a table of twelve all ordering at once hits the kitchen like several smaller tables; many venues require pre-orders or set menus above a certain size. Good pacing produces smoother service, faster ticket times and better reviews, often with no loss of covers, because tables turn more reliably. Review pacing against kitchen ticket times, and adjust when the menu changes. - Limit new covers per fifteen-minute slot - Walk-ins should count against pacing - Large parties may need pre-orders or set menus - Review pacing against kitchen ticket times #### Turn times and table durations Turn time is how long a booking is expected to occupy a table. Reservation systems use it to decide when the table can be sold again. Set it by party size and service, because a couple at lunch might take an hour, a four at dinner might take two, and a celebration of eight might take longer still. Get the numbers from your EPOS: the time between the bill opening and closing, averaged by party size, is a good start, plus a few minutes to reset the table. Being too optimistic means the next booking arrives to find their table still occupied, which forces awkward conversations. Being too cautious leaves tables empty. Some venues state a table time to guests at booking, such as two hours for tables of four, which helps manage expectations, but it must be communicated politely and enforced gently. If you state it, honour it on both sides: do not rush people out early, and have a plan, perhaps the bar, when a party overruns. Review turn times seasonally, since summer terraces and winter dining rooms behave differently. - Set turn times by party size and service - Use EPOS bill-open to bill-close times as a basis - Allow reset time between bookings - Stated table times need polite enforcement #### No-shows, deposits and card guarantees No-shows hurt small restaurants badly, particularly on busy nights and for large tables. Reservation systems offer several defences. Reminders by email and text, sent a day or a few hours ahead with a simple confirm or cancel link, reduce no-shows significantly because many people simply forget. Card guarantees store a card at booking via a secure payment provider and charge a stated fee per cover if the guest does not show or cancels late. Deposits take money up front and deduct it from the bill. Prepayment, often used for tasting menus and set events, takes the full price at booking. Each step adds friction and may deter some guests, so match the level to the risk: card guarantees for large tables and peak nights, deposits for special events, nothing for a quiet Tuesday lunch. Make terms clear at booking and in the confirmation, including the cancellation window and fee. Apply them consistently but with judgement; charging a regular whose car broke down will cost more in goodwill than the fee recovers. Never store card numbers yourself; use the provider’s tokenisation. - Reminders with confirm links reduce no-shows - Card guarantees charge only on no-show - Match deposit level to risk - State terms at booking and in confirmations - Use tokenised cards, never stored numbers #### Waitlists and walk-in management Many venues keep a share of tables for walk-ins, and busy places run waitlists. A digital waitlist takes the guest’s name and mobile number, quotes a wait time, and texts them when their table is ready, so they can wait at the bar or nearby rather than crowding the door. The quote is the hard part. Systems estimate from current tables and their stage of service, but hosts know the room better; experienced hosts quote slightly long and deliver early. A digital waitlist feeds the same floor plan as reservations, so the host can see which tables are due to free and plan combinations. Holding tables for walk-ins needs discipline: decide how many tables are kept back on each service and stick to it, rather than giving them to the first person who phones. Collecting a phone number to text a guest is personal data; use it for that purpose and do not add it to marketing lists without consent. A waitlist that works well turns a long queue into bar sales instead of lost guests. - Waitlists text guests when tables are ready - Quote slightly long and deliver early - Decide how many tables are held for walk-ins - Waitlist phone numbers are personal data #### Third-party booking platforms Restaurant booking platforms and discovery apps can bring new guests, particularly for venues without a strong following, and many reservation systems are themselves platforms with a consumer-facing marketplace. The commercial models vary: subscription fees, per-cover fees for bookings made through the marketplace, promotional fees for featured placement and discounts funded by the venue. Read the contract carefully for who owns the guest data, whether you can contact guests directly afterwards, what fees apply for bookings made through your own website widget versus the marketplace, and whether discounts you offer on the platform must be matched elsewhere. Platform discount offers can fill quiet sessions but can also train guests to expect a deal and attract people who will not return at full price. Keep your own website booking as the default and most prominent route, so that loyal guests do not pay you a commission by accident. Check the platform data regularly: if most covers come through the marketplace, you may be dependent on it, and that is a risk. - Platform fees can be per cover or subscription - Check who owns and can contact guest data - Discount offers can attract one-off bargain hunters - Make your own website booking the default route #### Guest notes and profiles in the booking system The guest profile is where a reservation system becomes a hospitality tool. Notes on allergies, seating preferences, past visits, favourite wines, anniversaries and accessibility needs let the team greet regulars by name and avoid repeating mistakes. Tags such as VIP, regular, press or complainer help hosts brief the team at the pre-shift meeting. Keep notes factual and professional, since UK data protection law gives individuals the right to request a copy of personal data you hold about them, and a note calling a guest difficult may be read by that guest. Health information, such as allergies or medical conditions, is special category data and needs particular care: record it only for the purpose of serving the guest safely, restrict who can see it, and do not use it for marketing. Train staff on what belongs in notes and what does not. Review profiles periodically and delete data you no longer need. Used well, profiles make service personal; used carelessly, they create risk and embarrassment. - Notes help greet regulars and avoid repeated mistakes - Guests can request their data, including notes - Allergy and health notes are special category data - Keep notes factual and professional #### Private dining and event bookings Private dining rooms and events sit awkwardly in many reservation systems, which are built for individual tables. Events need deposits, contracts, minimum spends, menus chosen in advance, dietary lists, room hire fees, timings for arrival, speeches and cake, and sometimes audiovisual kit. Some reservation systems include an events module; others need a separate event-management tool or a well-run spreadsheet linked to the diary. Whatever the tool, the essentials are the same: one record per event holding the agreed terms, payment schedule, final numbers deadline and a function sheet that goes to the kitchen and floor team a few days before. Block the room or tables in the main diary so they cannot be double sold. Take deposits through a payment link rather than collecting card numbers by phone. Confirm final numbers and dietary requirements in writing, and decide how you will charge if fewer guests arrive than agreed, since minimum spends and per-head guarantees are frequent sources of dispute if not written down clearly at booking. - Events need contracts, deposits and function sheets - Block event space in the main diary - Take deposits through payment links - Write minimum spend terms clearly at booking #### Floor plans and table combinations The digital floor plan in a reservation system should mirror the real room: every table with its number, capacity range, area and possible combinations. Capacity ranges matter. A four-top might seat two to four comfortably and five at a push; the system needs to know so it does not seat a couple at a six-top during peak. Combinations allow two tables to be joined for a larger party, but only those physically adjacent and with matching heights should be linked. Areas, such as window, terrace, bar or booth, allow guests to state a preference and help the host balance sections between servers. Some systems auto-assign tables to maximise covers; this works well for busy venues with many similar tables but can make odd choices, such as placing a couple by the kitchen door when the room is half-empty. Hosts should be able to override easily. Update the plan whenever furniture moves, including seasonal terraces, otherwise the system will sell tables that no longer exist or forget ones that do. - Set minimum and maximum capacity per table - Only link tables that physically join - Areas help guests and balance sections - Update the plan when furniture moves #### Reservation reporting that matters Reservation systems produce plenty of reports; a few are worth reading every week. Covers by source shows where bookings come from: your website, phone, a marketplace, social media, walk-in. No-show and late cancellation rates by day and source show where guarantees or reminders are needed. Lead time, how far ahead people book, tells you when to promote; if most bookings arrive within a few days, a campaign a month out will do little. Booking density by slot shows whether pacing is working or whether everyone still wants 7:30. Repeat guest rates show loyalty. Party-size mix helps plan table layouts. Combine reservation data with EPOS data to see spend per head by source, which can reveal that guests from a discount platform spend far less than direct bookers. Beware of reports that only count bookings, not covers, or that exclude walk-ins, as they can mislead. Keep it simple: a short weekly review of the same few figures will teach you more than an occasional dive into dozens of reports. - Covers by source reveals channel dependence - No-show rates show where guarantees help - Lead time guides when to promote - Combine with EPOS to see spend by source #### Restaurant reservations inside hotels Hotel restaurants serve two audiences: residents and outside guests. The reservation system should show which bookings are residents, link to their room, and ideally pull in notes such as allergies from the PMS profile. Residents may have dinner included in a package, so the restaurant must know the allowance and how to treat extras. Breakfast is often the busiest and least booked service; some hotels now offer breakfast time slots to smooth peaks, especially at weekends, which can be booked during check-in or online. Room service and in-room dining sit alongside. Shared data between PMS and reservations helps the restaurant prepare, for example by knowing that eighty guests are in house tonight with a large group arriving late. Outside guests need a separate, appealing booking route that does not make them feel like an afterthought. Report residents and non-residents separately, because a restaurant that depends on residents behaves differently from one with a strong local trade, and knowing the mix guides marketing, staffing and menu decisions. - Mark resident bookings and link them to rooms - Packages include dinner allowances to track - Breakfast slots smooth peak demand - Report resident and outside covers separately #### Booking widgets and website performance The booking widget on a restaurant’s website is often the busiest page on the site. It should load quickly on a phone, show availability clearly, and complete a booking in very few steps. Third-party widgets are usually embedded via an iframe or script, which can slow the page and sometimes conflicts with cookie banners or ad blockers. Test the booking journey regularly on a phone, as a guest would, including with a cookie banner declined, because some widgets fail to load when tracking cookies are refused. Put the booking button at the top of every page, not only on a reservations page, and make sure the phone number is clickable. If the widget redirects to the provider’s own site, check that the branding is consistent and that guests are not offered other restaurants on the way. Measure the conversion rate from visits to bookings if the provider allows tracking. Analytics on the booking widget need consent under UK cookie rules if they use non-essential cookies, so set them up through your consent tool rather than hard-coding tracking. - Booking widgets must load fast on phones - Test bookings with cookies declined - Put booking buttons on every page - Analytics in widgets need cookie consent #### Ticketed dining and prepaid reservations Ticketed dining sells a reservation like a concert ticket: the guest pays in advance for a set menu or experience. It is common for tasting menus, supper clubs, chef’s tables and events. The benefits are strong: no-shows become rare, cash flow improves, the kitchen knows exactly how many covers to prepare, and pricing can vary by day, with lower prices on quiet nights and higher prices at peak. The challenges are guest flexibility and refunds. Clear terms on transfers, cancellations and dietary requirements are essential, and dietary needs must be captured at booking so the kitchen can plan. Drinks and extras are usually paid on the night, so the EPOS must recognise that the food is already paid and charge only extras. Service charge may be included or added on the night; be clear which, and ensure it flows into tip distribution under your policy. Ticketing works best for strong, distinctive experiences; for everyday dining, it can feel like an unnecessary barrier. - Prepaid tickets nearly eliminate no-shows - Prices can vary by day and demand - Capture dietary needs at booking - The till must charge only extras on the night #### Choosing a reservation system Choosing a reservation system is partly about features and largely about fit. Start with your service style: high-volume casual dining needs strong pacing, waitlists and turn-time management; fine dining needs detailed guest notes, deposits and ticketing; pubs need simple booking for tables and areas plus walk-ins; venues with events need private dining tools. Then consider integrations: does it link to your EPOS to pull spend into guest profiles, to your website and social channels, to your email marketing and to any marketplace you want to use? Look at costs: monthly subscription, per-cover fees, marketplace fees and payment fees for deposits. Check who owns the guest data and whether you can export it in full if you leave. Ask about support and training, and about how easily your team can run the host stand on a busy night. A trial with real bookings is better than a demo. Speak to similar venues already using it. Remember that the best system is one your team actually uses consistently; a feature-rich system that hosts bypass with paper notes gains you nothing. - Match the system to your service style - Check EPOS and marketing integrations - Compare subscription, per-cover and payment fees - Confirm you can export all guest data #### Pre-orders for large parties Large parties can overwhelm a kitchen if they order on arrival. Pre-ordering, where the organiser submits choices a few days ahead, lets the kitchen plan, prep and fire efficiently. Many reservation systems and event tools now send a digital pre-order form linked to the booking, which collects each guest’s choice and dietary needs and returns a summary to the venue. The pre-order should be loaded onto the till as a held order, ready to fire, with seat numbers or names so runners can place dishes correctly. Place cards or a simple seating plan help match guests to orders on the night. Pre-order forms should collect allergy information with care: ask about all fourteen major allergens and invite guests to speak to staff, rather than relying on a tick box. Set a deadline for pre-orders and a rule for those who miss it, such as a default dish or ordering on the night from a limited menu. The kitchen benefits most when pre-orders arrive early enough to adjust ordering from suppliers. - Pre-orders let kitchens plan for large parties - Load pre-orders as held orders with seat numbers - Collect allergy details carefully, then confirm in person - Set a pre-order deadline and a fallback #### Revenue metrics for restaurants Hotels have revenue per available room; restaurants have equivalent measures that combine booking and EPOS data. Revenue per available seat hour, often abbreviated RevPASH, divides revenue by the number of seats available in each hour of trading, showing how well space and time are used. Covers per seat per service shows how many times each seat turns. Spend per head shows what each guest pays on average, ideally split into food and drink. Together they reveal different problems. A full room with low spend per head may need menu or upselling changes; a high spend but low turnover may mean tables linger and pacing needs adjustment; a quiet slot with low revenue per seat hour may suit a targeted offer. Reservation systems and EPOS data need to be combined, often in a spreadsheet or reporting tool, to calculate these reliably. Use them to compare periods and decisions, such as the effect of a new set lunch on revenue per seat hour, rather than as abstract targets, and always check against the guest experience. - RevPASH means revenue per available seat hour - Covers per seat shows table turns - Split spend per head into food and drink - Use metrics to compare decisions over time #### Event ticketing systems for venues Pubs, bars and restaurants increasingly run ticketed events: quizzes, tasting evenings, supper clubs, live music and seasonal parties. Event ticketing platforms handle sales, payment, capacity, waitlists and attendee communication, usually for a per-ticket fee charged to the venue or buyer. Choose a platform that integrates with your website, provides clear reporting and lets you export attendee data with consent. Consider whether to absorb fees or pass them on; under UK consumer rules, mandatory fees must be included in the advertised price rather than added late in the booking process. Set clear refund and transfer policies. Capture dietary requirements for events with food. Scan tickets on arrival with a phone app or check names against a list. Check that capacity respects fire safety limits and licensing conditions. Some EPOS and reservation systems include event ticketing modules, which keep data in one place. After the event, survey attendees and use the list, with consent, to promote future events. Track profitability per event, including staff, food, performer fees and ticketing costs. - Mandatory fees must be in the advertised price - Capture dietary requirements at booking - Respect fire safety and licensing capacity - Track profitability per event ### Hotel PMS and channel managers #### What a hotel PMS does A property management system, or PMS, is the operational core of a hotel. It holds the room inventory, room types and rates, reservations, guest profiles, check-in and check-out, room status for housekeeping, folios that collect charges during the stay, and night audit. Other systems connect to it: the channel manager for online distribution, the booking engine on the hotel’s website, the restaurant EPOS for posting charges to rooms, door locks for key cards, payment providers, and revenue management tools. The PMS is the source of truth for who is in which room and what they owe. Front desk teams spend much of their shift in it, so its usability matters for guest experience as well as accuracy. Cloud PMS products have grown fast, offering remote access, simpler integrations and lower upfront costs, while older on-premises systems still run many larger hotels. Whichever you use, data quality underpins everything: incorrect room types, duplicate profiles and charges