A mobile payments startup aims to launch a new kind of ATM juggernaut in the U.S., one that will dispense funds from the cash-filled tills of hotels — and perhaps eventually restaurants and retail stores as well.

The mobile app is called Spare and is an offering from a mobile startup called Mercuri Systems, whose founder is D'Ontra Hughes. According to Bank Innovation, this is how Spare works:

To use Spare, a user enters a request for funds, say $200, in the mobile app, which is linked to a funding source, such as a checking account. When the user arrives at the hotel, which is also linked to the Spare system, he is simply given the $200 when checking in because the hotel know who he has and has seen the request for funds, which can be added seamlessly to his bill.

At its core, Spare is an old idea executed in a new way: The app merely takes the place of the check you used to hand over to the student union cashier in exchange for beer money. Or the scrip from the old-style ATM at the bar.

How the app is monetized remains murky. And it remains to be seen whether businesses will take to the idea of adding cash handling and management expense at no charge.

Read more about transaction processing.