Hotel POS Software for Kitchens, Counters and Guest Folios
A hotel point of sale system has to do three jobs that a shop till cannot. It has to send orders to the kitchen in a format cooks can read, it has to record what was actually produced so the end-of-service stock count is honest, and it has to roll restaurant charges onto a guest folio so the front desk settles one account instead of six.
What a hotel POS has to do that a retail POS does not
Hotel food and beverage is a different trade from retail. Six requirements separate the two.
Kitchen order tickets
Orders print or display at the kitchen with item-level detail, and can be held and recalled when a table changes its mind mid-service.
Table and room layouts
Waiters work from a table map rather than a product list, and a room number can be attached to a charge the same way a table number can.
Production-based stock
Stock is deducted by what the kitchen actually produced, against recipes, not by what the sales report says should have been used.
Multi-terminal over LAN
A lead till, additional till terminals and a stock terminal talk to each other across the hotel network without depending on the internet.
Folio billing
Restaurant, bar and laundry charges accumulate on a guest folio, so checkout produces one bill instead of a folder of receipts.
ESC/POS kitchen printing
Thermal printers in the kitchen and at the bar are driven directly from the terminals, with no cloud printing service in the path.
Three approaches to hotel and restaurant POS
Most hotel disappointments come from buying the middle column and discovering it stops at the kitchen door.
| Capability | Retail POS with add-ons | Restaurant POS (KOT only) | WIK POS Hotel Edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen order tickets | No | Yes | Yes, with Hold and Recall |
| Table maps | No | Yes | Yes |
| Production-based stock | No | Rarely | Yes, with daily production log |
| Multi-terminal LAN | Varies | Usually yes | Yes: lead till, till and stock terminals |
| Room folio billing | No | No | Yes |
| ESC/POS kitchen printing | Varies | Yes | Yes |
| M-Pesa | Varies | Varies | Manual Till or Paybill reference |
| KRA eTIMS invoices | Varies | Varies | On the roadmap, not yet shipped |
| Runs without internet | Varies | Usually | Yes, offline on local SQLite |
| Price | Varies | Varies | KES 30,000 perpetual or KES 2,000 / month |
From order to kitchen to folio
This is the loop that has to survive a full house on a Saturday night.
Two honest limitations
KRA eTIMS fiscalisation for the Hotel edition is on the roadmap and has not shipped, so hotels currently issue tax invoices through their existing KRA process. M-Pesa at the hotel counter is handled through a manual Till or Paybill reference rather than a checkout-triggered STK push. We would rather you knew both before the demo than after the invoice.
- The waiter takes the order at the table. The order is entered against a table on the table map, with modifiers and course timing attached.
- The kitchen receives it. A kitchen order ticket prints or displays with the items, and can be held or recalled if the table changes its order.
- Production is logged. What the kitchen actually produced is recorded against recipes, so ingredient stock falls by what was used rather than by what was sold.
- The bill is settled, or posted to the room. Payment is taken as cash, a manual M-Pesa reference or a split, or the charge is posted to the guest folio.
- Front desk settles one folio. At checkout the front desk sees every restaurant, bar and room charge on a single account rather than a stack of separate receipts.
Running it across the property
Hotel service cannot stop because a wide-area connection did.
Local area network first
Terminals talk to each other over the hotel LAN. The lead till holds the database, additional till terminals take orders, and a stock terminal handles receiving and the production log. None of that depends on the internet.
Printers where the work happens
ESC/POS thermal printers are driven straight from the terminals, so kitchen and bar tickets print even when the wide-area link is down.
Data you can hand over
The database is a local SQLite file that can be backed up to any folder on a schedule, so the day of trading lives in your building and not only in someone else's cloud.
What it costs
One price for the property, with a free download to evaluate before you commit.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Licence | KES 30,000 one-time perpetual, or KES 2,000 per month |
| Trial | Free desktop download |
| Operating system | Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Linux |
| Included | Multi-terminal LAN with lead, till and stock terminals, table layouts, Kitchen Order Tickets with Hold and Recall, ESC/POS kitchen printing, production-based stock with daily production log, room folio billing, Cash, manual M-Pesa and Split payments |
| Not yet included | KRA eTIMS fiscalisation (on the roadmap); M-Pesa is manual Till or Paybill reference |
| Support | Nairobi-based engineering team |
Hotel POS FAQ
Questions we get from hotels and restaurants evaluating point of sale software in Kenya.
Have a specific requirement?
Talk directly with our engineering team in Nairobi for custom scoping or live demos.
What is a hotel POS system?
Do I need a separate POS for the restaurant and the bar?
Can a hotel POS run on the hotel's local network?
Does WIK POS Hotel support M-Pesa and KRA eTIMS?
How much does hotel POS software cost in Kenya?
How is stock handled when the kitchen produces meals?
Running hotel food and beverage on a retail till?
Book a walkthrough with our Nairobi team and we will take one service from order to kitchen to folio, so you can see where a purpose-built hotel POS stops costing you time.