posted to the wrong folio cause check-out disputes, overbookings and revenue leakage. - The PMS holds rooms, rates, bookings and folios - Most hotel systems integrate through the PMS - Cloud PMS products have grown rapidly - Data errors lead to disputes and overbookings #### Room status and housekeeping in the PMS Room status links the front desk and housekeeping. A room might be occupied, vacant dirty, vacant clean, inspected, out of order or out of service. Front desk can only allocate rooms that are clean and inspected, so the speed at which housekeeping updates status directly affects how quickly arriving guests get rooms. Traditionally, room attendants phoned or radioed updates, or the housekeeper updated a printed sheet. Modern systems let attendants update status from a phone or tablet, sometimes from the room telephone with a code, and supervisors mark rooms inspected. Housekeeping modules also assign rooms to attendants, balance workloads by room type and stayover or departure, and record maintenance issues for engineering. Out of order rooms should be removed from sellable inventory, which flows to the channel manager. Common problems include rooms left marked dirty after cleaning, causing unnecessary waits, and guests checked into rooms marked clean that were not. Regular discrepancy checks, where the front desk status is compared with a physical walk round, catch drift before it causes complaints. - Front desk allocates only clean, inspected rooms - Mobile updates speed up room release - Out of order rooms leave sellable inventory - Run regular discrepancy checks against reality #### Night audit Night audit closes the hotel’s business day. Traditionally run by a night auditor in the small hours, it posts room and tax charges to each in-house guest’s folio, checks that all outlets have posted their charges, reconciles payments, deals with no-shows, rolls the system date forward and produces the daily reports that management reads in the morning. In older systems the audit was a manual sequence of steps; many modern PMS products automate much of it, but someone still needs to check exceptions. Typical exceptions include guests whose rooms are occupied but have no rate, charges posted to the wrong room, unbalanced folios, unpaid accounts for departed guests, and no-show reservations awaiting a charge decision. The morning reports, often including occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room, as well as forecasts, are the basis for the day’s pricing decisions. Even with automation, a short daily exception check by a trained person catches mistakes before they reach the guest at check-out, where they are far harder to correct gracefully. - Night audit posts room charges and rolls the date - Exceptions still need human review - Morning reports drive pricing decisions - Catch folio errors before check-out #### Folios and posting charges to rooms A folio is the running account for a guest’s stay. Room charges post automatically each night; restaurant, bar, spa, minibar, laundry and parking charges post from their own systems or are entered by staff. Interfaces between the restaurant EPOS and the PMS let a server charge a bill to a room by selecting it and checking the guest’s name, which avoids paperwork and missed charges. To prevent fraud and mistakes, the system should verify that the room is occupied and that the guest has charging privileges; some guests, such as those on prepaid or company-paid stays, should be blocked from charging extras. Many hotels ask guests to sign or show a key card. Group bookings often use routing instructions: room and breakfast to the company’s master account, extras to the guest’s own folio. Getting routing wrong is a common cause of check-out disputes and unpaid invoices. At check-out, guests should receive a clear itemised folio, and corrections should be logged with reasons, not deleted, so that audit trails stay intact. - The folio is the running account of a stay - EPOS interfaces post restaurant bills to rooms - Verify room and charging privileges before posting - Routing splits charges between master and guest folios #### Online check-in and digital keys Online check-in lets guests submit details, preferences and payment before arrival, often via a link in the pre-arrival email. On arrival, they may only need to collect a key, or use a mobile key in an app that unlocks the room door via Bluetooth. This shortens queues and frees front desk teams for welcome and problem-solving. It also introduces requirements. Door-lock systems must support mobile keys, the PMS must integrate with both the lock system and the check-in platform, and guests need a fallback such as a physical key. Identity and payment checks still need to be done properly, including any registration information the hotel must keep. In the UK, hotels must keep a record of overseas guests aged 16 or over, including nationality and passport details, under the Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972; check-in systems must still capture this. Some guests value a human welcome, so offering self-service as a choice rather than a requirement tends to work better. Watch for accessibility needs that online flows miss, and invite guests to tell you about them. - Online check-in captures details before arrival - Mobile keys need compatible door locks - UK hotels must record overseas guests’ passport details - Offer self-service as a choice, not a requirement #### Channel managers explained A channel manager connects a hotel’s room inventory and rates to online travel agents, global distribution systems used by travel agents and corporate bookers, metasearch and the hotel’s own booking engine. When a room sells on one channel, the channel manager updates availability on all others so the same room is not sold twice. It also pushes rate changes and restrictions, such as minimum length of stay or closed to arrival, out to every connected channel. Without one, staff update each extranet by hand, which is slow, error-prone and risks overbooking. A two-way integration with the PMS is essential: bookings flow from channels into the PMS automatically, and inventory flows back out. Common issues include mapping errors where a room type on one channel is linked to the wrong type in the PMS, rate plans that do not match, and delays in updates that open a window for overbooking. Audit mappings when you add room types or rate plans, and periodically spot-check a few channels against the PMS to catch drift before guests arrive for rooms that were never available. - Channel managers sync inventory across channels - They push rates and restrictions to all channels - Two-way PMS integration is essential - Mapping errors cause overbookings #### Online travel agents and commission Online travel agents bring hotels visibility to large numbers of travellers, often internationally, in return for commission on each booking. Commission levels vary by agreement, market and visibility programmes, and they represent a significant cost of sale. The common models are agency, where the guest pays the hotel and the hotel pays commission, and merchant, where the agent collects payment and pays the hotel net. Hotels balance agent bookings against direct bookings through their own website, which carry lower distribution cost but require marketing spend and a good booking engine. Strategies to increase direct bookings include member rates, value-adds such as breakfast or late check-out, a fast mobile booking engine and attention to metasearch. Contracts historically included rate parity clauses requiring hotels not to undercut agents; these have been challenged by competition authorities in several countries, and the UK and EU position has shifted, so check current terms rather than assuming. Track net revenue per booking by channel, after commission and payment costs, rather than gross rate alone. - Agents charge commission on each booking - Agency and merchant models handle payment differently - Rate parity clauses have been challenged by regulators - Compare channels on net revenue per booking #### Hotel booking engines The booking engine is the part of a hotel’s website where guests choose dates, rooms and rates and pay or guarantee. Because direct bookings avoid agent commission, a good engine earns its keep. It should load quickly on phones, show prices including taxes clearly, display room photos and sizes, offer the same or better rates than agents, and take payment securely with strong customer authentication. Rate plans, such as flexible, non-refundable and packages with breakfast or dinner, should be easy to compare. Upsells, such as room upgrades, parking or a bottle on arrival, can add revenue if they are relevant. Connection to the channel manager or PMS keeps availability accurate. Track conversion: how many visitors to the booking engine actually book, and where they drop out. A long form, surprise fees at the last step or a slow payment page all cost bookings. Many hotels also use a price-comparison widget on their own site that shows agent prices alongside the direct rate, to reassure guests that booking direct is not more expensive. - Direct bookings avoid agent commission - Show prices including taxes clearly - Track conversion and drop-out points - Surprise fees at checkout lose bookings #### Revenue management systems Revenue management systems recommend or set room rates based on demand forecasts, booking pace, competitor prices, events and historical patterns. Their purpose is to sell each room at the best achievable price, balancing occupancy against average rate. The core metrics are occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room, which combines the two. More sophisticated measures include total revenue per available room, which counts food and beverage and other spend, and gross operating profit per available room. Automated systems can update prices many times a day and push them through the channel manager. They work best when the hotel’s data is clean, rate plans are rational and someone experienced oversees them, since an algorithm does not know that a big conference has just been cancelled or that a road closure will cut weekend demand. Small hotels can apply the same principles manually: track booking pace against previous years, watch local events, and adjust rates and minimum stays in good time. Whatever the tool, review results weekly and understand why the system made its choices. - Revenue per available room combines occupancy and rate - Systems use booking pace, competitors and events - Clean data and human oversight are essential - Small hotels can apply the principles manually #### Overbooking and walking guests Some hotels deliberately overbook slightly to compensate for expected no-shows and late cancellations, using historical data. Others overbook by accident when a channel update lags. Either way, the night may come when a guest arrives and there is no room. The practice of finding them a room elsewhere is called walking the guest. Good practice is to decide in advance who would be walked, ideally a single-night guest on a discounted rate rather than a loyal or long-stay guest, to pre-arrange relationships with nearby hotels of similar or higher standard, to pay for the alternative room and transport, and to offer something to make up for it, such as a free night on a future stay. Front desk staff need training and authority to handle this calmly. The PMS and channel manager should make deliberate overbooking a controlled setting with limits, not a side effect. Track how often it happens and why. Frequent accidental overbookings point to mapping or sync problems with the channel manager that should be fixed, not managed. - Deliberate overbooking relies on no-show history - Walking means rehousing a guest at another hotel - Pre-arrange partner hotels and compensation - Frequent accidental overbooking signals sync problems #### Guest messaging platforms for hotels Hotels increasingly communicate with guests through messaging, such as text, messaging apps or web chat, before and during the stay. Pre-arrival messages confirm arrival times and offer upgrades; in-stay messages handle requests for towels, restaurant bookings and late check-out; post-stay messages ask for feedback. Messaging platforms often integrate with the PMS to personalise messages with names and dates and to log requests. Many now use automated replies for common questions, with a human taking over when needed. Practical advice: set expectations for response times, especially at night; route requests to the right department, such as housekeeping or maintenance, with tracking so nothing is lost; keep the tone consistent with the brand; and avoid overwhelming guests with automated messages. Marketing messages need consent under UK electronic marketing rules, but service messages about an existing booking are generally treated differently, so keep the two clearly separate. Review conversation logs to identify common questions that your website, room information or pre-arrival email could answer better. - Messaging covers pre-arrival, in-stay and post-stay - Route requests to departments with tracking - Set expectations for response times - Keep marketing and service messages separate #### Hotel distribution for small properties Small hotels, guesthouses and inns with rooms face the same distribution questions as larger hotels with far fewer staff. A combined system, where PMS, channel manager and booking engine come from one provider, can be the most manageable choice, reducing integration headaches. The essentials are: accurate room types and rates; a booking engine on your own website; connections to the main online travel agents; and clear policies on cancellation, deposits and payment. Pubs with rooms often have a separate restaurant EPOS, so check whether room charges can post from the bar and restaurant, or whether staff will need to add them manually at check-out. Many small properties find value in a limited set of channels managed well rather than many channels managed poorly. Keep an eye on commission as a share of room revenue, and work on direct bookings through repeat guests, email and local partnerships. Do not forget the phone: many guests of small properties still call, and the person answering needs the same live availability and rates as the website. - Combined PMS, channel manager and engine suit small properties - Fewer channels managed well beats many managed poorly - Check whether bar charges can post to rooms - Phone bookings need the same live availability #### Hotel data and the guest profile Hotels hold detailed guest data: names, addresses, contact details, passport details for overseas guests, payment tokens, preferences, special requests and stay history. Under UK GDPR, the hotel must have a lawful basis for each use, keep data secure, retain it no longer than needed, and respond to requests from guests to access or delete their data, within legal limits. Some data must be retained for a period for legal reasons, such as tax records and, for overseas guests, the registration records required by law, so retention policies need to reflect those obligations. Duplicate profiles are a common problem, with the same guest held several times under slightly different names, which breaks stay history and loyalty. Many PMS products offer merge tools; use them carefully. Access should be restricted by role: front desk sees what they need; marketing sees only consented data; maintenance sees room numbers, not personal details. Train staff never to share guest details over the phone, including whether a person is staying, because that information can be misused. - UK GDPR applies to guest profiles - Some records must be retained for legal reasons - Merge duplicate profiles carefully - Never confirm over the phone whether someone is staying #### Hotel spa, leisure and activity booking Hotels with spas, golf, gyms or activities need booking systems for treatments, therapists, rooms and equipment. Spa systems manage therapist schedules, treatment rooms, durations, preparation and clean-down times, and packages that combine treatments with lunch or a room. Integration with the PMS lets charges post to the guest’s folio and gives the spa visibility of in-house guests, who often book late. Integration with the restaurant system allows packages that include food. The key operational issues are utilisation of therapists and rooms, no-shows, and health questionnaires, which collect special category data about medical conditions and pregnancy and must be handled under UK GDPR with appropriate security. Online booking for spa day guests increases utilisation, especially on quiet weekdays, while retaining capacity for residents is a balancing act. Report on treatment room utilisation and revenue per treatment hour as well as total sales, because an apparently busy spa can be losing money if long treatments with expensive products dominate low-yield slots. - Spa systems manage therapists, rooms and clean-down times - Integration posts treatments to the guest folio - Health questionnaires are special category data - Track revenue per treatment hour, not just sales #### Mapping the venue tech stack Before adding any new system, draw your current tech stack on one sheet: each system, what it does, who uses it, what it costs, and the arrows showing how data flows between them. For a restaurant, that might be EPOS, card terminals, reservations, KDS, stock, payroll, rota, accounts, delivery platforms, website and email marketing. For a hotel, add PMS, channel manager, booking engine, door locks and housekeeping. The drawing usually reveals duplicate data entry, such as staff typing delivery orders into the till, missing links, such as tips not reaching payroll, and forgotten subscriptions. It also shows single points of failure: if the broadband or a key integration fails, which arrows break? With the map in front of you, new purchases become clearer, because you can ask what the new system replaces, what it must connect to and who will own it. Keep the map updated and store it with login ownership and support contacts, so that when a key person leaves, their replacement can see what the venue runs and why. - Draw systems, users, costs and data flows - Maps reveal duplicate entry and forgotten subscriptions - Identify single points of failure - Store the map with ownership and support contacts #### Integration middleware and APIs Hospitality systems talk to one another through application programming interfaces, or APIs, and sometimes through middleware that sits between them and translates data. Delivery platform orders can be pushed into an EPOS through middleware; PMS and EPOS may link through an interface provided by one vendor; accounting packages pull daily sales via an API. Integrations save time and reduce errors, but every one is a dependency. When one side updates its software, an integration can break silently: orders stop arriving, charges stop posting or sales stop syncing. Ask vendors who maintains each integration, whether it is certified, how failures are alerted and what it costs. Keep a list of integrations, their owners and how to check that each is working. Some integrations are one-way, such as sales flowing to accounts; others are two-way, such as inventory between PMS and channel manager. Understand which are real-time and which batch overnight, because that affects what staff see. A quick daily check that key integrations have run is cheap insurance. - APIs let systems exchange data - Middleware translates between systems - Integrations can break silently after updates - Know which links are real-time and which batch #### Group and conference bookings in hotels Groups and conferences bring large volumes of rooms and function space, but they behave differently from individual bookings. A group block reserves a number of rooms at an agreed rate until a cut-off date, after which unreleased rooms return to general inventory. Attendees may book individually from the block via a link or a rooming list provided by the organiser. The PMS tracks pickup, the number of rooms actually booked against the block, so revenue managers can release rooms in time to sell them elsewhere. Conference and event