The Best Hotel POS Systems

Man using a POS system in a restaurant
Zara Chechi

Our top picks for hotel POS systems is Lightspeed, Square and Toast.

POS systems connect every part of your business together, helping you take bookings and food orders, manage inventory, create sales reports, and deliver effective marketing campaigns all in one place – and the list could go on.

This article will show you the best POS systems for hotels, including the average costs you can expect to pay and the top features you can expect to enjoy.

The Top Three POS Systems for Hotels

Thanks to our research, we confidently recommend the following suppliers as the best POS systems for hotels. Each one offers an impressive range of features to help your hotel cook up a financial storm.

  1. Best overall POS system for Hotels – Lightspeed
  2. Best for Ease of Use – Square
  3. Best Price – Toast

Lightspeed

Best overall POS system for Hotels

lightspeed logo
Lightspeed
Pricing From $69/month
Quick overview

You can customise Lightspeed's POS system to your hotel restaurant to give your customers a great experience. Hotels often have several different sources of revenue and being able to record this in one place gives you the ability to accurately understand trends, sales and profitability.

Lightspeed offers a cloud-based POS system so you can take orders on the go, you can also provide guests with the ability to take contactless orders from their phones via a QR code. You can choose from ready-made packages or create a custom package tailored to your business.

Accounting struggles are a thing of the past with the ability to sync your accounting data with Quickbooks, Xero, Sage Accounting and more. The data on your POS system is accurate and means much less leg work for you.

Lightspeed doesn't work with Windows or Android so you'll have to be a certified Apple-fan to use this system.

Strengths

Easy to use

Powerful and scalable solution

Weaknesses

No live chat support

Pricing
Package PriceWhat you get
Essentials $39 1 register, inventory, reporting & analytics, 24/7 support, dedicated account manager
Plus $119 everything above plus loyalty and gift cards
Pro $289 everything above plus advanced insights and advanced inventory

Square

Best for Ease of Use

Square
Pricing $0/month
Quick overview

We love Square for its free POS software but will this $0 app be able to keep up with your hotels needs? Our research says yes. Square consistently comes out as the top dog when it comes to POS systems. Their business management, stock management and customer service are all top tier.

Square's dashboard gives you helpful insights into your business, which can then be easily exported to add to your records. A big aspect of ensuring your hotel runs successfully is staying on top of inventory. Square's inventory tools are automatically synced, making it easier to stay on top of your ordering and stock levels. Another handy feature is a daily email that details if you're low or out of stock, so you never run out again.

Your team can also be managed on the app, ensuing scheduling, employee performance and hours worked are all easily recorded. This is an add-on however as is Square's loyalty program. Depending on your businesses needs, you may want these add-ons to create a comprehensive POS system.

Without the add-ons, Square still offers a functional, simple and handy POS system. The ability to build up the system as your business grows makes it easy to scale, you may not want to invest too much initially in a POS system but if your business needs to expand, you won't find it as much of an investment to purchase add-on features.

 

Strengths

Free to install

24/7 customer support

Brilliant analytics tools

Weaknesses

2.75% charge for non-card transactions

Pricing
Package Price Transaction fee
Free $0 1.75% card-based transaction + 2.5% manual sale
Retail $60/month 1.6% card-based transaction + 2.5% for manual sale
Restaurant $60/month 1.75% card-based transaction + 2.5% for manual sale

Toast

Best Price

Toast
Pricing From $0
Quick overview

Toast is the best POS system for hotel owners who appreciate detailed reports. Toast boasts one of the most extensive inventories in the POS industry, providing detailed food and labor cost reports, and real-time information on your inventory’s value.

Toast can seamlessly integrate with your property management system (PMS) to process room charges from Toast POS. You can connect up front and back-of-house to make everyone's jobs easier at your hotel restaurant. The menu item search menu makes using a large menu easy and and the quick edit mode means a menu item can be edited in seconds, from anywhere in the world.

Other helpful features include the Toast Go®, a palm-sized POS system that helps you take orders quickly. You can also opt for Toast Kiosk, so your guests can self-order, providing a safe, easy and quick way for your guests to order.

Toast POS only runs on Android which can be an issue if you don't have or want Android devices.

Strengths

Offline mode

Customizable

Weaknesses

Customer service

Pricing
Package Price
Starter $0
Essentials $165
Custom Bespoke

The Best Hotel and Restaurant POS Systems

Here are our top picks for POS systems that cover both hotel and restaurant.

