Hardware for your hotel restaurant: tablets, terminals and printers worth buying

When a hotel evaluates changing its restaurant system, the first question the hardware vendor usually asks is almost never about the software: it is about how many tablets, printers and terminals to buy. Asked before anyone understands the hotel’s actual operation, that question usually ends in a list longer and pricier than needed. Let’s flip the order: operation first, hardware second.

Start from your revenue centers, not the vendor’s catalog

The hardware you need depends directly on how many revenue centers your hotel restaurant has and how each one operates. A hotel with a single restaurant and a bar needs something different from one with a restaurant, a bar, a coffee shop, a pool bar and room service. It is not about buying “whatever comes in the package”, but about first mapping where each order is taken, where payment happens and where something gets printed, and buying exactly what those three moments require.

This mapping also reveals hardware you do not need. It is common to find hotels with a card terminal at a spot where nobody ever pays cash or card because everything posts to the room, or a kitchen printer in an area that has not operated with that same flow in a long time. Before buying anything new, it is worth confirming what already exists still serves a real purpose.

Tablets: the piece you genuinely need at every order-taking point

The tablet where the server rings up an order is the piece of hardware with the least room to cut corners, because the speed of the whole service depends on it. You need at least one working tablet per server on shift in the main restaurant, plus additional water- and sun-resistant devices at spots like the pool bar, where the environment is harder on equipment.

You do not need the priciest or newest tablet on the market: you need one with enough battery for a full shift, a screen readable under dining room or pool area light, and reliable connectivity to the hotel network. Buying sufficient mid-range equipment almost always outperforms buying premium equipment that ends up using a fraction of its capacity.

Card terminals: fewer than you think if room charge works well

This is where many hotels overspend needlessly. If your hotel restaurant has a room charge that works without friction, a significant share of your guests will prefer it over paying by card on the spot, especially at spots like the pool bar or room service. That means you do not need a card terminal at every revenue center: you need one where frequent direct payment genuinely happens, like the main restaurant at dinner for guests who prefer to settle right away, or for outside customers who have no folio.

Buying a card terminal for every corner of the property “just in case someone wants to pay there” is the most expensive and most common hardware mistake. Every terminal carries an acquisition cost, a maintenance cost and, often, a processing fee. Multiplying terminals without need multiplies all three costs without adding any real benefit for the guest.

Printers: the one you still need and the one you probably do not

The kitchen printer, the one sending the order to the preparation area, is still necessary in most hotel kitchens, even with a modern system, because the cook needs to see the order in a fixed spot while their hands are busy. This printer should be a rugged thermal one, built for a kitchen’s heat and humidity, not a repurposed office printer.

The guest ticket printer is different: at many hotels it is no longer essential, because the guest can see their check on screen before it posts to the room, and the final receipt already lives on the statement the front desk hands over at check-out. It is still useful to have one available for the guest who asks for it, but it no longer has to sit at every table waiting to print something most of the time nobody picks up.

The legacy expense: hardware bought for a system you no longer use

When a hotel switches systems, it is common to find hardware tied to the previous vendor’s decisions: terminals that only work with that specific brand’s software, printers with a closed communication protocol the new system cannot use, or tablets configured in a way that requires reinstalling everything from scratch. That hardware is not necessarily bad: it is hardware left over from a past decision, and it is worth reviewing case by case whether it can be reused or should be replaced.

Before signing with a new vendor, ask explicitly which of your current inventory is compatible with the new system and which is not. An honest vendor will tell you clearly what you can keep, even if that means selling you less new equipment. Implementation (implementacion) is the right moment to do that inventory, not the week after the restaurant is already running on the new system.

• Terminals that only accept updates from the previous vendor and no longer receive support.
• Printers with a proprietary cable or protocol the new system does not recognize.
• Tablets configured so tightly that reinstalling anything forces a factory reset.
• Equipment nobody remembers which revenue center it was originally bought for.

How to decide how much to buy based on your operation’s size

1. Count how many servers work the busiest shift at each revenue center; that figure, not total headcount, defines how many tablets you need.
2. Identify how many revenue centers have frequent direct payment and how many depend almost entirely on room charge.
3. Check the weather and physical conditions at each spot: an office tablet does not last long next to a pool.
4. Confirm with your kitchen whether it needs more than one printer based on the number of preparation stations.
5. Leave about ten percent extra equipment as backup, no more, because unused excess hardware is also an expense you never recover.

An illustrative example of the cost of over-buying

The figures below are made up to show the calculation; they do not describe any real property. Picture a hotel that, following a hardware vendor’s initial recommendation, buys a card terminal for each of its eight revenue centers, when in reality only three of them have frequent direct payment.

In the example, the 16,000 in avoidable spend does not even count the annual maintenance on the five extra terminals or the fees from a payment processor rarely used at those spots. Mapping the operation before buying is, almost always, the most profitable hardware decision a hotel can make.

What to do this week

1. Take inventory of every revenue center in your hotel restaurant: what hardware it has today and what it is actually used for.
2. Identify how many servers work the busiest shift at each spot; that number defines how many tablets you need.
3. Check what share of your charges are paid directly by card versus posted to the room, spot by spot.
4. Ask your current or prospective vendor which of your current inventory is compatible with their system.
5. Cut from your purchase list any terminal or printer a revenue center is not going to genuinely use.

Inn Restaurant works with hardware you already own whenever it is compatible, and recommends additional equipment only after understanding your hotel’s real revenue centers, not before. If you want an honest review of what you need and what you do not, you can book a 15-minute demo (contact).