modules, sometimes separate sales and catering systems, handle meeting rooms, catering, equipment and the banquet event order that guides operations. Contracts include attrition clauses setting how many rooms the organiser must pay for even if they are not used. Routing instructions decide which charges go to the organiser’s master account. Clear communication between sales, front office, revenue and operations is crucial, and a weekly meeting on upcoming groups catches problems such as missing rooming lists or unchanged dietary requirements. - Group blocks hold rooms until a cut-off date - Track pickup against the block - Attrition clauses set minimum paid rooms - Banquet event orders guide event operations #### Housekeeping apps and task management Beyond room status, housekeeping and maintenance apps help manage tasks across a property. Room attendants receive their room list on a phone, see priorities such as early arrivals and VIPs, record lost property and log maintenance issues with photos. Supervisors inspect and release rooms. Maintenance teams get work orders with location and photos, and managers see backlogs. These tools reduce radio chatter, paper lists and forgotten repairs. They also generate data: how long rooms take by type, which rooms generate repeat repairs, and where workloads are uneven. Use that data to plan, not to rush individual attendants unfairly, since rushing housekeeping produces poor rooms and injuries. Consider language support, as many housekeeping teams work in several languages, and design for gloved hands and quick taps. Devices need charging and secure storage. Preventive maintenance schedules, such as checking boilers, flushing water outlets for Legionella control and testing emergency lighting, can sit in the same app, ensuring legal and safety tasks are not forgotten. - Attendants receive prioritised room lists on phones - Maintenance requests include location and photos - Use workload data to plan, not to rush staff - Schedule safety checks such as Legionella flushing #### Hotel guest-facing tech: TVs, voice and casting Hotel rooms now commonly offer smart TVs, screen casting from guests’ phones and sometimes voice assistants. These improve the guest experience but raise privacy issues: guests may log into streaming accounts on the TV and forget to log out, leaving the next guest with access; casting systems may let guests see other rooms’ devices if poorly configured; voice assistants may record conversations. Systems designed for hotels should automatically clear accounts and data at check-out, linked to the PMS, and isolate each room’s casting. Voice devices need clear notices, mute options and policies on recordings. Test the reset process regularly by logging in and checking it clears after a simulated check-out. Hotel Wi-Fi must also be secure and fast enough for streaming and video calls, since poor Wi-Fi is a frequent complaint. Provide clear instructions for TV and casting in rooms, ideally on the screen itself. Consider guests who simply want a normal TV remote, as complex systems frustrate those who are not comfortable with them. - Smart TVs must clear logins at check-out - Isolate casting per room - Voice devices need notices and mute options - Test reset processes regularly ### Tips distribution #### What tip distribution software does Tip distribution software takes the tips and service charges collected in a period and splits them among staff according to the venue’s written policy. It typically pulls tip totals from the EPOS or card terminals, hours worked from the rota or time-and-attendance system, and roles or points from staff records, then calculates each person’s share and exports it to payroll or pays it out directly. Before October 2024 many venues did this on spreadsheets; the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, which came into force on 1 October 2024, increased the stakes by requiring employers to pass on all qualifying tips without deductions, distribute them fairly, keep records and share information with workers on request. Software does not make a distribution fair by itself; it applies whatever rules you give it. The benefit is consistency, a clear audit trail and transparency, since many tools let staff see how their share was calculated. Check how the tool handles card tips versus cash, service charges, multiple sites, leavers and corrections, and whether its reports meet your record-keeping duties. - Software applies the venue’s written tipping policy - It pulls tips from tills and hours from rotas - The tipping law took effect on 1 October 2024 - Software ensures consistency, not fairness by itself #### Points, hours and role weightings Most tip distribution policies combine hours worked with a weighting by role. A simple hours-based system gives each person a share proportional to the hours they worked in the period. A points system gives each role a number of points per hour, for example more for a head waiter than a runner, and kitchen roles a set weighting, then divides the pool by total points. Some venues split the pool first by department, such as front of house and kitchen, then within each. Whatever the method, the law requires a fair distribution, and the statutory code of practice lists factors that can be considered, such as role, seniority, performance and hours. Tip software makes weightings explicit and repeatable. Common pitfalls include forgetting to include staff who are entitled, such as kitchen porters if the policy covers them, applying different rules to different people without reason, and changing weightings without consultation. Write the method down, consult staff before changing it, and use the software to show each person how their share was worked out, which tends to defuse suspicion quickly. - Hours-based and points-based methods are common - Some venues split by department first - The code of practice lists factors for fairness - Consult staff before changing weightings #### Tronc schemes and payroll A tronc is an arrangement where tips and service charges are pooled and distributed by a person other than the employer, called the troncmaster. When a tronc is properly run, with the troncmaster independently deciding allocations, payments can be free of employer and employee National Insurance contributions, though income tax still applies through PAYE. If the employer controls the distribution, National Insurance is normally due. HMRC guidance sets out the conditions, and a troncmaster must be registered with HMRC for a separate PAYE scheme in many cases. Tip software can support tronc administration by providing data and calculations, but it does not by itself make a scheme independent. The troncmaster’s role must be real, and the employer must not dictate the outcome. Under the 2024 tipping law, tronc arrangements remain possible, and the code of practice notes that an independent troncmaster can help demonstrate fairness. Take advice from an accountant or payroll specialist before setting up a tronc, because getting the National Insurance treatment wrong can lead to backdated liabilities. - A troncmaster distributes pooled tips independently - Proper tronc payments can avoid National Insurance - Income tax still applies through PAYE - Employer control normally brings National Insurance into play #### Paying tips out: timing and method Under the 2024 law, qualifying tips must be paid to workers no later than the end of the month following the month in which they were paid by the customer. Most venues pay tips through payroll, which keeps tax and records straightforward, while some use tip-payment apps that pay workers directly into their bank accounts, sometimes weekly. Cash tips can be handled differently, but if the employer has control or significant influence over them, they fall within the law. Whatever the method, the employer must keep records of tips received and allocated for three years, and workers can request a summary of their own tip records. Make sure the timing and method are written in the tipping policy. If you use an app to pay tips, check the fees, who pays them and whether deductions are permitted; the law prohibits deductions except those required by law, such as tax. Pay tips on time even during quiet months, as late payment damages trust quickly. Leavers should receive tips earned up to their leaving date, which software can calculate automatically. - Tips must be paid by the end of the following month - Records must be kept for three years - Only legally required deductions are permitted - Leavers are owed tips up to their leaving date #### Tip transparency and staff requests Transparency is central to the UK tipping rules. Employers must have a written policy on how tips are handled and distributed, make it available to all workers, and keep records. A worker can request information about tips paid to them, and must receive it within a set period. Many tip distribution tools include a staff app or portal where workers can see the pool for each period, their hours or points, and their resulting share. This visibility reduces disputes and helps new staff understand the system. Give staff a plain-English explanation of the policy at induction, not just a document in a drawer. Publish the policy where guests can see it too, which some venues do on their website or menu, since guests increasingly ask whether tips reach the team. If a staff member questions their share, check the inputs first: incorrect hours, a missed shift or a wrong role assignment explain most discrepancies. A clear correction process keeps trust. Remember that the law requires fairness, and transparency is how fairness becomes visible. - Employers must have a written tipping policy - Workers can request their tip information - Staff portals reduce disputes - Incorrect hours cause most share errors #### Service charge versus tips in the data Service charges and tips are often handled together, but they differ in how they appear in data. A discretionary service charge is added to the bill and can be removed by the guest; a tip is an extra amount the guest chooses to add. Both are covered by the 2024 tipping law when the employer controls or significantly influences their distribution. Mandatory service charges, which guests cannot remove, are part of the price and are treated differently for VAT. In the EPOS and payment systems, service charges and tips should be recorded separately from sales, and separately from each other, so that reports and VAT returns are accurate and distribution follows the policy. Tip software usually pulls both. Problems arise when tips are keyed as sales, when service charge is configured as a menu item, or when card terminals record tips that the EPOS does not see. A monthly reconciliation, comparing tip and service totals in the EPOS, card statements and distribution software, catches those errors before they become pay disputes or tax problems. - Discretionary service charge can be removed by guests - The law covers both tips and service charges - Record tips and service separately from sales - Reconcile monthly across till, cards and tip software #### Choosing tip software When choosing tip distribution software, start with your policy, not the software. Write down how tips and service charge are collected, the distribution method, who is included, how often it is paid and how disputes are handled. Then look for software that can implement it without workarounds. Key questions: does it integrate with your EPOS, card terminals and rota or time and attendance? Can it handle tronc arrangements if you use one? Does it produce the records required by the 2024 law and allow staff to see their own data? How does it handle corrections, leavers and multi-site staff? What does it cost, and who pays any fees for paying out tips? The law prohibits making deductions from tips other than those required by law, so check carefully how platform fees are structured. Ask how the software handles cash tips if you accept them. Test with a past month’s data and compare the output with your current calculations. Explain the system to staff before launch and invite questions; confidence in the process matters as much as accuracy. - Write the policy before choosing software - Check EPOS, terminal and rota integrations - Confirm records meet legal requirements - Check how platform fees are paid #### Payroll and tips integration checks Tips flow through several systems: the card terminal or EPOS where guests add them, the tip distribution tool that allocates them, and payroll that pays them. Each handoff is a chance for error. A simple monthly checklist helps. Confirm that the total tips and service charge recorded by the EPOS match the totals in card settlement reports, after allowing for cash. Confirm that the total allocated by the tip tool matches the total collected. Confirm that the total paid through payroll, or directly, matches the total allocated. Check that each person’s hours or points used for allocation match the time and attendance records. Check that leavers and new starters were included correctly. Record any adjustments with reasons. Keep the reconciliation alongside your tip records for three years, as required by the law. This takes perhaps an hour a month in a single site and protects the business from disputes and from accusations of keeping tips. It also builds trust, because you can show staff exactly where the money went. - Reconcile EPOS tips with card settlements - Match allocated totals to collected totals - Match payroll payments to allocations - Keep reconciliations with tip records for three years ### Rota and scheduling #### Rota software basics Rota software replaces the spreadsheet or whiteboard schedule with a shared system where managers build shifts and staff view them on their phones. Core features include shift templates, staff availability, holiday requests, shift swaps with manager approval, notifications of changes and labour cost forecasts. Many link to time and attendance so actual hours worked can be compared with the rota, and to payroll so hours flow through without retyping. The benefits are time saved, fewer miscommunications about who is working, and better control of labour costs. The risks are over-reliance on the app for communication, with staff missing changes if notifications are switched off, and a temptation to change rotas at short notice because it is easy. Publish rotas well in advance, which staff value highly and which is better for retention, and treat late changes as exceptions with consultation. Remember that a rota still involves people with lives, childcare and second jobs; the software makes scheduling easier, but it does not replace a conversation with the team. - Rota apps share schedules on staff phones - Shift swaps and holiday requests run through the app - Links to time and attendance and payroll save retyping - Publish rotas well in advance #### Forecasting labour from sales The best rotas start from a forecast of demand: expected covers or sales by hour, based on history, bookings, events and weather. Rota software can import sales from the EPOS and bookings from the reservation system, then suggest staffing levels using ratios, such as covers per server per hour or sales per bartender. Kitchen staffing can be based on expected covers and the menu’s complexity. Forecasts are only as good as the inputs, so check whether last year’s comparable day was distorted by an event, a heatwave or a closure. Adjust for known changes, such as a new menu, a nearby concert or a bank holiday. Build the rota to the forecast, then compare actual sales and labour after the event to improve the model. Labour targets should be realistic; under-staffing to hit a percentage damages service and staff wellbeing, and leads to turnover that costs more than the hours saved. Use the forecast to place people at the right times, such as staggered starts and finishes, rather than simply cutting hours. - Forecast covers or sales by hour - Use history, bookings, events and weather - Compare actual results to improve the model - Stagger shifts to match demand #### Predictable working patterns and rota law UK employment law sets several constraints that rota software should help you respect. The Working Time Regulations limit average weekly hours to 48 unless a worker opts out, and set rest entitlements: generally eleven hours of rest between working days, a weekly rest period and a twenty-minute break when working more than six hours, with stronger protections for young workers. Holiday entitlement for most workers is 5.6 weeks a year, with rules on calculating holiday pay for irregular-hours staff that changed for leave years starting from April 2024. Further changes under the Employment Rights Act affecting zero-hours and short-notice shifts are being phased in, so check the current position rather than relying on older practice. Many rota tools flag breaches, such as insufficient rest between a late close and an early open, which is a common problem in hospitality. Configure those warnings and take them seriously. Keep records of hours worked, as these support compliance with minimum wage, working time and holiday pay rules, and are needed if a dispute arises. - Average weekly hours are capped at 48 unless opted out - Workers generally get eleven hours’ rest between days - A break is due when working over six hours - Holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks for most workers #### Shift swapping and open shifts Rota apps allow staff to swap shifts with colleagues or pick up open shifts, subject to manager approval. This flexibility helps retain staff with complex lives and fills gaps quickly. The rules should be clear. Who can swap with whom: only staff with the same role and training, so a junior bartender does not end up running the bar on a Saturday. Whether swaps that create overtime or breach rest rules are blocked automatically. How quickly a manager must approve. Open shifts, posted to a pool, can be offered first to existing staff before agency workers, which is cheaper and often better for service. Some groups share staff across sites through the same app, which needs care about training, induction for each site and travel. Watch for patterns: if the same people always pick up extra shifts, check for fatigue and working time compliance; if certain shifts are always swapped out, ask why. Flexibility is valuable, but someone still needs to make sure each shift has the right mix of experience. - Restrict swaps to equivalent roles and training - Block swaps that breach rest or create overtime - Offer open shifts to existing staff first - Monitor fatigue among frequent pick-up staff #### Staff communication apps Many venues run staff communication through messaging groups. It is quick but mixes work and personal life, makes it hard to know who has read what, and can expose personal phone numbers to everyone in the team. Dedicated staff communication tools, often built into rota or HR platforms, offer announcements, read receipts, document libraries for policies and training, and channels by team or site. Whatever tool you use, set ground rules: no rota changes by message without confirmation, quiet hours where managers avoid messaging staff off-shift except in emergencies, and no sharing of guest data or photos through informal chats. The Employment Rights Act brings increasing focus on fair treatment of workers around shifts and notice, and expectations around out-of-hours contact are shifting; be thoughtful. Keep important information, such as allergen procedures, fire plans and the tipping policy, in a library rather than buried in chat history. Remove leavers from groups promptly. A calm, organised channel signals a calm, organised workplace, which helps both retention and service. - Dedicated apps provide read receipts and libraries - Avoid rota changes by unconfirmed message - Respect quiet hours for off-shift staff - Remove leavers from groups promptly #### Onboarding and HR platforms HR platforms for hospitality handle onboarding, contracts, right-to-work checks, training records, absence and documents. Onboarding through an app lets new starters complete forms, upload documents and read policies before their first shift, which