Not every tip needs to go to a single named employee. Aplauso supports tipping at the department and outlet level - perfect for housekeeping floors, spa areas, restaurant sections, or any team environment where multiple staff contribute to the guest's experience.
How It Works
Department and outlet kiosk pages use the same rating and payment flow as individual employee pages. The only differences are:
- The recipient name shown is the department or outlet name (e.g., "Housekeeping - Floor 3")
- The default rating prompt is "How's our service?" (plural "our" instead of "my")
- The tip is attributed to the department/outlet in analytics, not a specific person
The guest experience is seamless - they see a team avatar or outlet icon instead of a person photo, but rating, tip selection, and payment are identical.
URL Formats
| Route | Who Receives the Tip |
|---|---|
k.aplauso.io/d/{departmentId} | The entire department |
k.aplauso.io/o/{outletId} | A specific outlet (e.g., "The Pool Bar") |
Getting Department and Outlet IDs
In the management dashboard:
- Go to Manage → Departments or Manage → Outlets.
- Open the department or outlet detail page.
- The ID is shown in the URL:
/manage/departments/{departmentId}.
Or use the QR generator:
k.aplauso.io/qr/d/{departmentId}- renders a printable QR for the departmentk.aplauso.io/qr/o/{outletId}- renders a printable QR for the outlet
When to Use Department vs. Outlet vs. Employee
| Scenario | Recommended Page Type |
|---|---|
| Guest tipped by a specific housekeeper they know | Employee QR |
| Guest wants to tip "whoever cleaned my room" | Department QR (Housekeeping) |
| Guest tipped at the spa reception | Outlet QR (Spa Reception) |
| Customer tipped the team at the pool bar | Outlet QR (Pool Bar) |
| Guest wants to tip the restaurant team | Department or Outlet QR |
Configuring Department / Outlet Rate Pages
Department and outlet pages can be configured server-side by a PropertyAdmin. The configurable settings are identical to employee pages:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Rating prompt | Custom text shown above the stars (e.g., "How was your spa experience?") |
| Tip prompt | Custom text shown above the tip amounts |
| Tip presets | The dollar amounts shown as buttons (default: $2, $5, $10, $15, $20, $50) |
| Allow tips | If disabled, only ratings are collected - no payment |
| Allow room charge | Whether guests can charge tips to their room |
| Service charge % | The percentage added to tip amounts (default 5%) |
Contact your Aplauso account manager or configure these via the property settings API / dashboard settings page.
Tip Routing for Department / Outlet Tips
Tips to a department or outlet are distributed to team members according to the tip split / commission configuration set at the property level. If no split rule is configured, the tip flows into a shared pool that managers can distribute. See Tip Splitting in the Billing section for full details.