  1. Best Till – Clover
  2. Best for Stock Management – TouchBistro

Hospitality POS systems come with features that provide your guests with a seamless and smooth experience as well as ensuring your front and back-of-office are all synced up.


Clover

Best Till

clover logo
Clover
Pricing Bespoke
Quick overview

Clover integrates a POS system, cash register and card payment terminal to give you a comprehensive system. It also includes accessories such as receipt printers and a customer interface screen. 

Clover's POS system has been created for the hospitality industry so it's chock-full of features designed to provide a great experience all around. You can create custom floor plans, manage staff, streamline payments and customise orders. You can track sales in real time and run reports on the Clover dashboard or via the app.

Clover’s payment processing rates are lower compared to some other POS systems which is great, plus, users have reported that their customer service is helpful. Unfortunately, the system cannot communicate between multiple locations which is a drawback if you want all your locations to develop cohesive practices. 

Strengths

Easy to use

Intuitive back office management portal

Weaknesses

Limited reporting

Want to save money on your restaurant POS system? Then compare quotes today.

TouchBistro
Pricing From $89/month
Quick overview

Treat your customers how you would your food – that’s one of the many recipes for success in the food industry. TouchBistro knows this.

TouchBistro comes integrated with CRM (customer relationship management) software to help you promote exclusive offers and one-time deals to help your customers feel special and, most importantly, satisfied.

Strengths

Fantastic for fostering customer loyalty

Excellent staff and inventory management

Offers a free trial period

Weaknesses

Pricing plan is based on the number of users, making it more expensive for larger businesses

Only compatible with iPads and Apple computers

Pricing
Package Price (billed annually)What you'll get
Lean $89/month Integrated payments, 24/7 customer support, API access
Standard $159/month Accounting, ecommerce, integrated payments, 24/7 customer support, API access

How Much Does Hotel POS Software Cost?

It's now time for the all-important discussion about POS system costs. The majority of restaurant POS system suppliers in our article offer pricing plans starting from $69 per month for the software. You’ll likely need to pay extra for the hardware, which usually costs approximately $1,000+ as a one-off fee.

Check out our table below, featuring the monthly prices from our top five suppliers:

Swipe right to see more
0 out of 0

Lightspeed

Square

Clover

TouchBistro

Price
Price

$0/month

Plus: $60/month

Price

From $0/month

Price

$14.95-295/month

Price
Compare quotes and save money on your next restaurant POS system

Methodology

At Expert Market, it’s our aim to provide you with the most accurate, up-to-date, and transparent product and service reviews possible. So, to help you better understand the best POS systems for hotels, we’ve conducted in-depth, extensive research into the best POS systems.

Our areas of investigation include:

  • Till
  • Business management 
  • Stock management 
  • Usability
  • Price
  • Customer support

Based on how providers score in these areas, we've been able to identify the best providers in the industry.

Next Steps

You now know the best POS systems for hotels. These systems can help your profits rise and your stress levels decrease, and we can help you find the right POS system today.

You can find out how much a POS system for your hotel will cost by telling us what you need on our short form. We’ll then match you up with the POS system suppliers that best cater to your needs. They’ll then offer free, non-obligation quotes for you to compare.

FAQs

What are 4 types of POS systems?
The different types of POS systems are:

1. Terminal – hardware systems
2. Mobile – system that can be used on a smartphone or tablet
3. Cloud based – run on the cloud and accessed on an iPad
4. Open source – POS system software with free-to-use source code

Do hotels use POS systems?
Yes, hotels use POS systems.

If you're in the hotel industry, you've likely heard of both POS and PMS. POS stands for point of sale and refers to a system that is the point where your businesses sales take place.

PMS stands for property management system that helps staff deal with the main aspects of managing a hotel.

POS and PMS can both work together to manage the day to day running of the hotel as well as accurately recording sales, collecting accounting data and producing detailed reports. PMS and POS systems can feed into each other to produce a seamless system that provides both staff and guests with a seamless experience.

What is a hotel POS system?
A hotel POS system at a basic level, takes and records sales. POS systems are much more advanced these days and offers features such as detailed reporting, menu management, staff management and analytics.
Written by:
Zara Chechi
Zara Chechi Business Services Expert

Zara is a Payments Expert, specialising in writing about Point of Sale systems. With a Law Degree from City University of London, she has used her legally-honed research and analytical skills to develop expertise in the Business Services world. Featured in FinTech Magazine, she quickly became an expert in payroll, POS systems, and merchant accounts.