saves management time and lets the first day focus on training. Right to work checks are a legal duty for UK employers: you must check before employment starts, using the methods set by the Home Office, which include manual document checks, online share codes for those with digital status, and certified identity service providers for British and Irish passports. Keep evidence securely, since failing to check properly can lead to civil penalties. Training records, such as food hygiene, allergen awareness, licensing and fire safety, can be tracked with expiry reminders. Store only what you need, restrict access to HR data and agree retention periods. Make sure the platform works well on phones, since many hospitality staff do not have a laptop, and support languages relevant to your team where possible. - Onboarding apps reduce first-day paperwork - Right to work checks must happen before employment - Some checks use share codes or identity providers - Track training expiry dates with reminders #### Labour scheduling for hotels Hotel labour scheduling differs from restaurants because departments have different demand drivers. Housekeeping depends on departures and stayovers, front office on arrivals and departures by time of day, food and beverage on covers and events, and maintenance on planned work. Scheduling software can import forecasts from the PMS, such as occupancy, arrivals and departures, and calculate required hours by department using standards, such as minutes per departure room and per stayover room. Variable staffing, using part-time or flexible staff, allows the hotel to match demand without overstaffing quiet days. Agencies are used for peaks, though with cost and quality implications. Policies on room attendant workloads should be realistic, including time for travel between floors and different room types. Some hotels have moved to sustainability-based stayover cleaning policies, offering less frequent servicing for stays of several nights unless the guest requests it; this affects labour planning and must be communicated clearly. Review labour standards periodically against reality, since unrealistic standards drive turnover and poor room quality. - Housekeeping demand depends on departures and stayovers - Standards define minutes per room type - Import occupancy forecasts from the PMS - Unrealistic workloads drive turnover #### Payroll for hospitality Hospitality payroll is complex: variable hours, multiple pay rates, night premiums, holiday pay for irregular hours, tips through payroll or tronc, statutory sick pay, pension auto-enrolment and frequent starters and leavers. Payroll software, connected to time and attendance and tip distribution, reduces manual input and errors. HMRC’s Real Time Information system requires employers to report pay to HMRC on or before each payday. Automatic enrolment into a workplace pension is required for eligible workers, with employer contributions and ongoing assessment of workers whose earnings vary. Holiday pay rules for irregular-hours and part-year workers changed for leave years starting from April 2024, allowing rolled-up holiday pay at 12.07 percent of pay for those workers; check that your software applies the correct method. Payroll errors erode trust quickly, especially for staff living week to week. Check each payroll before submission, particularly hours, new starters’ tax codes and tips. Payslips must show itemised deductions and, for hourly workers, the hours paid for. - Pay is reported to HMRC via Real Time Information - Eligible workers must be auto-enrolled into pensions - Rolled-up holiday pay of 12.07 percent applies to irregular-hours workers - Payslips must itemise deductions and hours #### Staff training platforms Online training platforms deliver short courses on phones: food hygiene, allergens, licensing, health and safety, customer service, product knowledge and company procedures. They track completion and certificates, and many offer quizzes and videos. For hospitality, short modules that can be completed between shifts work better than long courses. Training that staff must complete as part of their job is working time and must be paid, which affects minimum wage compliance. Online training is efficient for knowledge, but practical skills, such as knife work, coffee extraction, cocktail technique, wine service or how to handle a difficult guest, need hands-on coaching. Blend the two: online for theory and compliance, in person for practice and assessment. Use completion data to ensure legal training is up to date, such as Level 2 food hygiene for food handlers where required by the business’s risk assessment, and licensing training for those selling alcohol. Training libraries are also useful for recipe videos and service standards, so new starters can learn the venue’s way of doing things before their first shift. - Short modules suit hospitality staff - Required training time must be paid - Blend online theory with hands-on coaching - Track legal training completion #### Rota fairness and transparency Rotas strongly influence staff satisfaction. Favouritism in the allocation of busy, high-tip shifts or of weekends off breeds resentment quickly. Rota software can make patterns visible: who works how many weekends, closes, doubles and peak shifts. Use that visibility to share the hard shifts fairly and to rotate the lucrative ones, or explain clearly why they are allocated as they are, such as experience requirements. Publish rotas as far ahead as practical; many staff have childcare, study or second jobs. Collect availability systematically rather than by memory. Late changes should be minimised and, where unavoidable, discussed rather than simply pushed via app. Legislation moving through implementation under the Employment Rights Act is expected to strengthen rights around reasonable notice of shifts and compensation for short-notice cancellations for some workers, so the direction of travel is clear even before every detail is in force. Check the current rules. Fair rotas also support tip fairness, because hours and shift types often determine tip shares. - Software can reveal shift allocation patterns - Rotate busy and lucrative shifts fairly - Publish rotas as far ahead as practical - Short-notice shift rules are tightening #### Absence and sickness tracking Absence management in hospitality matters because a single missing chef or bartender can affect a whole service. HR or rota systems can record sickness and other absence, trigger return-to-work conversations, and show patterns. Statutory sick pay rules set eligibility and amounts, and changes under the Employment Rights Act are expected to remove the waiting days and the lower earnings limit for SSP, with a percentage-of-earnings rate for lower earners; check the current position before relying on older rules. Sickness data is health data, special category under UK GDPR, so access must be restricted and records kept securely. Food handlers have specific health considerations: staff with symptoms of vomiting or diarrhoea should be excluded from food handling, and Food Standards Agency guidance generally advises not returning until 48 hours after symptoms stop. Make that rule clear and make it financially possible for staff to comply, since people who cannot afford to stay off may come in sick and spread illness. Use absence data to spot support needs, not just to discipline. - Sickness records are special category data - SSP rules are changing under new legislation - Food handlers with gastro symptoms should be excluded - Guidance generally advises 48 hours after symptoms stop #### Rota and stock for seasonal venues Seasonal venues, such as coastal cafés, festival bars, ski-season operations or summer terraces, face sharp peaks and troughs. Technology helps in specific ways. Rota software with availability and shift pools makes it easier to manage a larger pool of part-time and seasonal staff, while onboarding apps reduce paperwork for a wave of new starters. Forecasting needs extra care, since weather drives demand dramatically; many operators check forecasts a few days ahead and adjust rotas and orders. Inventory systems should handle seasonal product lists, with off-season items archived. Stock levels must fall as the season ends, to avoid holding perishable or slow-moving stock through winter. Card terminals and EPOS hardware may need storage and re-commissioning; check that software subscriptions can be paused or reduced in the off-season, which some providers allow. Data from the previous season is invaluable for planning the next, so preserve it, including peak days, best sellers, staffing levels and lessons learned, before the team disperses. - Rota pools help manage seasonal staff - Weather forecasts drive demand planning - Run stock down as the season ends - Check whether subscriptions can be paused #### Using rota data to reduce turnover Hospitality has high staff turnover, and rota patterns are a factor. Rota and HR data can reveal early warning signs: staff whose hours have dropped sharply, those consistently given unpopular shifts, those working long runs without days off, and new starters who left within weeks. Exit data from the HR system, recording reasons for leaving, adds context. Look for patterns by manager, site and role. A site with high turnover among new starters may have an onboarding problem; a site where experienced staff leave may have a rota or culture issue. Some groups use pulse surveys through staff apps to gauge morale. Act on findings: improve rota stability, give guaranteed hours where possible, publish rotas earlier, address individual concerns and ensure fair tip distribution. The cost of replacing a member of staff, including recruitment, training and lower productivity while they learn, is significant, so retention improvements often repay quickly. Data supports these conversations, but turnover is ultimately about how people are treated day to day. - Watch for sharp drops in hours - Analyse turnover by manager, site and role - Early leavers point to onboarding issues - Stable rotas and fair tips aid retention ### Time and attendance #### Time and attendance systems Time and attendance systems record when staff start and finish work and take breaks. Options include clocking on the EPOS, a dedicated wall-mounted clock with PIN, card or fingerprint, and phone apps with location checks. The records feed payroll, labour reports and compliance checks. Accurate records matter for minimum wage compliance, since HMRC enforcement looks at hours actually worked, including time spent on tasks such as setting up, cashing up and mandatory training. Systems that round clock-in times can underpay staff if rounding always works in the employer’s favour, so check settings. Biometric clocking, such as fingerprints or face recognition, processes biometric data, which is special category data under UK GDPR; the ICO has taken action against organisations that used biometric attendance without a valid lawful basis or a genuine alternative for staff who object, so offer a non-biometric option and do a data protection impact assessment. Location-based phone clocking also raises privacy questions: collect location only at clock-in, not continuously. Review edits to time records, since managers adjusting hours is a known source of underpayment. - Records feed payroll and minimum wage compliance - Rounding rules can underpay staff - Biometric clocking is special category data - Offer a non-biometric alternative - Review manager edits to time records #### Minimum wage pitfalls in hospitality payroll National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage breaches are common in hospitality and often accidental. HMRC regularly names employers who have underpaid. Typical causes include unpaid time for pre-shift briefings, set-up and close-down, cashing up after clocking out, mandatory training or uniform fittings, deductions for uniforms, breakages or shortages that take pay below the minimum, and salaried staff working such long hours that their hourly rate falls below the legal rate. Since the 2024 tipping law, tips cannot be used to top up pay to the minimum wage, and they never could count towards it. Time and attendance and rota software help by capturing all working time, but only if staff are told to clock in when they actually start work, including for briefings. Run a regular check of salaried staff’s hours against their pay to ensure the effective hourly rate is lawful, and remember that rates rise each April. Accommodation provided by the employer has a specific offset rule, so check how it applies if you house staff. - Unpaid set-up and briefing time is a common breach - Deductions can take pay below the minimum - Tips never count towards minimum wage - Check salaried staff’s effective hourly rate - Rates usually rise each April #### Labour cost reporting and productivity Labour reports combine time and attendance data with sales to show labour cost percentage, sales per labour hour and covers per labour hour. Breaking these down by department and day part shows where productivity is high or low. Kitchen productivity might be measured as covers per kitchen labour hour; front of house as sales per server hour. Use these measures to compare like for like, such as Saturdays over several weeks, rather than across very different shifts. Productivity figures can reveal structural issues, such as a quiet lunch service that costs more in labour than it earns, or a prep shift that would be more efficient earlier in the day. Remember the costs not visible in hours: overtime premiums, agency rates, holiday pay accrual, employer National Insurance and pension contributions. Productivity improvements often come from better layout, prep scheduling, menu simplification and training rather than fewer people. Share productivity figures with managers responsibly, without setting targets that push them to under-staff. - Sales per labour hour measures productivity - Compare like-for-like shifts - Include employer costs and agency premiums - Layout and menu changes often beat cutting hours #### Data protection in HR and rota systems HR, rota, payroll and time and attendance systems hold sensitive data: addresses, bank details, National Insurance numbers, right to work documents, sickness records and sometimes biometric data. UK GDPR requires appropriate security, limited access, clear retention periods and transparency with staff about what is collected and why. Provide staff with a privacy notice. Use role-based access so that a supervisor can see rota details but not bank details or medical notes. Choose providers who store data securely, offer multi-factor authentication and have clear data processing agreements. Be cautious about monitoring, such as location tracking or CCTV in staff areas; the ICO has published guidance on monitoring workers, which emphasises necessity, proportionality and transparency. Retain records for as long as needed for legal purposes, such as payroll records for at least three years for HMRC purposes and right to work records for the period of employment plus two years, then delete them. Respond promptly to staff requests to see their data, which must generally be answered within one month. - HR systems hold highly sensitive data - Use role-based access and multi-factor authentication - ICO guidance stresses proportionate worker monitoring - Subject access requests are generally answered within one month ### Inventory and recipe costing #### Inventory management systems Inventory systems track what stock a venue holds, what it should hold and what it has used. In hospitality, they typically include a product list with suppliers, pack sizes and costs; purchase orders and deliveries; stock counts; recipes linking dishes and drinks to ingredients; and reports comparing theoretical usage, based on sales, with actual usage, based on counts. The gap is the variance, which signals waste, theft, over-portioning or recording errors. Integration with the EPOS lets each sale deduct theoretical stock automatically; integration with suppliers can bring invoices and prices in electronically. The benefits are better control of gross margin, fewer stock-outs and less money tied up on shelves. The costs are set-up time, discipline in counts and recording, and software fees. Inventory systems reward consistency: count at the same time, in the same order, with the same units. A badly maintained system produces confident-looking numbers that are wrong, which is worse than no system. Start with high-value items, such as spirits, wine and proteins, and expand once the routine is established. - Inventory systems compare theoretical and actual usage - Variance signals waste, theft or over-portioning - EPOS integration deducts stock per sale - Start with high-value items like spirits and proteins #### Stocktaking routines with an app Stocktaking with an app is faster than clipboard counting and avoids retyping, but the discipline is the same. Count at a consistent time, ideally when the venue is closed and before deliveries arrive. Organise the count list to follow the physical layout, shelf by shelf, so counters do not jump around. Count in the units defined in the system, such as bottles and part-bottles for spirits, kilograms for meat, cases and units for soft drinks, and make sure everyone uses the same convention for part-units. Some systems weigh open spirit bottles on scales to estimate contents, which is more accurate than eyeballing tenths. Draught beer is measured through flow meters or by weighing kegs, or calculated from deliveries and empties. Have two people count high-value areas, or swap counters periodically to deter errors and dishonesty. Record waste separately during the period, using a waste log on the app, so variance is not inflated by known losses. Review the results promptly; a stocktake that sits unanalysed for weeks is just paperwork. - Count at a consistent time before deliveries - Order count lists by physical layout - Weighing open bottles improves spirit accuracy - Log waste separately to clarify variance #### Recipe costing software Recipe costing tools calculate the cost of each dish or drink from its ingredients, using current supplier prices, yields and portion sizes. A good recipe record includes the ingredient, quantity, unit, yield after trimming or cooking, and sub-recipes such as sauces or stocks. The tool calculates cost per portion and gross profit at the menu price, after VAT. When supplier prices change, the costs update automatically, showing which dishes have drifted below target margin. That matters more than ever when food costs swing. Yields are the most common source of error: a whole fish or a joint loses weight in trimming and cooking, and costing at purchased weight understates the true cost. Test yields in the kitchen and record them. Garnishes, oil, seasoning and bread are easy to forget; many venues add a small allowance per plate. Recipe records should also hold allergen information, method and photos, so the same record serves costing, training and allergen information, and changes in one place are reflected everywhere. - Recipe tools calculate cost per portion and margin - Supplier price changes update costs automatically - Yields after trimming and cooking are often missed - Allow for garnishes, oil and seasoning #### Gross profit targets and menu pricing Many UK venues target a food gross profit of around 65 to 75 percent and a drinks gross profit that varies widely by category, but targets depend on concept, location and cost structure, so treat any benchmark as a starting point. Gross profit is calculated on sales after VAT. A dish selling at a menu price including VAT needs the VAT removed before comparing with ingredient cost. Recipe costing software does this automatically if VAT rates are set correctly. Not every item needs the same margin: a premium steak might deliver a lower percentage but a high cash margin, while a soup delivers a high percentage but little cash. Menu engineering looks at both, plus popularity, to decide what to promote, re-price, re-work or remove. Pricing also involves guest perception, competitor prices and psychological price points. Review costs whenever suppliers change prices