In a 2024 survey, 50% of restaurant operators reported plans to deploy point-of-sale (POS) software for use on a mobile device. To keep up with the latest trends, however, Dutch businesses first need a working understanding of POS systems in general. A hospitality POS system (horeca kassasysteem in Dutch) can coordinate the full rhythm of a service: orders route to the right station, tables stay open across multiple rounds, bills split cleanly, and the kitchen sees tickets in real time. The difference between a system built for hospitality and one adapted from retail can appear quickly during a busy Friday night service.

Below, we cover how hospitality POS systems work, how they’re different from retail ones, and what to consider when choosing one.

Highlights

• A hospitality POS system can manage the full service workflow, from order routing to bill splitting, better than a retail POS system.

• Cloud-based systems offer real-time data access and offline resilience, but offline functionality varies among providers.

• Every system has limitations. Learning what they are before committing can protect you from a failure in the middle of service.

What is a hospitality POS system?

A hospitality POS system is the software and hardware combination that restaurants, cafés, bars, and hotels use to take orders, process payments, and coordinate everything in between. It’s the control center of a venue—turning a server’s table order into a kitchen ticket, calculating split bills, and reconciling end-of-day revenue.

How does a hospitality POS system work?

When a server takes an order on a tablet or handheld terminal, the POS generally routes it immediately to the right output. The table stays open in the system until the bill’s settled, so staff can add items across multiple rounds without starting a new transaction each time.

Behind the scenes, the system tracks several things at once:

• Table status: Staff members can see which tables are occupied, how long they’ve been open, and how many covers are seated.

• Order modifications: Substitutions, allergen flags, course timing, and void requests reach the kitchen.

• Running totals: Any staff member can access a table’s current bill without finding the original server.

• Kitchen load: Some systems let managers see ticket times and flag delays before they become a service problem.

Many modern systems are cloud-based. The data lives on remote servers rather than a local machine. If a terminal crashes midservice, open orders don’t disappear with it. It also means you can check last night’s revenue from your phone.

What functions does a hospitality POS system need?

A business in the hospitality industry needs a POS system that can handle workflows that have little equivalence in retail. These are the functions that separate a system built for restaurants from one that’s been adapted for it:

• Table and floor management: A visual floor plan where staff can open tables, move guests, merge covers, and see status at a glance means you don’t have to manage the room in your head.

• Course and item routing: The system needs to understand that starters go to the kitchen now, mains go later, and drinks go to the bar regardless of where the food order sits in the sequence.

• Split billing: Guests split bills by seat, by item, or evenly. The POS handles this without requiring the server to manually recalculate anything.

• Kitchen display integration (KDS): A KDS replaces printed tickets with a live screen showing order status, lets chefs mark items as prepared, and tracks ticket times. It reduces errors and gives the kitchen real visibility into what’s coming.

• Inventory and menu management: The system should manage inventory and menu tracking. When you run out of the sea bass, that should reflect on the menu automatically.

• Reporting: Revenue by time period, covers per session, average spending per table, top-selling items, and staff performance are all valuable categories. The more granular this data is, the more useful it becomes for decisions about staffing, pricing, and hours.

How does a hospitality POS system handle payments?

Payment processing in hospitality has wrinkles that don’t show up in other industries. Payments providers such as Stripe can integrate directly with hospitality POS software platforms to handle the payments layer.

Here’s how the key pieces work:

• Real-time transaction flow: When a server closes a table, the terminal processes the payment through the payments provider’s infrastructure. Transaction data typically flows back into the POS immediately, so the table is marked closed and turned around for the next cover without any manual reconciliation.

• Table-side hardware: Readers connected to Wi-Fi can communicate with the POS over the venue’s network, which means a server can bring a portable reader to the table rather than asking guests to walk to a fixed counter. That’s an important difference in full-service restaurants.

• Split payments: The POS divides a table’s bill, and each portion runs as a separate transaction. If one guest pays by card and another pays cash, the system should be able to account for both without requiring a workaround.

How does a hospitality POS system integrate with reservation and delivery systems?

A POS should synchronize with things such as your reservation system. The following integrations matter for restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality venues:

• Reservation platforms: Direct syncs mean bookings appear in the floor plan automatically, with cover counts and any attached guest notes.

• Delivery aggregators: Third-party orders route to the kitchen without manual entry.

• Accounting software: End-of-day sales data feeds directly into your books without export and import steps.

• Loyalty and customer relationship management (CRM) tools: Guest spending history, visit frequency, and preference data are attached to profiles.

• Staff scheduling software: Sales data informs scheduling decisions, and some systems can provide shift recommendations based on forecasted covers.

The scope of available integrations varies widely among different POS systems. Before committing to a system, list every tool your venue currently uses and confirm whether each one has a direct integration.

What are the limitations of a hospitality POS system?

It’s unlikely that any system covers everything perfectly, but knowing the gaps before you commit saves you from learning about them midservice.

These are the limitations worth considering:

• Offline reliability: Cloud-based systems depend on internet connectivity. Most have an offline mode that keeps orders and payments running if the connection drops, then syncs when it returns. But offline mode is often limited. Some functions don’t work, and the sync process can cause confusion if staff don’t know what did and didn’t save. Ask vendors specifically what’s available offline rather than assuming “offline mode” means full functionality.

• Hardware costs and limitations: Some POS providers require proprietary hardware that only works with their software. If you switch providers, you might need to replace terminals entirely. Others run on standard hardware, which gives you more flexibility. The up-front hardware cost is a real consideration, especially for venues opening on tight margins.

• Staff training: A system with strong routing logic and table management is more complex to learn than a simple retail terminal. With high staff turnover, you need a POS that new staff can learn quickly. Look at how the interface is structured and whether the vendor offers proper documentation and onboarding.

• Menu complexity: Venues with large menus, highly customizable items, or frequent specials need a POS that handles updates without becoming difficult to manage. In some systems, changing a menu requires going through vendor support or a slow admin interface. Test the capabilities before buying.

• Reporting depth: Basic revenue reporting comes standard, but detailed reporting capabilities vary among systems. If data-driven decisions matter to your operation, investigate the reporting capabilities before anything else.

How Stripe Terminal can help

Stripe Terminal allows businesses to grow revenue with unified payments across in-person and online channels. It supports new ways to pay, simple hardware logistics, global coverage, and hundreds of POS and commerce integrations to design your ideal payments stack.

Stripe powers unified commerce for brands such as Hertz, URBN, Lands’ End, Shopify, Lightspeed, and Mindbody.

Stripe Terminal can help you:

• Unify commerce: Manage online and in-person payments on a global platform with unified payments data.

• Expand globally: Scale to 24 countries with a single set of integrations and popular payment methods.

• Integrate your way: Develop your own custom POS app or connect with your existing tech stack using third-party POS and commerce integrations.

• Simplify hardware logistics: Easily order, manage, and monitor Stripe-supported readers, wherever they are.

Learn more about Stripe Terminal, or get started today.