New to hospitality? Start here
Hospitality Stack is a free website about the work and the software behind hotels, restaurants and bars. If you are new, this page explains the basics in plain words and points you to the most useful free guides, in order. No signup needed.
1. The words you will hear on shift
Everyone talks in shorthand. Here is what the common terms mean.
- POS
- Point of sale: the till or tablet where orders are rung in and guests pay.
- KDS
- Kitchen display system: a screen in the kitchen that shows orders instead of paper tickets.
- PMS
- Property management system: the hotel front desk software for bookings, check-in, check-out and room status.
- Channel manager
- Software that keeps a hotel's rooms and prices in sync on Booking.com, Expedia and its own site.
- Revenue management
- Setting room prices up or down based on demand, so you neither sell out too cheap nor sit empty.
- Inventory & costing
- Counting what is on the shelves and working out what each dish or drink really costs to make.
- Food cost % / prime cost
- Food cost % is ingredient cost divided by sales. Prime cost is food and drink cost plus labor, the two biggest bills.
- Covers
- The number of guests served. 80 covers means 80 people ate.
- Tip-out / tip pool
- Servers share part of their tips with bartenders, bussers or kitchen staff, by a set rule.
- 86'd
- Kitchen slang: an item is sold out or removed.
2. The main types of tools, simply
- Tills and ordering (POS): where orders go in and guests pay. See POS tools.
- Staff scheduling: apps that show who works when and let you swap shifts. See scheduling apps.
- Hotel front desk software (PMS): bookings, check-in and room status. See PMS tools.
- Stock and costing: counting bottles and food, and what each dish costs. See inventory tools.
- Reservations: table bookings and pool or spa day passes. See reservation tools.
- Food safety: fridge temperature and cleaning logs, plus food handler card training. See food safety tools · ACE Food Handler.
All 13 tool types are on the browse page.
3. Free guides, in a sensible order
- How a staff schedule gets built
- A free training checklist for your first weeks
- How a bar stock count works
- Free bar stock-count template
- The tills (POS) restaurants use, compared
- Hotel front desk software (PMS), explained
4. Free resources
- Free starter kit: simple sheets for stock levels and costs.
- Templates: free count sheet, schedule and checklist (some paid workbooks too).
- Food cost % calculator and labor cost calculator: see the numbers managers watch.
- Which tool fits me? quiz and books for hospitality.
- Hospitality jobs: a weekly roundup of real postings, linking to the employer.
- Puerto Rico hospitality hub, including weekly job listings.
5. Running a team?
Skip ahead to side-by-side comparisons of the tools teams pay for. Some links on this site are affiliate links; see our disclosure.
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