significantly, and review the whole menu at least seasonally. Gross profit targets are only meaningful if actual performance, measured by stocktake variance, matches theoretical margins. - Gross profit is calculated on sales after VAT - Benchmarks vary by concept and location - Cash margin matters as well as percentage - Theoretical margins need checking against stocktake #### Purchase ordering and supplier integration Purchasing software lets chefs and managers place orders with suppliers from one app, using par levels to suggest quantities and approved product lists to keep specifications consistent. Some suppliers accept orders electronically and send invoices back the same way, so delivery notes and invoices can be matched against orders. Price changes appear immediately and can update recipe costs. Approval rules can require a manager to sign off orders above a value or outside the approved list, which helps control spend in multi-site groups. Deliveries should be checked on arrival for quantity, quality, temperature for chilled and frozen goods, and use-by dates, with discrepancies recorded on the app so credits can be claimed. Credit notes are often missed without a system. Electronic invoice capture can feed accounting software, saving hours of data entry. The value of purchasing software depends on suppliers being connected; check which of yours are supported before buying, and keep a simple fallback, since a supplier’s ordering portal can be down when you need to order before a cut-off. - Par levels suggest order quantities - Approval rules control spend - Check deliveries for quantity, quality and temperature - Record discrepancies to claim credits #### Waste tracking tools Food waste is a cost and an environmental issue. Waste tracking can be as simple as a log on a tablet or an app where staff record what is thrown away, with reason codes such as spoilage, over-production, plate waste and preparation waste. Some systems use smart bins with scales and cameras that record what goes in, and an algorithm or a person classifies the items. The data reveals patterns: over-prepped soups on Mondays, bread baskets returning half-eaten, a garnish routinely binned. Acting on the data matters more than collecting it, for example by adjusting prep quantities, portion sizes or menu design. Waste data also feeds stock variance analysis, separating known waste from unexplained loss. Food waste rules are tightening in the UK: separate food waste collection requirements have been brought in for businesses in England from 2025, with smaller businesses given more time, while Scotland and Wales have had their own rules for some years, so check what applies to your premises. Waste reduction often produces quick savings with little capital outlay. - Use reason codes for waste - Smart bins weigh and photograph waste - Act on patterns such as over-prep - Separate food waste collection rules are expanding #### Bar stock control and liquor variance Bars have specific stock control challenges. Spirits are poured in measures, and in the UK gin, rum, vodka and whisky sold by the measure must be sold in 25ml or 35ml quantities or multiples, using stamped measures or approved dispensing equipment. Wine by the glass must be offered in 125ml as well as larger sizes. Beer is lost in line cleaning, fobbing and spills. Liquor variance compares what should have been used, based on EPOS sales and recipe measures, with what was actually used, based on counts. Variance has many causes: free pours, over-pours, unrung drinks, staff drinks, comps not recorded, breakages, line cleaning and theft. Systems that weigh bottles, flow meters on draught lines and electronic spirit dispensers improve accuracy. A weekly or fortnightly count of spirits and wine, with monthly full stock, is common. Look at variance by product: a single brand with high variance points to a specific issue, such as a cocktail recipe not set up correctly in the till. Train staff on recipes and measures, and record comps and wastage through the till. - UK spirit measures are 25ml or 35ml or multiples - Wine by the glass must include a 125ml option - Variance has many causes beyond theft - Analyse variance by product to find specific issues #### Draught beer monitoring Draught beer monitoring systems use flow meters on each line to measure volume dispensed, often with temperature sensors on cellar cooling and lines. Comparing measured volume with EPOS sales highlights losses from unrung pints, over-pouring, fobbing or line issues. Data on temperature can warn of cellar cooling failures before beer quality suffers. Some systems also record line cleaning and remind staff when it is due, typically weekly for many products, though brewers and the equipment supplier set specific guidance. Line cleaning loses some beer each time, which should be recorded as waste. Monitoring can reveal patterns such as high loss on one tap, which may indicate a faulty fob detector or a poorly balanced line. Data should be used to fix equipment and training rather than accuse staff. Brewery and pub company tenancies sometimes involve monitoring by the landlord, for example to detect beer bought outside a tie, which is a separate commercial issue governed by the tenancy agreement and, for some tied tenants, the Pubs Code. Understand what any monitoring installed by others records. - Flow meters measure each line’s volume - Temperature sensors warn of cooling failures - Line cleaning losses should be recorded - Landlords may monitor tied pubs under the tenancy #### Allergen and nutrition data management Allergen data must stay accurate as recipes and suppliers change. A recipe management system that links each dish to its ingredients and each ingredient to its allergen information, drawn from supplier specifications, helps keep the menu’s allergen matrix current. When a supplier substitutes a product, such as a different brand of stock or a bread with sesame, the allergen data must be updated before the dish is served. Staff need a process for checking substitutions at delivery. Pre-packed for direct sale foods, such as sandwiches made and packed on the premises before being ordered, require full ingredient labelling with allergens emphasised in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since October 2021 under what is often called Natasha’s Law; Scotland has equivalent rules. Large businesses in England with 250 or more employees must display calorie information on menus for certain food under regulations introduced in 2022. Software can generate labels and calorie data from recipes, but only if recipe data is accurate and kept up to date. Audit it periodically against what the kitchen actually does. - Link dishes to ingredient allergen data - Check supplier substitutions for allergens - Natasha’s Law covers food pre-packed for direct sale - Large English businesses must show calories on menus #### Food safety and temperature monitoring Digital food safety systems replace paper logs for fridge and freezer temperatures, cooking and cooling records, deliveries, cleaning schedules and opening and closing checks. Wireless sensors in fridges and freezers record temperatures continuously and send alerts if they rise, which can save stock when a fridge fails overnight. Probe thermometers with Bluetooth record cooking and cooling temperatures directly to an app. Checklists on tablets prompt staff to complete tasks and record who did them, with photos if needed. Environmental health officers inspecting under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme look for evidence of a working food safety management system, typically based on HACCP principles; for small businesses, the Food Standards Agency’s Safer Food, Better Business pack is widely used. Digital records can make evidence easier to produce, but inspectors care that the system reflects actual practice. Keep backups, ensure records cannot be edited without trace, and train staff on what to do when an alert fires, because a perfect log of a fridge running warm for six hours is still a failure. - Wireless sensors alert on fridge failures - Bluetooth probes record cooking temperatures - Inspectors want evidence of a working system - Safer Food, Better Business suits small businesses #### Accounting integrations and daily sales Hospitality businesses produce many small transactions, and accounting software is far more useful when it receives daily summaries automatically. EPOS systems can post daily sales by category, VAT, payment type, tips and discounts into the accounts, and card settlements can then be matched against bank deposits. Supplier invoices captured by purchasing software or document scanning tools flow into accounts payable. Payroll systems post wages, tax and pension costs. The result is near real-time management accounts, which let owners see weekly gross margin and labour rather than waiting for a quarterly picture. Making Tax Digital requires VAT-registered businesses to keep digital records and file returns using compatible software, and its extension to income tax for sole traders and landlords above certain income thresholds starts from April 2026, so manual systems are increasingly impractical. Integration still needs checking: mapping categories to the right accounts, handling refunds and vouchers correctly, and reconciling cash. A bookkeeper who understands hospitality can set this up well and spot errors early. - EPOS can post daily summaries to accounts - Supplier invoices can be captured automatically - Making Tax Digital requires digital VAT records - Map categories and reconcile cash carefully #### Management accounts for a venue Monthly or weekly management accounts give owners and managers a view of performance beyond the till. A standard hospitality profit and loss shows sales by category, cost of sales and gross profit by category, labour cost, other operating costs such as utilities, repairs, marketing and software, and then the operating profit before rent and central costs, sometimes called EBITDA at site level. Comparing actual with budget and with the same period last year shows trends. Technology helps by assembling data from EPOS, inventory, payroll and accounting automatically, but the numbers need judgement. Stock levels at month-end affect gross profit; if stock is not counted, gross profit is a guess. Accruals for bills not yet received, such as utilities, keep months comparable. Software subscriptions now form a noticeable cost line for many venues, so review them as you would any other supplier. Share key figures with senior team members; managers who see the numbers make better decisions about rotas, wastage and purchasing. - Site-level profit is often shown before rent and central costs - Unaccounted stock makes gross profit a guess - Accrue bills to keep months comparable - Review software subscriptions like suppliers #### Energy monitoring and smart controls Energy is a major cost for hospitality, especially kitchens, cellars and hotels. Smart meters, sub-meters on large equipment and energy monitoring platforms show consumption by half-hour, revealing waste such as kitchens switching everything on hours before service, extraction running overnight or cellar cooling working too hard because a door is left open. Smart controls can schedule heating, lighting and extraction, and some kitchen equipment can report energy use. Hotels use room controls that adjust heating and cooling when rooms are unoccupied, often linked to the PMS or key card. Data alone does not save money; it needs a routine, such as a switch-on schedule for the kitchen, posted and followed, and a weekly look at the consumption graph. Equipment maintenance also matters: dirty condenser coils on fridges and poorly sealed doors increase energy use. When replacing equipment, compare running costs as well as purchase price. Energy data supports sustainability reporting increasingly requested by corporate clients and event organisers. - Half-hourly data reveals waste patterns - Schedule kitchen switch-on times - Clean condenser coils and check door seals - Compare running costs when replacing equipment #### Inventory for multi-site groups Multi-site groups need consistent product codes, recipes and suppliers across sites so that gross profit and variance can be compared. A central product catalogue and recipe library, with site-level stock and pricing where necessary, allows head office to change a recipe or supplier once and push it to all sites. Transfers between sites must be recorded so that stock moves do not appear as variance. Central production kitchens supplying sites with sauces, prep or baked goods need their own costing and transfer pricing. Comparison reports by site show which sites run high variance or waste, prompting support or investigation. Purchasing power is a benefit: group agreements with suppliers, enforced through approved product lists in the purchasing software. Avoid over-centralising, since local chefs may need flexibility for specials or local produce. Clear rules on what is fixed and what is local help. Stock counts should follow the same schedule and method across sites; if one site counts on Sunday night and another on Monday morning, comparisons become unreliable. - Use consistent product codes and recipes - Record inter-site transfers - Central kitchens need transfer pricing - Count on the same schedule across sites #### Recipe scaling and batch production Recipe management tools can scale recipes for batch production, which is useful for prep lists, central kitchens and events. A sauce recipe for ten portions becomes one for 150, with ingredient quantities scaled and, ideally, adjusted where scaling is not linear, such as seasoning, thickeners and cooking times. Batch production records, noting date, quantity, batch number, who made it and use-by date, support food safety and traceability. Labels printed from the system carry this information plus allergens. Prep lists can be generated from sales forecasts or bookings, telling the kitchen how many portions of each component to prepare. This cuts over-prep waste and helps avoid running out. In practice, chefs adjust prep lists using experience; the software provides a baseline. Batch records also support stock control, since producing a sauce consumes raw ingredients and creates a sub-recipe item in stock. Keep labels and dates consistent across the kitchen, following the food safety management system, so everyone knows how long items keep and who made them. - Scaling is not always linear for seasoning and thickeners - Batch records support traceability - Prep lists can be generated from forecasts - Labels should carry dates, allergens and maker #### Tracking theoretical versus actual food cost Theoretical food cost is what food should have cost given sales and recipes. Actual food cost is calculated from opening stock, plus purchases, minus closing stock. The difference is unexplained variance. Software calculates both if recipes are complete and EPOS items are linked to recipes. A gap of a few percentage points is common, and much of it is explainable: waste, staff meals, comps, specials not entered as recipes, untracked ingredients such as oil and seasonings, and counting errors. Investigate large or rising variances by category. If meat variance is high, check portioning, yields and storage; if dairy is high, check expiry waste; if dry goods are high, check counting accuracy. Record staff meals and comps through the till so they are visible. Daily or weekly counts of a few high-value items, such as steaks or fish, give quicker feedback than monthly full counts. The goal is not zero variance but understood variance, with steady improvement. - Theoretical cost comes from sales and recipes - Actual cost comes from stock and purchases - Investigate variance by category - Count high-value items more frequently ### Delivery and dark kitchens #### How delivery platforms work for venues Third-party delivery platforms list a venue’s menu in their app, take the guest’s order and payment, send the order to the venue and usually arrange a courier to collect it. The venue receives the sale minus a commission, which typically covers marketing reach, payment processing and delivery; commission levels vary by contract, region and whether the venue uses its own couriers. Platforms also sell advertising and promotions within the app. For many venues, delivery brings incremental sales from people who would not have visited, especially in evenings and bad weather. The economics need care. After commission, packaging and the cost of food and labour, the margin on a delivery order can be thin, and promotions funded by the venue can erase it entirely. Price menus on the platform to account for commission, which many venues do while keeping the same dishes. Track delivery profitability separately in your accounts. Remember that delivery customers judge you on food that has travelled, so design or adapt dishes accordingly rather than simply boxing the dine-in menu. - Platforms charge commission on each order - Venue-funded promotions can erase margins - Many venues price platform menus higher - Track delivery profitability separately #### Platform-delivered versus own-courier models Most platforms offer two broad models. In the platform-delivered model, the platform’s couriers collect from the venue, and commission is higher because it includes delivery. In the marketplace or own-courier model, the venue uses its own drivers or a separate courier service, and the platform takes a lower commission for listing and ordering. Own delivery gives more control over timing and customer experience but brings employment, insurance, vehicle and scheduling responsibilities, plus quiet periods where drivers are paid but idle. Some venues run their own delivery in a tight local radius and use platform couriers for wider areas or peaks. A third approach is a white-label ordering website, where the venue takes orders directly and books couriers through an on-demand delivery service, paying per delivery rather than a percentage. Whichever you choose, model the cost per order at realistic volumes, including failed deliveries, refunds and complaints, which venues often carry. Delivery is a business in its own right, and the model chosen shapes everything from packaging to staffing. - Platform delivery carries higher commission - Own couriers bring employment and insurance duties - White-label ordering pays per delivery - Model cost per order including refunds #### Delivery tablets and order injection Each delivery platform traditionally supplies its own tablet, so a busy venue might have several devices pinging on the pass, each requiring staff to accept orders and re-key them into the till. That is slow, error-prone and distracting. Order injection, through direct integrations or middleware, sends delivery orders straight into the EPOS and kitchen display as if they were rung on the till, with items mapped to the right buttons and modifiers. Benefits include accurate tickets, consolidated reporting and stock deduction. Menu management tools can also push menu changes and availability to all platforms at once, so a sold-out dish disappears everywhere. Mapping is the work: each platform item must link to an EPOS item, and modifiers must match. Errors cause wrong dishes or orders that fail to arrive. Test new items before going live. Keep an eye on order status changes, since platforms often need the venue to confirm acceptance and mark food as ready; failing to do so harms ratings and can trigger automatic cancellation. - Separate tablets require manual re-keying - Order injection sends orders straight to the till - Item mapping must be maintained - Confirm acceptance and readiness promptly #### Ratings, rankings and delivery operations Delivery platforms rank venues in search results using signals that typically include ratings, reliability, preparation time accuracy, cancellations, order volume and paid promotion. Exact algorithms are not public, but the operational lessons are consistent. Accept orders quickly. Set realistic preparation times and update them when busy, rather than letting riders wait. Avoid cancelling orders because an item is unavailable; keep the menu synced. Pack orders