A self-service kiosk lets guests walk up to a tablet at your location and book your activities themselves — no staff required to check them out. This article walks you through what a kiosk is, what you need to have on hand, and how to set one up from start to finish.

What is a self-service kiosk?

A TripWorks kiosk is a tablet running the TripWorks Kiosk app at your business location — think of it as a self-service ticket counter that guests interact with on their own. Instead of stopping by a staffed desk, they browse your activities, pick a time, pay by card at the reader, and get an emailed receipt — all on the tablet.

The kiosk pulls the same activities, availability, and pricing you already have set up in TripWorks. There's nothing new to configure per activity — everything you sell online can be sold at the kiosk.

Before you begin

You'll need a few things ready before starting setup:

• A setup QR code from TripWorks. Your account team will send you a QR code specific to your account — this is what installs the kiosk app on your tablet. Reach out to your TripWorks contact when you're ready to set up your first kiosk and we'll send it over.
• An Android tablet in portrait orientation. Any modern Android tablet with a working camera works.
• A Stripe Reader U200, connected to the tablet via USB. This is currently the only supported card reader for kiosk payments. The U200 accepts tap, chip, and Apple Pay / Google Pay. Most modern tablets use USB-C, so you'll likely need a USB-A to USB-C dongle to connect the reader — pick one up ahead of time.
• A power source at the location where the tablet will live. Kiosks are meant to stay on continuously.
• Your activities configured in TripWorks — anything you want to sell on the kiosk needs to exist as a bookable activity in your account first.

Step 1: Set up the kiosk display in TripWorks

Before you can register a kiosk, you need to design what will appear on it. In TripWorks, this is called a "display" and it's built in the widget builder — the same place you configure booking widgets for your website.

1. Go to Settings > Widgets in your TripWorks dashboard.

   

2. Click New Widget.
3. Give the widget a name that'll help you tell it apart later — for example, "Front Lobby Kiosk display" or "Pier Ticket Booth display".

   

4. Under Widget Type, choose Kiosk. The preview on the right switches to a tablet view showing the kiosk's welcome screen.

   

5. Configure activities, branding, pricing display, and customer flow. Click Save Changes when you're done.

Step 2: Set up the tablet

The tablet needs to be in a fresh state for setup — if it's been used before, factory reset it first so it boots into the Android setup wizard.

1. Turn on the tablet. You'll see the Android Welcome screen (the exact wording varies by manufacturer — something like "Welcome" or "Get started").
2. Tap anywhere on the Welcome screen six times. After the fifth tap you'll see a small indicator showing you're one tap away. On the sixth tap, the tablet enters provisioning mode and opens the camera to scan for a QR code.

   

3. Hold the setup QR code TripWorks sent you in front of the camera until the tablet detects it. The tablet installs the TripWorks Kiosk app and opens it automatically.

   

4. Once the Kiosk app opens, tap Pair device. The tablet will show the pairing screen with four boxes for the 4-character pairing code. Leave it on this screen — you'll come back to it in Step 4.

   

Step 3: Register the kiosk in TripWorks

Now that the tablet is waiting on the pairing screen, head back to TripWorks to register the kiosk and get the pairing code.

1. In your TripWorks dashboard, go to Setup > Tools & hardware > Kiosks. You'll see any kiosks you've already paired listed here.

   

2. Click Register a kiosk. A 3-step wizard opens.
3. Wizard step 1 — Open the app. Confirm you've completed Step 2 above (the tablet should already be on the "Pair this kiosk" screen). Click Next: Name kiosk.

   

4. Wizard step 2 — Name & display. Give this kiosk a name (something your team recognizes, like "Front Lobby Kiosk") and choose the display it should show — that's the kiosk widget you built in Step 1. You can also add a location tag to help distinguish kiosks in reports. Click Next: Get code.

   

5. Wizard step 3 — Pairing code. A 4-character code displays on screen. This code expires in 10 minutes, so head straight to the tablet.

   

Step 4: Enter the pairing code on the tablet

Type the 4-character code from Step 3 into the tablet's "Pair this kiosk" screen and tap Pair kiosk. The tablet will confirm the connection and load your kiosk display. Back in TripWorks, click Done on the wizard.

Step 5: Connect the Stripe card reader

Plug the Stripe Reader U200 into the tablet using a USB-A to USB-C dongle. Once connected, the reader is available for guests to tap, insert, or use Apple Pay / Google Pay to complete a booking. The reader stays connected as long as the tablet is powered on — no additional setup needed inside the kiosk app.

Step 6: Confirm your kiosk is running

The tablet should now show your kiosk's welcome screen — your account logo, your welcome message, and a "Touch to begin" prompt. This is what guests will see when they walk up.

Try tapping through a booking yourself to make sure everything works end-to-end:

• Browse activities and pick one
• Choose a date and time
• Enter guest info and complete payment on the card reader
• Confirm the guest receives an email receipt

Managing multiple kiosks

You can register as many kiosks as you like — each one shows up on the Setup > Tools & hardware > Kiosks page with its current status, which display it's showing, and its location.

To update a kiosk's configuration — change which activities show, tweak the welcome message, or update pricing display — edit the kiosk display widget in Settings > Widgets. Changes push to the tablet automatically the next time it refreshes.

Troubleshooting

The QR code isn't scanning. Make sure you're using the tablet's built-in camera app (not the kiosk app). If the QR code still won't scan, try adjusting the tablet's distance from the code and ensure good lighting.

The pairing code expired before I could enter it. Pairing codes are valid for 10 minutes. If yours expired, just start the Register a kiosk wizard again to generate a fresh code — no other setup gets lost.

The pairing code isn't accepted. Double-check you're typing the code from Step 3 of the register wizard, and that you haven't started a new register wizard since (which invalidates the earlier code).

The card reader isn't detected. Confirm the USB-C dongle is fully seated in the tablet and that the U200 is powered on. If the tablet is running low on battery, plug it into power — some tablets disable USB accessories when battery is low.

Guests can't complete checkout. Verify the activity you're trying to book is set up correctly in TripWorks (bookable, has availability, has ticket types configured). If online booking works for the activity, the kiosk will too.

What's next

Once your first kiosk is up and running, you can:

• Register additional kiosks against the same or different displays without redoing the tablet setup process
• Adjust which activities appear on each display (for example, only surface activities that make sense at a specific location)
• Update branding, welcome message, or fee display and see changes reflected instantly on the tablet