Understanding the TipJAR: How Thenks Puts Staff in Control

One of the most common questions we get from hotel managers considering Thenks is: “How exactly does the money flow?” It’s a fair question. When you’re dealing with staff compensation, trust matters more than anything.

This post walks through exactly how the TipJAR model works — from guest payment to staff payout.

Step 1: The Guest Tips

It starts with a QR code. Thenks generates a unique QR code for each property (and optionally, for each department or even individual staff member). This code is printed on small cards that are placed in guest rooms, on restaurant tables, or given to staff to display.

When a guest scans the code, they land on a simple, branded tipping page. They enter an amount, optionally leave a message, and pay using:

• Credit or debit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex)
• Apple Pay or Google Pay
• M-PESA (for local guests)

The whole process takes under 30 seconds. No app download. No account creation.

Step 2: The TipJAR Receives the Funds

Instead of going directly to individual staff accounts, every tip lands in the TipJAR — a dedicated digital pool specific to that property.

This is the key design decision that makes Thenks different from simple peer-to-peer payment apps. The TipJAR keeps tips completely separate from hotel revenue. It’s not a hotel account. It’s a staff account, managed by the staff committee.

This separation matters for three reasons:

1. Legal clarity: Tips are clearly categorized as staff income, not hotel revenue
2. Trust: Neither staff nor management can access the funds unilaterally
3. Transparency: Everyone can see what’s in the pool at any time

Step 3: The Staff Committee Manages Distribution

Every property using Thenks sets up a Staff Committee — a small group of elected staff representatives who manage how tips are distributed. This committee decides:

• Distribution frequency: Daily, weekly, or monthly
• Distribution rules: Equal split? By role? By hours worked?
• Departments included: All staff, or just front-of-house?

Thenks provides the tools, but the committee makes the decisions. Management cannot override or access committee decisions without committee approval.

When the committee is ready to distribute, they trigger a distribution from the Thenks dashboard. The system calculates individual amounts based on the configured rules and queues the payouts.

Step 4: Staff Receive Payouts Directly

Payouts go directly to each staff member’s M-PESA account — no bank account required. This is crucial in the Kenyan context, where M-PESA penetration among hospitality workers is near-universal.

The payout arrives with a notification and a summary showing:

• The period the tips cover
• The total pool amount
• The individual’s share and the calculation behind it

Staff see exactly why they received the amount they did. There’s no ambiguity, no “management took a cut” suspicions, no confusion.

The Audit Trail

Everything is logged. Every tip received, every distribution authorized, every payout sent — it’s all timestamped and stored. Staff can review their full earnings history. Management can review distribution records. Thenks maintains records for a minimum of 7 years for compliance purposes.

This audit trail is what makes disputes essentially disappear. When everything is transparent and provable, there’s nothing to argue about.

What About the Hotel?

Hotels access a separate management dashboard with analytics — tip volumes, trends, guest feedback scores, department comparisons — but they cannot access or alter the TipJAR itself.

The data is valuable for operational insights: which departments are getting the most tips? Are tips higher on weekends? How does tip volume correlate with occupancy? These insights help hotels understand their service quality in a completely new way.

The Result: Financial Dignity for Service Workers

The TipJAR model is built on a simple belief: staff who deliver exceptional service deserve to benefit from it directly, fairly, and transparently. Not as an afterthought. Not at the discretion of management. As a right.

In Kenya’s hospitality sector, where service workers are often highly skilled but significantly underpaid relative to the value they create, digital tipping represents a meaningful step toward financial inclusion and dignity.

That’s what we’re working toward at Thenks.

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Have questions about how the TipJAR would work at your property? Browse our FAQs or reach out directly.