accurately, with sealed bags and checklists, since missing items are a leading complaint and refunds often come out of the venue’s payout. Respond professionally to reviews where the platform allows it. Use the platform’s reporting to see which items get complaints, and adjust dishes that travel badly. Pausing the platform during a dine-in rush is better than accepting orders you cannot fulfil, but frequent pausing may itself affect visibility. Packaging that keeps food hot and intact, and is sustainable where possible, improves ratings. Treat delivery operations with the same discipline as the pass, assigning a person to own them on busy nights. - Ranking signals include ratings and reliability - Set realistic prep times and update them - Missing items are a leading complaint - Assign a person to own delivery on busy nights #### Dark kitchens and delivery-only brands A dark kitchen, also called a ghost or cloud kitchen, produces food only for delivery and collection, with no dining room. Some are standalone sites in industrial units or purpose-built hubs with multiple kitchens; others are existing restaurant kitchens running additional delivery-only brands, often called virtual brands, from the same space. The appeal is lower rent, no front-of-house costs and the ability to test concepts quickly. The challenges are dependence on delivery platforms for customers, high commission, intense competition in the apps, and the need for strong marketing without a physical presence. Virtual brands in existing kitchens can use spare capacity, but adding menus increases complexity, inventory and staff training, and can slow the main business. Planning permission and environmental health requirements still apply; extraction, odour and noise from industrial-style dark kitchen sites have caused disputes with neighbours and planning objections in some places. Run the numbers carefully, including the full cost of commission and marketing, before assuming that removing the dining room automatically makes a kitchen more profitable. - Dark kitchens serve delivery and collection only - Virtual brands share an existing kitchen - Platform dependence and commission are key risks - Planning and extraction still apply #### Packaging for delivery Packaging decides whether delivery food arrives in a state worth its price. Hot food needs containers that retain heat without trapping so much steam that fried items go soggy; vented lids help. Sauces travel separately in sealed pots. Liquids such as soups need leak-proof containers and secure lids, ideally with tamper-evident seals so guests trust the food has not been opened. Separating hot and cold items prevents salads wilting next to a curry. Packaging regulations are tightening in the UK: bans on certain single-use plastic items such as plates, cutlery, polystyrene food containers and cups came into force in England in October 2023, with similar measures elsewhere in the UK, and extended producer responsibility for packaging is being introduced, which may affect costs. Choose packaging that complies and that customers can dispose of easily; label recyclability clearly. Packaging is a significant cost per order, so include it in menu pricing. Test packaging by ordering your own food and checking how it arrives after a realistic journey. - Vented lids help fried food stay crisp - Tamper-evident seals build trust - England banned some single-use plastics in October 2023 - Test packaging with real deliveries #### Direct online ordering Many venues build their own online ordering for collection and delivery to reduce dependence on platforms. Direct ordering tools provide a menu website or app, take payment and send orders to the EPOS or kitchen display. Commission is usually lower or replaced by a subscription or per-order fee, and the venue keeps the customer relationship, including consented contact details for marketing. The catch is that direct ordering does not bring new customers by itself; it relies on the venue’s own marketing, such as social media, email, its website, flyers in delivery bags and loyalty offers. A common strategy is to use platforms for discovery and encourage repeat customers to order direct next time, for example with a discount code in the bag, though platform terms may restrict direct marketing to platform customers, so check your contract. Direct ordering needs reliable fulfilment, possibly via on-demand courier services. Make the ordering website quick, mobile-friendly and simple, as any friction pushes customers back to the apps they are used to. - Direct ordering lowers commission - Venues keep the customer relationship - Direct ordering relies on your own marketing - Check platform terms on marketing to their customers #### Delivery customer data and platform terms When a customer orders through a platform, the platform usually controls their personal data. The venue may receive a first name, a delivery address and order details for fulfilment but often not an email address or permission to market to them. Using that data for anything beyond fulfilling the order can breach the platform’s terms and data protection law. This is one of the main strategic downsides of platform delivery: the venue builds the platform’s customer base rather than its own. Platforms provide aggregated reporting, such as order volume, popular items and ratings, which is still useful. To build your own customer base, offer a direct ordering option and give a genuine reason to use it, such as better prices, loyalty points or exclusive dishes, while respecting any contractual restrictions. Delivery addresses must be handled securely and deleted when no longer needed. Staff should not keep or photograph platform order details. If a customer contacts the venue directly with a complaint, follow the platform’s complaint process unless you have consent to handle it directly. - Platforms usually control customer data - Use platform data only for fulfilment - Build your own base via direct ordering - Follow platform complaint processes #### Multi-brand kitchen operations Running several delivery brands from one kitchen needs strong systems. Each brand has its own menu and packaging, but they draw on shared ingredients and stations. Order injection into one kitchen display, with brand labels, avoids confusion. Menus should be designed around shared components to keep inventory manageable: the same chicken thigh, rice and sauces in different combinations, for example. Packing stations need brand-specific packaging and checklists so a burger brand’s order does not leave in a curry brand’s bag. Staff training must cover all brands’ dishes, and recipe cards on screens help. Reporting should separate brands to show which are profitable. Allergen management becomes more complex with more menus, so maintain a single ingredient and allergen database. Too many brands can overwhelm a kitchen; it is better to run a few well than many badly. Watch platform rules on virtual brands, as some platforms have reviewed or restricted duplicate listings that offer the same food under different names. - Design menus around shared components - Brand-labelled tickets avoid confusion - Use a single allergen database across brands - Platforms may restrict duplicate brand listings ### CRM and guest data #### What a hospitality CRM does A customer relationship management system, or CRM, collects information about guests from different sources, such as reservations, EPOS spend, Wi-Fi logins, online ordering, loyalty programmes and email sign-ups, and combines them into profiles. It then helps the venue communicate with guests through segmented email or text campaigns, birthday offers, win-back messages to lapsed guests and feedback surveys. For multi-site groups, a CRM shows how guests move between sites. The value comes from relevance: a guest who always orders vegan dishes should receive news of a new vegan menu, not a steak night. The risks are data protection, data quality and over-messaging. Under UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, electronic marketing to individuals generally requires consent, though the soft opt-in permits marketing similar products to existing customers who were given a chance to opt out when their details were collected. Profiles merged incorrectly create embarrassing errors. Measure success by repeat visits and spend from guests who received messages, not just email open rates. - CRMs combine data from bookings, tills and Wi-Fi - Relevance drives results - Electronic marketing generally needs consent - Measure repeat visits, not just opens #### Guest Wi-Fi as a data source Guest Wi-Fi portals often ask users to log in with an email address or social account, sometimes in exchange for marketing consent. That can grow a venue’s contact list, but it must be done lawfully. Under UK data protection rules, consent must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, and it should not be bundled as a condition of service unless necessary. Making marketing consent a condition of using Wi-Fi is likely to be problematic; offer Wi-Fi with an optional tick box for marketing instead. Be clear about what data is collected, such as device identifiers, time of visit and dwell time, and how it is used. Location analytics, which estimate footfall and dwell from devices, raise further privacy questions and should be transparent. Keep guest Wi-Fi separate from the business network, with client isolation so guests cannot see each other’s devices. Filter inappropriate content, especially in family venues. Wi-Fi data can show visit frequency and peak times, which is useful, but it is only as good as the honesty of collection. - Marketing consent should be optional on Wi-Fi - Explain what device data is collected - Separate guest Wi-Fi from business networks - Use client isolation and content filtering #### Loyalty programmes and apps Loyalty schemes range from paper stamp cards to apps with points, tiers and personalised rewards. Digital schemes link to the EPOS so that points accrue automatically when a guest identifies themselves, by scanning a QR code, tapping a card or giving a phone number. Some card-linked schemes recognise a guest’s payment card without a separate step. The data shows visit frequency, spend and preferences, which helps target offers. Design matters more than technology. Rewards should be achievable and meaningful; a free coffee after ten visits works for a café, while experiences or early access might suit a restaurant group. Avoid schemes that simply give away margin to guests who would have come anyway. Measure incremental visits and spend among members against similar non-members. Keep the sign-up quick, since long forms reduce uptake. Consider the cost of points as a liability in the accounts. Apps need ongoing maintenance and a reason for guests to keep them installed; many venues find a simple digital wallet card or text-based scheme more practical than a dedicated app. - Digital loyalty links points to the EPOS - Rewards should be achievable and meaningful - Measure incremental visits against non-members - Simple wallet or text schemes can beat dedicated apps #### Email and text marketing practice Email and text marketing remain among the most cost-effective ways for venues to bring guests back. Practical lessons: build your list lawfully, through bookings, Wi-Fi, website sign-ups and in-venue prompts, recording what each person consented to and when. Segment by behaviour, such as lapsed guests, regulars, lunchtime visitors and private dining enquirers. Send messages with a clear purpose, such as a new menu, an event, a seasonal offer or a quiet-night promotion, rather than generic newsletters. Keep text messages short, relevant and infrequent, since they are more intrusive; include an easy opt-out. Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, every marketing message must identify the sender and offer a simple way to unsubscribe, which must be honoured promptly. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 has raised the maximum fines for breaches of these rules to align with UK GDPR levels, increasing the stakes. Measure results by bookings and sales attributed to campaigns where possible. Clean lists regularly; sending to inactive or bounced addresses harms deliverability. - Record what each person consented to and when - Segment by behaviour - Every message needs an easy opt-out - Penalties for marketing breaches have risen #### Review platforms and reputation management Online reviews strongly influence where people eat and stay. Reputation management tools gather reviews from multiple sites into one dashboard, alert managers to new reviews, analyse sentiment and help draft replies. Responding to reviews, both positive and negative, shows guests that the venue listens. Responses should be prompt, polite and specific, avoiding defensiveness and never revealing personal information about the guest. Take serious complaints offline with a contact point. Analyse themes: if many reviews mention slow service at weekend brunch, look at staffing and kitchen flow then. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, in force from April 2025, explicitly bans fake reviews and concealed incentivised reviews, and businesses must not commission or publish fake reviews or misleadingly present reviews. Offering incentives for positive reviews only, or selectively asking happy guests while suppressing negative ones in ways that mislead, risks breaching the rules. Asking all guests for honest feedback is fine. Some review management tools offer to gate requests to happy guests; avoid that approach. - Respond promptly and politely to reviews - Analyse review themes to fix operations - Fake reviews are banned under the 2024 Act - Do not gate review requests to happy guests #### Single customer view across systems A single customer view means combining all the data held about a guest into one profile: bookings, visits, spend, preferences, feedback, marketing consent and loyalty status. In practice, data sits in separate systems that identify guests differently: the reservation system by name, phone and email; the EPOS by card token or loyalty ID; Wi-Fi by email or device; online ordering by account. Matching records reliably is hard. Exact email matching works when available; fuzzy matching on names and phone numbers risks merging different people with similar details. Card-based matching raises privacy questions and depends on provider support. A practical approach is to start with the systems that share a strong identifier, typically email, and accept that some data will remain separate. Keep consent records attached to profiles so marketing respects choices across systems. Avoid collecting data simply because it can be collected; focus on what improves service or marketing. Explain in your privacy notice how data from different sources is combined. - Systems identify guests differently - Fuzzy matching risks merging different people - Start with strong identifiers like email - Explain data combination in privacy notices #### Privacy notices and cookie banners for venues Venues collecting guest data need a clear privacy notice explaining what data is collected, why, the lawful basis, who it is shared with, how long it is kept and guests’ rights. It should cover bookings, Wi-Fi, CCTV, online ordering, marketing, loyalty and recruitment. Keep it in plain English and link it from booking confirmations, the website and Wi-Fi portals. Cookie banners on websites must allow guests to refuse non-essential cookies, such as analytics and advertising, as easily as accepting them, and non-essential cookies should not load before consent. The ICO has been reviewing cookie compliance on major websites and expects reject buttons to be as prominent as accept. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 introduced some exemptions from consent for certain low-risk analytics cookies, but details are being implemented, so check the current guidance. Third-party booking widgets, ordering tools and chat tools often set cookies; review them. Registering with the ICO and paying the data protection fee is required for most businesses processing personal data. - Privacy notices must explain lawful basis and rights - Rejecting cookies must be as easy as accepting - Some low-risk analytics cookie exemptions are being introduced - Most businesses must pay the ICO data protection fee #### CCTV in venues CCTV is common in hospitality for security, incident investigation and licensing conditions; some premises licences require it with specific retention periods. CCTV recording identifiable people is personal data under UK GDPR. Venues must have a clear purpose, signage telling people that CCTV is in use and who operates it, secure storage, limited access and a retention period, often around a month unless footage is needed for an incident or a licence condition sets a different period. Guests and staff can request footage of themselves, and venues must respond, redacting other people where necessary. Audio recording is more intrusive and harder to justify. Cameras should not cover areas with high privacy expectations such as toilets and changing rooms. Using CCTV to monitor staff performance needs careful justification and transparency. Modern cloud-connected cameras increase convenience but require secure passwords, updated firmware and attention to where footage is stored. Make sure several trained people can retrieve footage quickly, as police or licensing authorities may request it after an incident. - Licences may require CCTV and retention periods - Signage must state who operates CCTV - People can request footage of themselves - Secure cloud cameras with strong passwords and updates #### Vendor lock-in and data portability Hospitality software often makes it easy to join and hard to leave. Contracts may run for several years with automatic renewal, hardware may be tied to the software, integrations may be proprietary, and data may be hard to export. Before signing, check the contract length, notice period, renewal terms and early exit fees. Confirm that you can export your data, including sales history, guest profiles with consent records, recipes and stock records, in a usable format such as CSV, and test the export. Ask who owns the data. Some providers treat guest data from their marketplace as theirs. Avoid bundles where switching one element, such as card processing, forces you to change everything. Keep your own records of key data, such as menus and recipes, outside any single system. Data portability rights under UK GDPR apply to individuals, not businesses, so your rights as a business depend on the contract. A little care before signing can save a painful migration later, or a choice between staying with a poor system and losing years of data. - Check contract length, renewal and exit fees - Test data export before signing - Confirm who owns guest data - Business data rights depend on the contract #### Music streaming and licensing tech Background music systems in venues now often stream from business music services, which offer licensed playlists, scheduling by time of day and control from a phone. Consumer streaming services typically do not permit public performance in businesses under their terms, so venues should use a business service. Separately, playing music in public in the UK generally requires a licence, usually TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS Ltd, which covers both recordings and compositions for most businesses; the cost depends on the type of venue and use. Live music, DJs and events may also need appropriate licensing and, under the Licensing Act 2003, regulated entertainment rules, though some live music has been deregulated in certain circumstances. Music systems connected to the network should be secured like other devices. Scheduling tools help match music to service, such as quieter music at lunch and more energy later, and some systems link volume to time of day to avoid complaints from neighbours. Keep records of the licence and service, since licensing inspectors may ask. - Consumer streaming terms usually exclude business use - TheMusicLicence covers most public music use - Regulated entertainment rules may apply to events - Schedule music and volume by time of day #### Digital signage and menu boards Digital menu boards and signage replace printed boards with screens that can be updated remotely, show different menus by time of day, promote specials and remove sold-out items. Quick-service venues use them widely, and pubs and cafés increasingly use them for drinks lists and events. Benefits include flexibility, reduced printing and consistent pricing across sites. Costs include screens, mounting, content management software, energy and the need for someone to keep content fresh. Stale content is worse than a chalkboard. Integration with the EPOS can keep prices and availability in sync automatically. Calorie labelling rules for large businesses in England apply to digital menus as well as printed ones, so if you are covered, screens must show calories in the right way. Allergen signposting should also be visible. Make sure text is large enough to read from the queue and that the design remains accessible, with good contrast. Screens should be secured on the network to avoid tampering; a hijacked menu screen is an embarrassing and visible incident. - Digital boards can change by time of day - EPOS integration keeps prices in sync - Calorie rules apply to digital menus too - Stale screens are worse than chalkboards #### Accessibility of venue websites A venue’s website is often the first point of contact, and it should be usable by everyone, including people using screen readers, keyboard navigation, magnification or voice control. The Equality Act 2010 requires reasonable adjustments by service providers, which can extend to online services. Practical steps: provide menus as accessible web pages, not only as image or PDF files, since PDF menus are often unreadable for screen reader users and awkward on phones; give images descriptive alt text; ensure good colour contrast; label form fields in booking widgets; and make phone numbers and email addresses clickable. Publish access information clearly, such as step-free access, accessible toilets, hearing loops, lighting and noise levels, quiet times, assistance dogs and parking. Many disabled guests check access information before booking, and its absence is a reason to go elsewhere. Test your site with a screen reader on a phone and with keyboard-only navigation. