What’s New the Checkout Software Brings to HoReCa Businesses

The HoReCa segment is extremely challenging in maintenance. And it’s not just about the direct client serving. Judge for yourself: the scale of effort to organize the smooth operation of any restaurant, cafe, or hotel is tremendous. At least, it’s necessary to ensure the centralized management of branched processes and set up employee work.

Until now, the point of sale system coped with it. I remind you that it’s a central point of access connecting everything and everyone involved in on-site business operations. But the software market is dynamic. Recently several vendors launched a checkout system as a robust alternative to the point of sale.

We’re here to discover how the new generation of POS software can change the HoReCa industry and what benefits it will bring to its owners.

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Checkout System for Restaurants and Cafes

POS software is a crucial tool for the operation of all businesses in this group. It ensures the checkout process, regularly provides tax authorities with reports and acts as a basis for staff communication.

Here, a point of sale is responsible for speed and quality of service provision. The waiter takes orders by using a touch screen. The data is transferred to the chefs who prepare dishes on a first-come, first-serve basis. In turn, employees at the kitchen notify waiters about the food readiness through the POS, ensuring its immediate serving.

Checkout software goes much further in its functionality. Any custom POS with a broad range of features is a checkout system. Recently, vendors have decided to create ready-made checkout software to sell as SaaS. This way, famous companies have been using checkout software for years without even knowing it.

Here is a fascinating example of checkout system operation in this domain. Fast-food giant McDonald's offers a convenient way to make on-site orders. Employees invite customers to use touch-screens for choosing dishes, the place of serving (“inside” or “to go”), and payment methods. If a visitor decides to eat inside, he should take a plastic plate with the table number, pay for the order and wait for serving.

Often McDonald's buildings have complex layouts. Therefore, it is curious how a restaurant employee can find a client by table number even in the darkest corner of the building or on the terrace.

The clue is under the above plastic plate with the table number and looks like a small chip.

McDonald's checkout software contains a sort of tracking module inside. The system creates a digital twin of the internal & external restaurant environment and allows tracking the movement of table number plates in real-time. Therefore, employees do not participate in the “Find the proper table” quest. They know in advance which part of the hall or garden they need to go to.

Agree, this functionality differs from the regular POS capabilities.

Checkout software is a perfect solution for mid-sized and large-scale businesses, where it’s necessary to manage hundreds of processes simultaneously and connect different affiliates worldwide.

“But what about small businesses?” you might ask. Tiny bars or cafes have only regular processes. They could be fully covered by ready-made POS. So, these businesses don’t need versatile tools like checkout software.

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Checkout Software for Hotels

The same situation with hotels. Vendor point of sale can cover standard small businesses processes. They have a small staff, a few rooms, and rarely provide additional services like a restaurant or SPA.

Meanwhile, a checkout system is vital for large single hotels or hotel chains. Just imagine what scope of the process they have to manage. They should take care of every room with its property, like towels, linens, or mini-bar. Such hotels need to ensure a unified check for accommodation, meals, and additional services (parking, gym, SPA, pool, tours, etc.). And they should also keep proper booking, check-in, and check-out processes to avoid misunderstandings.

In such a case, businesses need scalable checkout software integrated with all departments, in-house services, and third-party online booking ones.

So, what’s the difference between POS and checkout system here? The last one contains countless features for proper management.

For example, custom software may have a built-in remote check-out module. It allows guests to leave their rooms without a previous audit and long queues near a reception. They also can pay for all services remotely.

One more crucial point here is an employee management system. It also can be a part of checkout software and bring much more value for managers. Such a feature allows employees to receive daily tasks following set KPIs and calculate a total score of their fulfillment daily.

It creates a sort of competition among staff representatives to increase their productivity and engagement. Each month, the system defines the best employee, helping managers to recognize and reward diligence by awards (like a gym membership, online language training, etc.) Hotels need to keep employees happy because this way they create a sort of home atmosphere and hospitality, improving client experience.

Hotels take a cautious look at versatile checkout software. But its advantages are too significant to lose an opportunity to use them. That’s why, our favorite places will surprise us with a remote check-out process, satisfied employees, and other pleasant bonuses soon.

Afterword

Checkout software is just taking the baton from a point of sale. Meanwhile, the perspectives of its application are obvious. It’s much more versatile, scalable and flexible compared to old good POS. That’s why it’s quite possible that hotels, restaurants, cafes, and other businesses will willingly replace their legacy point of sale systems with robust checkout software.

If your company requires full-fledged custom checkout software, drop us a line. We will advise you on the proper way of its creation and apply our expertise to build it efficiently.