Transactions per month
Estimated annual printer savings
Distinct experiences across floors
Technology in use: Bepoz POS, Oolio mPOS, Kitchment management screens, Reporting, EziGifts, Wirely, Tanda, NetSutie accounting, and Cooking the Books
Background
The Waterside Hotel has been a fixture on the Melbourne waterfront since the 1850s, originally serving the workers of the nearby wharves. When the Sandhill Road Group acquired the venue in 2017, they saw an opportunity to honour that history while creating something genuinely new.
Closing in 2020 as COVID reshaped the hospitality landscape, the team used the downtime to reimagine the entire venue from the ground up. The result, which opened in November 2025, is a complete rebuild behind a preserved heritage facade: a multi-storey destination offering everything from classic Australian pub meals on the ground floor to Southeast Asian dining under the Past Port brand on the upper levels and rooftop.
“From the time that idea came around in 2021, it’s taken until 2026 to be our first full year of operation,” says Matthew Rogers, CFO of the Sandhill Road Group. “It’s been a really wild journey.”
Watch the full interview with Matthew Rogers to hear more about the Waterside Hotel's remarkable transformation.
The challenge
Opening a venue of this scale and complexity meant every technology decision carried real weight. With multiple floors, distinct dining concepts, separate kitchens, and tens of thousands of transactions flowing through each month, the group needed a POS and payments platform that could handle operational complexity without adding to it.
They also needed a partner who could be there at every stage, from initial setup and deployment through to the day-to-day realities of running a busy live venue, and ready to provide support whenever needed.
Why Bepoz
For the Sandhill Road Group, the decision to go with Bepoz and Oolio again came down to trust built over a long partnership. When opening a venue with this many moving parts, choosing Bepoz for their tech stack was an easy call.
When you're opening a venue, there are so many things you can potentially look at to change. Sticking with someone who has always been so reliable for us just made our life easy.
The scalability of the platform was another key factor. With a proven track record built across years of working together, the group knew Bepoz could handle whatever a venue of this ambition demanded.
How Waterside uses Bepoz day-to-day
Across its many floors and concepts, Waterside relies on Bepoz and Oolio for real-time visibility, operational control, and speed of service.
Hourly revenue reporting lets management see exactly how each area of the venue is trading and make live decisions about staffing, redirecting team members to busier areas as the night evolves. Nightly and weekly reporting then gives the finance team a clear read on performance by area, without manually compiling numbers.
Every morning, you wake up and check what the result was for the previous night. The system also gives us a very clear picture of what the venue's doing on an hourly basis.
The integration with Oolio and the handheld terminal system, mPOS, has removed several points where errors used to creep in. Payments taken tableside feed directly through without manual re-keying, which has reduced discrepancies in end-of-night reconciliation and sped up service across the floor.
Support that shows up when it matters
Running a venue of this scale means there is no room for technology to fail. From the initial setup and deployment across five floors through to the busiest nights of trade, the Bepoz team have been a consistent presence for the Waterside Hotel team.
For Robert Buntine, Waterside Hotel's Head of IT, that reliability in support has been one of the standout parts of the partnership.
When you're processing tens of thousands of transactions a month across five floors, you can't afford downtime. Bepoz has been extremely reliable since we opened. Any time we've had an issue, the Bepoz support team have been straight onto it. For a venue this busy, knowing that backup is there makes a real difference.
Results
Real-time reporting across all areas lets managers adjust staffing on the fly.
Oolio's integrated handheld terminals eliminated manual keying mistakes.
Automated reporting cuts the time staff spend compiling nightly results.
The kitchen management system removed the need for docket printers across kitchens.
From the first day of setup through to the busiest nights of trade, the Bepoz team are always available for support.
Platform handling full venue volume without friction.
Looking ahead
With 2026 shaping up as Waterside’s first full year of trading, the Sandhill Road Group is focused on continuing to grow the venue’s reputation across its many experiences. Having a reliable technology foundation means the team can focus on hospitality rather than system problems.
They have been a great partner of ours, always there and adaptable to any situation. Their reliability is really key for us, and they have grown with us through the journey.