A hotel can have several everyday payment moments: a coffee at reception, a drink at the bar or a service paid for on the spot. Tawi’s product and service catalogue gives those counters a way to request wallet payments or send an M-Pesa prompt without presenting it as a hotel-management system.
Choose an outlet such as your café or reception service desk and configure the items sold there. Use product categories and variants to keep the catalogue understandable to staff. Decide which sales belong in that shop before expanding the workflow to other counters.
List café and bar products with the appropriate prices and variants.
Use service items for separately paid services rather than inventing room folios.
Assign staff access for the counter duties they actually perform.
02
Offer wallet and M-Pesa payment choices
A guest using Tawi Pay can show an identity QR. A paired Tawi NFC card or band can also identify the customer when read by supported hardware. Staff review the amount, request payment and wait for customer authorisation and confirmation. Alternatively, the Merchant POS can send an M-Pesa STK prompt to the guest’s phone.
03
Make the shift handover about confirmed sales
At the end of a shift, review the sales records and receipts rather than relying on an SMS shown by a guest. Wallet and M-Pesa records let the owner investigate a payment with its receipt or provider reference. Keep your hotel’s existing accounting procedure for room bills and other transactions outside this setup.
04
Know where the payment workflow stops
This guide covers products, services and counter payments. It does not promise room reservations, automatic posting to a room bill, door access, a property-management integration or automatic settlement across hotel outlets. Confirm any requirements beyond the described tools before adopting Tawi for them.
Getting started
Three steps to your first sale
Define one outlet
Create the shop and catalogue for the first counter. Write down which guest purchases are paid immediately and which remain in your existing hotel billing process.
Check staff and devices
Set staff permissions and test QR scanning at the counter. If using paired cards or bands, test NFC on a compatible Android Chrome device.
Rehearse a guest purchase
Review the items and amount, request authorisation, wait for confirmation and check that the receipt appears in sales before handing over the shift.
The NFC workflow described here identifies a paired Tawi card or band for a wallet request. It is not a claim that an ordinary contactless bank card can be tapped on a phone to pay.
Does Tawi replace our hotel booking software?
No. The tools described are for catalogue and payment management. Keep booking, guest-room billing and property-management requirements separate unless a supported integration is explicitly confirmed.
What should we check before using it by the pool or at an outdoor bar?
Check internet coverage, camera usability and the compatibility of any NFC devices. Merchant payment requests need a connection, so an outdoor location should be tested rather than assumed to work.