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide a widely used standard. Improving accessibility usually improves the experience and search visibility for everyone. - Publish menus as web pages, not just PDFs - Give images descriptive alt text - Publish detailed access information - Test with a screen reader and keyboard ### AI in hospitality #### AI in hospitality: where it helps Artificial intelligence tools are spreading through hospitality, often embedded in existing software rather than sold separately. Common uses include demand forecasting for rotas and purchasing, dynamic pricing for hotel rooms and some events, chatbots and voice assistants for booking enquiries, review analysis and draft responses, menu description writing, translation, image generation for marketing, invoice reading, and smart cameras for waste or queue monitoring. The most valuable uses tend to be unglamorous: forecasting that slightly improves staffing accuracy, or automatic invoice capture that saves hours of data entry. The least valuable are those that remove human warmth from moments where guests expect it. Before adopting an AI tool, ask what specific problem it solves, how it will be measured, what data it uses, whether that data includes personal information and where it is processed, and what happens when it is wrong. Treat AI outputs as suggestions requiring human judgement, especially for allergens, legal matters and guest communications. AI is a tool for the team, not a replacement for hospitality. - AI is often embedded in existing tools - Forecasting and invoice capture deliver quiet value - Ask what problem it solves and how it is measured - Treat outputs as suggestions needing judgement #### AI booking assistants and phone answering AI phone and chat assistants can answer common questions, such as opening times, parking and dietary options, and take or amend bookings by integrating with the reservation system. For busy venues that miss many calls during service, this can recover bookings and free staff. The risks are errors, frustrated callers and data protection. Assistants can misunderstand accents, background noise or complex requests, such as a large party with allergies and a wheelchair user. Design the assistant to hand over to a human easily, to say clearly that it is automated, and to confirm bookings in writing. Never let an assistant give definitive allergen assurances; it should direct guests to speak to the team and record the allergy for staff follow-up. Call recordings and transcripts are personal data, so tell callers about recording, limit retention and check where the provider processes and stores data. Monitor transcripts regularly for errors and recurring questions. A well-designed assistant handles routine calls and makes the human calls better, not fewer. - Assistants can recover missed calls during service - Make handover to a human easy - Never let AI give allergen assurances - Tell callers about recording and limit retention #### AI-generated content and menus Generative AI tools can draft menu descriptions, social posts, job adverts, emails and website copy, and generate images. They save time, especially for small teams. Accuracy is the key risk. A generated menu description might invent an ingredient, a provenance claim or a cooking method that is not true, which can mislead guests and, for allergens and food descriptions, create legal and safety risks. Food descriptions must not mislead consumers under food information law, so terms such as local, homemade, fresh or a named origin should be accurate. AI images of dishes can mislead if they look nothing like what arrives. Always have someone who knows the food check and edit AI drafts. Keep brand voice consistent; generic AI prose can make every venue sound the same. Be careful with job adverts, which must not discriminate. Check the terms of AI tools for how your inputs are used and avoid putting guest or staff personal data into tools that do not provide appropriate protections. Use AI as a first draft, never the final word. - AI drafts can invent ingredients or provenance - Food descriptions must not mislead - AI dish images can mislead guests - Do not put personal data into unsuitable tools #### Dynamic pricing in hospitality Dynamic pricing changes prices based on demand. Hotels have used it for decades through revenue management; airlines too. It is spreading to restaurant reservations, ticketed dining, events, and occasionally food and drink, such as happy hours, which are a simple form. AI-driven systems can adjust prices in real time using demand forecasts. For hotels, guests broadly accept variable room rates. For restaurants and pubs, variable menu prices are more controversial; guests can feel exploited if a pint costs more because the room is busy. Off-peak discounts tend to be received better than peak surcharges, even when the economics are similar. Pricing must be transparent: under UK consumer protection law, including the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, prices shown must be accurate and include mandatory charges, and drip pricing, where unavoidable fees are revealed late, is prohibited. Licensing conditions and mandatory licensing conditions restrict irresponsible drinks promotions, which applies to discounted drinks. Test any dynamic pricing carefully with guest feedback, and be ready to explain it. - Hotels have used dynamic pricing for decades - Off-peak discounts are better received than surcharges - Drip pricing is prohibited - Licensing rules restrict irresponsible drinks promotions #### Forecasting with machine learning Machine learning forecasting tools predict covers, sales, room demand or product usage by learning from historical data plus external factors such as weather, events, holidays and local trends. They can outperform simple rules of thumb, particularly where demand varies with many factors. The gains are usually modest but valuable: a small improvement in staffing accuracy or prep quantities, repeated across every shift, adds up. Forecasts depend on good data; a year with closures, refurbishments or unusual events can confuse models unless those periods are flagged. Check forecasts against what managers expect, and investigate big disagreements; sometimes the model sees a pattern humans missed, sometimes it is plain wrong. Keep humans in the loop for decisions, using forecasts as inputs. Track forecast accuracy over time, for example the average error by day, to see whether the tool actually improves on previous methods. A forecast that nobody trusts and nobody uses is worthless, so involve managers in reviewing it and explain the drivers behind predictions where the tool allows. - Models use history plus weather and events - Gains are usually modest but cumulative - Flag unusual periods in historical data - Track forecast accuracy over time #### AI cameras and computer vision Computer vision systems use cameras and AI to recognise objects or behaviours. In hospitality, examples include smart bins that identify food waste, cameras that count queue length or table occupancy, systems that monitor pour volumes at bars, and kitchen cameras checking plating against a reference. They can produce useful data without manual logging. They also raise significant privacy and employment concerns, especially when they capture identifiable staff or guests. Under UK GDPR, the venue must have a lawful basis, inform people, minimise data, and carry out a data protection impact assessment for high-risk processing. Facial recognition is particularly sensitive; it involves biometric data, and the ICO has taken action and issued guidance on its use in commercial settings. Using cameras to monitor staff productivity can damage trust and may be disproportionate. Prefer systems that process images on the device and discard them, retaining only anonymous counts or measurements. Consult staff before introducing systems that observe them. Always ask whether a simpler, less intrusive method could achieve the same aim. - Uses include waste, queues and plating checks - Facial recognition involves biometric data - Carry out impact assessments for high-risk processing - Prefer on-device processing that keeps only counts #### AI and guest data protection AI tools often process personal data: booking details, guest messages, reviews, call recordings, staff rotas and CCTV. UK GDPR applies fully. Before adopting an AI tool, find out where data is processed and stored, whether it is used to train the provider’s models, how long it is kept, and whether the provider acts as a processor under a written agreement. Avoid pasting guest or staff personal data into consumer AI tools without appropriate terms. Automated decision-making with legal or similarly significant effects on individuals, such as automatically rejecting job applicants, has specific rules, and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 changed some of those rules while keeping safeguards, including the right to human review, so check current guidance. Be transparent with guests and staff about AI use, especially in chatbots, calls and recruitment. Keep humans responsible for decisions affecting people, such as hiring, discipline and complaint outcomes. The ICO has published guidance on AI and data protection, which is a sensible starting point for venues adopting these tools. - Check where AI providers process and store data - Ask whether data trains provider models - Automated significant decisions need safeguards - Keep humans responsible for decisions about people #### AI in recruitment Recruitment tools increasingly use AI to screen CVs, rank candidates, run chat-based applications and schedule interviews. For high-volume hospitality hiring, they save time. They also carry risks. Screening tools can reproduce bias, filtering out candidates based on gaps in employment, names, postcodes or language patterns, which can lead to indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. Automated rejection without human review raises data protection issues. Keep a human involved in decisions, review the criteria the tool uses, monitor outcomes by protected characteristics where lawful and practical, and give candidates a way to request human review or reasonable adjustments, such as an alternative to an online assessment. Be transparent that AI is used. Chat-based applications that let candidates apply quickly on a phone can widen access, particularly for roles where CVs are not normal. Avoid over-reliance on video interview analysis that claims to read personality or emotion; the scientific basis is contested, and it can disadvantage disabled candidates. A trial shift remains one of the best assessments for many hospitality roles, and must be paid if it involves real work. - AI screening can reproduce bias - Keep humans involved in hiring decisions - Offer reasonable adjustments to assessments - Emotion-reading video tools are contested #### Measuring the return on a tech purchase Every system promises to save time or make money; few venues check afterwards. Before buying, write down the expected benefit in measurable terms, such as fewer no-shows, faster table turns, lower food cost, hours saved in admin, higher spend per head or fewer errors. Record the baseline: what is the figure now? Agree a review date, typically three to six months after launch. Include the full cost: subscription, hardware, payment fees, training time, set-up and integration, and any extra staff time. At review, compare the measure with the baseline, accounting for seasonality and other changes. Ask staff whether the tool helps or hinders. Decide whether to continue, adjust or cancel, and act on the decision. Cancelling a tool that does not deliver is as valuable as buying one that does, because subscriptions accumulate. Many venues now pay for a dozen or more software subscriptions; an annual review of all of them, with usage data where available, often finds duplicates and forgotten services. - Define measurable benefits before buying - Record a baseline - Review after three to six months - Audit all subscriptions annually #### Training teams on new technology New systems fail more often from poor adoption than from poor software. Plan training before launch, not after. Identify champions in each team, such as a bartender, a server, a chef and a supervisor, who learn the system early and help colleagues. Train in short sessions on real tasks, using a training mode or test environment where available, rather than slideshows. Create one-page guides for common tasks, such as opening a tab, splitting a bill or recalling a ticket, and keep them at stations. Launch on a quiet day, with extra supervision and vendor support available, and avoid launching before a known busy period such as December. Expect a dip in speed for a week or two. Collect feedback and fix setup problems quickly; small frustrations, such as a misplaced button, cause big resistance. Include the system in induction for new starters. Ask staff what they think; they often spot workflow issues managers miss. Technology should make the job easier, and if it does not, the set-up probably needs to change. - Recruit champions in each team - Train on real tasks in short sessions - Avoid launching before busy periods - Fix small frustrations quickly #### Technology and the guest experience Technology works best when guests barely notice it. A fast booking, a correct order, a quick bill and a remembered preference feel like good hospitality, not technology. Problems arise when tech becomes visible friction: a QR code that will not load, a kiosk that confuses, a chatbot that loops, a terminal prompting for a tip before the guest has finished their coffee, or staff staring at screens instead of guests. A useful test is to ask, for each system, whether it gives staff more time and information to look after guests, or whether it pushes work onto guests. Some guests welcome self-service; others want a person. Offering choice is usually best. Watch guests using your systems and listen to feedback, including reviews that mention technology. Make sure staff can override and help when systems fail. Above all, maintain human moments: the welcome, the recommendation, the check-back, the goodbye. These are where hospitality lives, and good technology protects them rather than replacing them. - Good tech should be barely noticed - Check whether a system frees staff or burdens guests - Offer choice between self-service and people - Protect welcome, recommendation and goodbye #### Sustainability data and reporting tools Corporate clients, event organisers, investors and guests increasingly ask hospitality businesses about sustainability, such as energy use, carbon emissions, food waste, packaging and sourcing. Tools now exist to estimate the carbon footprint of menus, track energy and waste, and produce reports. Their estimates depend on assumptions and databases that vary, so present figures with care. