A guest's restaurant and bar spend on their record
How restaurant and bar sales rung up at the till appear on a guest's record in the Hospitality pack, and how to use that history with care.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Hospitality businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
A returning guest walks into the hotel bar and the barman reaches for the gin they drank every evening on their last visit. It is a small thing, and it is the kind of thing guests remember and mention to friends. In most hotels it depends entirely on one barman's memory, and when he moves on, the knowledge goes with him.
Achekam's Industry CRM, with the Hospitality & hotels pack, keeps the guest's record: their reservations, their stays and the preferences noted after they leave. The question this article answers is whether what they spent in the restaurant and bar shows there too, and how venues in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya should use that history sensibly.
Sales stay at the till
The first point is about where a sale is recorded. In the Hospitality pack, restaurant and bar sales are rung up at the till, not in the pack. The pack does not take orders, price a meal or produce a bill for a drink.
That division is deliberate. A till sale is an accounting event as much as a service one. Every till sale that reaches the server posts a balanced journal in the same step, with each payment method to its own account, revenue, output VAT, and cost of sales against inventory at the product's cost price. The cash-up, the VAT by rate and the stock all depend on the sale being recorded once, in one place.
So the till remains the book of record for what was sold. The guest's record is where that sale becomes useful for looking after the guest.
Till sales on the guest's timeline
With the add-on's fourth wave, till sales are linked to a customer's Industry CRM timeline. In the Hospitality pack, where customers are called Guests, that means a guest's dinner, their round at the pool bar or the bottle of wine sent to the room can appear on their timeline beside their reservations.
The link adds nothing to the books and changes nothing in them. The sale is posted once, by the till, and the timeline shows it in the context of the guest. If a sale is refunded or voided at the till, the till's own records are where that is done.
A sale can only appear on a guest's timeline when it is tied to that guest, so walk-in diners who are not staying, or who never give their name, stay as ordinary till sales. Before relying on the history, try it on a quiet evening: ring up a few sales for in-house guests, then open their records and check you see what you expect.
Using spend alongside noted preferences
Spend history is most useful next to what staff have already written down. After check-out, the pack settles the bill, sends a thank-you e-mail and a short feedback form, and notes the guest's preferences for the next stay.
Put the two together and patterns appear that neither shows alone:
| What the record shows | What the team might do next time |
|---|---|
| A preference for a quiet room, and dinner every night in the restaurant | Suggest a table away from the kitchen door |
| Feedback praising the breakfast, and little bar spend | Mention the breakfast menu changes, not the cocktail list |
| A favourite wine, ordered on each stay | Have a bottle chilled on arrival, if the venue's policy allows |
| A family that ate in town every night | Share the restaurant's children's menu at pre-arrival |
None of these needs a figure. The point is recognition, not a scoring system for guests.
What staff will see
Think about which staff open guest records and why. Reception uses the record to check guests in and answer questions; the restaurant manager might use it to plan a special occasion; a sales manager might look at it before a corporate client returns.
Set out a few house rules:
- Use the history to help the guest, never to comment on how much they spend.
- Do not read out a guest's past orders in front of their companions.
- Note preferences the guest has told you about; avoid recording guesses about their personal life.
- Correct a note that turns out to be wrong, rather than leaving it.
- Keep guest records within the team that serves guests.
Each industry pack sets the words the screens use and the record types it keeps, so train staff on the Hospitality pack's terms: Guests, Reservations and Event enquiries. The check-out steps that feed the preferences are explained in after check-out: the bill, feedback and preferences, and the way an open bar tab is held on the till until it is paid is covered in bar tabs and parked sales.
Good sense with guest information
A guest's eating and drinking history is personal information. It can reveal health conditions, religious practice or habits a guest would rather keep private. Each of the three countries has a data protection law and a regulator, and a sensible approach under any of them is to keep only what you need for a clear purpose, look after it, and answer honestly when a guest asks what you hold.
In Kenya, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is the regulator where data controllers and processors register, breaches are reported and complaints are filed. South African venues answer to the Information Regulator under POPIA, and Nigerian venues to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
A practical test: if you would be uncomfortable showing a guest exactly what their record says about them, the note should not be there.
When the feature goes live
Before switching it on, agree who may open guest records, write the house rules above into staff training, and run a short trial with willing regular guests. Then let the barman's memory become the hotel's memory, used with the same discretion he would show.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
