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 rating and tip keep that department or outlet as their canonical destination
- Employee allocations are calculated separately and do not relabel the guest's rating or tip
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 Business → Departments or Business → Outlets.
- Open the department or outlet detail page.
- The ID is shown in the URL:
/business/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 use hierarchy feature flags for rating and tipping availability. Outlet settings also provide destination-specific Webkiosk prompts, presets, and post-visit options:
| 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%) |
| Private follow-up question | Optional question wording may adapt to the saved star rating; the answer is stored as the comment on that same rating |
| Google / TripAdvisor links | Optional public-review links shown after the private rating flow, independently of the star value or tip choice |
Configure these from the destination's Business settings when your role has
structure.manage capability.
Public-review links must never be shown only to guests who left a high rating. Do not offer incentives or pressure guests to post. Keep the request neutral and offer the same configured Google or TripAdvisor option after every eligible completed rating. This follows Google's policy against selectively soliciting positive reviews.
Tip Routing for Department / Outlet Tips
Tips to a department or outlet use only that exact destination's saved distribution rule. A department rule never silently applies to an outlet. If the destination has no enabled rule, its dividend is split equally among its active assigned employees. An enabled rule uses fixed position-group percentages and fails closed if the rule is incomplete or a funded group has no active match. See How Team Tip Splitting Works in Aplauso in Billing for full details.