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 strengthened the Competition and Markets Authority’s powers to enforce consumer law directly, including against misleading environmental claims, and the CMA has published guidance on green claims. Avoid vague claims such as eco-friendly or carbon neutral without clear, substantiated evidence. Specific, verifiable statements, such as reduced food waste by a measured amount using a stated method, are safer and more credible. Sustainability data overlaps with cost data: energy and waste reductions save money, so the same monitoring tools serve both purposes. Start with measuring what you use, then set realistic improvements. - Clients increasingly ask for sustainability data - Carbon estimates depend on assumptions - Avoid vague green claims without evidence - Energy and waste savings also cut costs ### Cyber security #### Cyber threats facing venues Hospitality businesses are attractive targets for cyber criminals because they handle card payments and personal data, use many connected systems and often have limited IT expertise. The most common threats are phishing emails that steal logins or install malware, invoice fraud where criminals impersonate suppliers and change bank details, ransomware that encrypts systems and demands payment, compromised booking platform accounts used to send fraudulent payment links to guests, weak or reused passwords, unpatched devices and insecure Wi-Fi. Hotels have been targeted by scams where criminals gain access to booking platform extranets and message guests asking them to re-confirm card details. Small venues are not too small to be attacked; many attacks are automated and opportunistic. The basics prevent much of the risk: strong unique passwords with a password manager, multi-factor authentication on email and key systems, software updates, backups, separate guest and business networks, and staff awareness. The National Cyber Security Centre publishes free guidance for small businesses, including a small business guide and the Cyber Essentials scheme. - Phishing and invoice fraud are common threats - Booking extranets have been used to scam guests - Small venues are targeted by automated attacks - The NCSC publishes free small business guidance #### Phishing and invoice fraud Phishing emails pretend to come from trusted sources, such as a supplier, a booking platform, a bank or a delivery company, to trick staff into clicking links, entering passwords or paying invoices. Invoice fraud, sometimes called mandate fraud or business email compromise, is particularly costly: a criminal sends an email that appears to be from a real supplier, perhaps from a hacked account, saying their bank details have changed. The venue pays the next invoice to the criminal’s account, and the money is often unrecoverable. Defences include a firm rule that any change of supplier bank details must be verified by phone using a number already held, never one in the email; multi-factor authentication on email; training staff to check sender addresses and hover over links; and caution with urgent requests to pay. Booking platforms have been abused by criminals messaging guests through the official channel, so tell guests how you will and will not ask for payment. Report phishing emails to the NCSC’s suspicious email reporting service and fraud to Action Fraud or the relevant reporting service. - Verify bank detail changes by phone on a known number - Use multi-factor authentication on email - Tell guests how you will and will not request payment - Report suspicious emails and fraud #### Passwords and multi-factor authentication Weak and reused passwords remain a leading cause of breaches. In a venue, the danger points are the shared email inbox, the EPOS back office, the booking system, delivery platform accounts, the accounting software, social media accounts and the router. A password manager allows each system to have a long, unique password, and shared business vaults let managers share access without writing passwords on sticky notes. Multi-factor authentication, where a code from an app or a security key is needed as well as a password, blocks most account takeovers even if a password is stolen; enable it on every system that supports it, starting with email, since email is the reset route for everything else. Avoid text message codes where better options exist, as they are vulnerable to SIM-swap attacks, though they are still better than nothing. When staff leave, change shared passwords and remove their accounts promptly. Change default passwords on new devices such as routers, cameras and printers. Keep an owner record for every important account, so the business does not lose access when a person leaves. - Use a password manager for unique passwords - Enable multi-factor authentication, starting with email - Change default device passwords - Keep an owner record for every account #### Ransomware and backups Ransomware encrypts a business’s files and systems and demands payment for the key, sometimes also threatening to publish stolen data. For a venue, it can lock the EPOS back office, booking data, accounts and rotas. Cloud systems reduce the exposure of on-site files but are not immune, especially if accounts are compromised. Backups are the main defence. Follow a simple rule: keep multiple copies of important data, in different places, with at least one offline or immutable copy that ransomware cannot reach. Test restoring from backups, since untested backups often fail when needed. Keep devices updated, use reputable security software, restrict administrator rights and avoid opening unexpected attachments. Know which systems are cloud-hosted and how the providers back them up; check that you can export your data. Have an incident plan: who to call, how to keep trading, for example with paper tickets and standalone card terminals, and how to notify the ICO if personal data is affected. Law enforcement and the NCSC advise against paying ransoms, which fund crime and do not guarantee recovery. - Keep at least one offline or immutable backup - Test restores regularly - Have a plan to trade on paper during an outage - Authorities advise against paying ransoms #### Network separation in venues Many venues run everything on one network: guest Wi-Fi, staff phones, EPOS terminals, card machines, CCTV, music systems, smart thermostats and the office computer. If one device is compromised, everything on the network is at risk. Network separation divides devices into segments, often called VLANs, or uses separate networks, so that guest devices cannot reach payment systems and an insecure smart device cannot reach the office PC. A typical layout separates guest Wi-Fi, payment and EPOS, staff and office devices, and building systems such as CCTV and smart controls. Card payment equipment often has specific network requirements for PCI DSS compliance, and separation can reduce the scope of compliance. A business-grade router and access points make this easier, and an IT provider can set it up. Change default router passwords, update firmware, disable remote management unless needed, and use strong Wi-Fi encryption. Do not print the business Wi-Fi password where guests can see it, and change it when staff leave. Label network equipment so that someone can restart the right device during service. - Separate guest, payment, office and building networks - Separation can reduce PCI DSS scope - Change router passwords and update firmware - Change the staff Wi-Fi password when people leave #### PCI DSS basics for venues The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, PCI DSS, is a set of security requirements set by the card industry for any business that accepts, processes, stores or transmits card data. Compliance is required by card schemes through acquirers, not by UK law directly, but non-compliance can lead to fees, higher costs after a breach and liability for fraud. Version 4.0 became the current standard in 2024, with some future-dated requirements becoming mandatory from March 2025. Most small venues validate compliance through an annual self-assessment questionnaire, choosing the version that matches how they accept cards; venues using standalone terminals or point-to-point encryption solutions typically complete simpler questionnaires. Practical essentials include never storing full card numbers or security codes, using approved terminals from your provider, keeping terminals secure and inspected for tampering, separating payment networks, using strong passwords and keeping systems updated. Your acquirer will usually tell you what is needed and may charge a monthly fee if you do not complete validation, so completing the questionnaire on time saves money. - PCI DSS is required by card schemes, not UK law - Version 4.0 is the current standard - Most small venues complete a self-assessment questionnaire - Never store full card numbers or security codes #### Card data handling rules for staff Staff behaviour is the weakest point in card security. Clear rules prevent most problems. Never write down card numbers, expiry dates or security codes on paper, in the booking diary, in email or in a spreadsheet. Never ask guests to email or message card details; if they do, delete the message and ask them to use a secure payment link. Never take card details over the phone and type them into a terminal unless the business has a process approved by the acquirer; prefer sending a payment link. Keep the card in the guest’s sight during payment, ideally by bringing the terminal to the table. Never key a card number manually into a terminal at the guest’s request unless procedures allow it, since keyed transactions carry more fraud risk. Inspect terminals for tampering, such as unusual attachments, loose casing or extra wires, and report anything suspicious to the provider. Do not lend terminal logins. Include these rules in induction and refresh them at least yearly; card fraud tactics change, and new staff may come from venues with poor habits. - Never record card numbers on paper or email - Use payment links instead of phone card details - Keep cards in the guest’s sight - Inspect terminals for tampering #### Point-to-point encryption and tokenisation Point-to-point encryption, often called P2PE, encrypts card data inside the payment terminal as soon as the card is read, so it travels to the payment processor in a form the venue’s systems cannot read. If the venue’s network is compromised, the card data is protected. Validated P2PE solutions can greatly reduce the PCI DSS compliance burden for merchants. Tokenisation replaces a card number with a token, a reference that only the payment provider can map back to the card. Venues can store tokens to charge no-show fees, process refunds or recognise returning guests without ever holding card numbers. Together these technologies mean that a modern venue should never need to see, store or transmit raw card data itself. When choosing payment systems, ask whether the solution is validated P2PE, how tokens are used, and which PCI DSS self-assessment questionnaire applies. Avoid systems or workarounds that bring raw card data into your own environment, such as entering card numbers into a booking system that is not designed to tokenise them, because that expands your compliance responsibility and risk. - P2PE encrypts card data inside the terminal - Validated P2PE reduces compliance burden - Tokens let venues charge later without card numbers - Avoid workarounds that handle raw card data #### Data breaches and the ICO A personal data breach is a security incident leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data. Examples in hospitality include a hacked booking system, a lost laptop with guest lists, an email sent to all guests with addresses visible, or a staff member viewing guest data without reason. Under UK GDPR, if a breach is likely to result in a risk to people’s rights and freedoms, the business must report it to the ICO without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours of becoming aware of it. If the risk to individuals is high, they must also be told directly. Keep an internal log of all breaches, including those not reported, with the facts, effects and actions taken. Prepare in advance: know who decides on reporting, have the ICO reporting route to hand, and know how to contact affected guests. Card data breaches also need reporting to your acquirer. Act quickly to contain the breach, such as changing passwords and isolating devices, and seek specialist help for serious incidents. - Report risky breaches to the ICO within 72 hours where feasible - Tell individuals directly if the risk is high - Log all breaches, including unreported ones - Card breaches also go to the acquirer #### Cyber Essentials for hospitality Cyber Essentials is a UK government-backed certification scheme that sets basic technical controls to protect against common cyber attacks. It covers five areas: firewalls, secure configuration, user access control, malware protection and security update management. Cyber Essentials involves a self-assessment verified by a certification body; Cyber Essentials Plus adds a hands-on technical audit. For hospitality businesses, certification demonstrates a baseline of security to guests, corporate clients and partners, and some public sector contracts require it. Even without certification, the five controls make a sensible checklist: set up firewalls and router security, remove unnecessary software and change default passwords, give staff only the access they need, use anti-malware protection, and keep devices and software updated with security patches applied promptly. The scheme includes requirements for devices used to access business data, including staff phones in some cases, which can be awkward in hospitality where staff use personal phones for rota apps. The NCSC publishes the requirements, and an IT provider can help small venues reach the standard. - Cyber Essentials covers five technical controls - Plus adds a hands-on audit - Some public contracts require it - The controls make a useful checklist anyway #### Staff devices and BYOD Many hospitality workers use personal phones for rota apps, staff communication, tip apps and sometimes taking orders or payments. This is called bring your own device, or BYOD. It is convenient but creates security and privacy issues. Business data on personal phones, such as guest booking details or shared photos, may be lost or leaked if the phone is lost or the staff member leaves. Keep personal phone use to systems designed for it, such as rota apps with their own login, and avoid storing guest personal data on personal devices. Business-owned devices are better for order taking, payments and accessing guest data, with management software that can lock or wipe them remotely. Respect staff privacy: do not require installing intrusive software on personal phones. Set a simple policy covering which apps may be used for work, no photos of guests or guest data, locking phones with a PIN or biometrics, and what happens when people leave. Remember that requiring staff to use their own phones and data for work can raise expense and fairness questions. - Avoid storing guest data on personal phones - Use business devices for orders and payments - Do not install intrusive software on personal phones - Set a short BYOD policy #### Choosing an IT support provider Few venues have in-house IT staff, so the choice of support provider matters. Look for a provider who understands hospitality: trading hours, the urgency of a dead EPOS on Saturday night, the mix of systems from different vendors, and tight budgets. Key questions: what hours do they support, and how quickly will they respond to a critical issue? Can they manage network separation, backups, security updates and device management? Do they have experience with your EPOS, booking and payment systems, or at least with the network they rely on? What does the contract cover and what costs extra? Many venue problems sit between vendors, such as a card terminal that cannot reach its server because of a router setting, so a provider who will coordinate rather than blame others is valuable. Keep documentation of your systems, passwords in a shared vault, network diagrams and vendor contacts, so any provider can help quickly. Even with a provider, nominate an internal owner who understands the basics and can make decisions. - Check response times for critical issues - Look for experience with hospitality systems - Prefer providers who coordinate between vendors - Keep documentation in a shared vault #### Broadband resilience and failover Almost every system in a modern venue depends on the internet: card payments, cloud EPOS, bookings, delivery orders, music streaming and staff apps. A broadband failure can stop trading. Resilience starts with a business-grade connection with a service level agreement for repair times. A backup connection, usually via a 4G or 5G router, can take over automatically when the main line fails; many business routers support automatic failover. Prioritise critical traffic, such as payments and EPOS, over guest Wi-Fi and music when on the backup link, since mobile data may be slower. Check that card terminals can use the backup connection or have their own SIM cards. Power cuts take the router down too, so a small uninterruptible power supply for the router, switch and key terminals can keep things running briefly. Test failover periodically by unplugging the main line during a quiet time. Keep a list of what works offline and what does not, and train supervisors on the outage procedure. The cost of a backup line is usually small compared with one lost Saturday night. - Use a business connection with a repair SLA - Mobile backup routers can fail over automatically - Prioritise payments on backup links - Test failover during quiet periods #### Smart building devices and the internet of things Venues increasingly use connected devices: smart thermostats, fridge sensors, cellar monitors, CCTV, music systems, lighting controls, door locks, coffee machines and even kitchen equipment that reports performance. These internet of things devices bring convenience and data, but many have weak security, default passwords and infrequent updates. A compromised device can be a gateway into the network or be recruited into attacks on others. Practical steps: buy from reputable manufacturers that commit to security updates; the UK’s Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure regime, in force since April 2024, bans universal default passwords on consumer connectable products and requires manufacturers to publish how long they will provide security updates, which helps buyers. Change any default credentials, place devices on a separate network segment, keep firmware updated, and disable features you do not use, such as remote access. Keep an inventory of connected devices and who manages each. When a device reaches the end of its update period, plan to replace it. Check how vendors use the data the devices collect. - Many connected devices have weak security - UK rules ban universal default passwords since April 2024 - Place smart devices on a separate network - Keep an inventory and plan replacements #### Website security and booking fraud A venue’s website is a shopfront and a target. Attacks include defacement, malicious code injected into pages to steal data, fake booking pages imitating the venue, and spam using contact forms. Websites built on popular platforms need prompt updates to the platform, themes and plugins; outdated plugins are a common entry point. Use reputable hosting, HTTPS, strong admin passwords with multi-factor authentication, and regular backups. Embedded booking and ordering widgets should come from trusted providers. Fake websites and social media pages impersonating venues have been used to take fake deposits for bookings or events; monitor search results and social media for impersonation, and report fake pages to the platform. Make your official booking routes clear on your website and in confirmations, so guests can recognise genuine messages. If your domain email is used, set up email authentication records such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC with your provider, which make it harder for criminals to send email that appears to come from your domain and help your genuine emails reach inboxes. - Update website platforms and plugins promptly - Fake booking pages have taken deposits - Make official booking routes clear - Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your domain #### Incident response for a venue When something goes wrong, such as a hacked email account, a ransomware infection, a lost tablet or a payment outage, a short written incident plan saves time and mistakes. The plan should list who is in charge, how to reach the IT provider and key vendors, and immediate steps: change passwords, enable multi-factor authentication, disconnect infected devices from the network, and preserve evidence such as logs and suspicious emails. It should explain how to keep trading, for example paper tickets, standalone card terminals, a printed copy of bookings and reverting to manual stock counts. It should cover communication: who tells staff, guests and suppliers, and what they say. It should note legal duties, such as reporting a personal data breach to the ICO within 72 hours where required, reporting card data incidents to the acquirer and reporting fraud. Print the plan and keep it with the outage card, since a compromised system may not be accessible. Review it after any incident and at least yearly. A plan that fits on two pages is more likely to be used than a long policy. - Name who is in charge of incidents - Keep trading with paper and standalone terminals - Note ICO and acquirer reporting duties - Print the plan in case systems are inaccessible #### Cyber insurance for hospitality Cyber insurance can cover costs from cyber incidents, such as incident response, data recovery, business interruption, legal advice, notification costs and, in some cases, liability claims. Some policies include access to an incident response team, which is valuable for small businesses without IT staff. Policies vary widely in what they cover, exclusions and conditions. Many insurers now require basic security controls, such as multi-factor authentication, backups and updates, and may refuse claims if those were not in place. Read the policy carefully: check whether business interruption cover includes loss of trading from a cloud provider’s outage or only from attacks on your own systems, whether social engineering fraud such as invoice fraud is covered, and how payment card incidents are handled. Some general business policies include limited cyber cover; check before buying separately. Insurance is not a substitute for security, but it can help a small business survive an incident. Keep records of your security measures to support any claim, and notify the insurer promptly when an incident occurs. - Policies may include incident response support - Insurers often require MFA and backups - Check business interruption and fraud cover - Notify insurers promptly after incidents