News Briefs

Ascent Hospitality Management, franchisor to family dining brands Huddle House and Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, announced today that it has named Steven Roach as Ascent Chief Technology Officer and Toni Ronayne as President of Perkins Restaurant & Bakery. These appointments underscore the company's commitment to achieving its strategic goals and building a world class leadership team.

"As we continue implementing our strategic plan which calls for building category-leading brands that deliver unbeatable guest experiences, we have appointed new brand presidents to lead Perkins and Huddle House. We are also committed to becoming the Family Dining digital leader and have appointed an accomplished industry veteran to drive our technology initiatives," said James O'Reilly, chief executive officer of Ascent Hospitality Management.  

Roach comes to Ascent from Focus Brands, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, responsible for developing and executing the technology roadmap for the multi-brand international food and beverage company. As the Chief Technology Officer for Ascent, Roach will be responsible for developing and leading initiatives on the Ascent and brand-specific technology roadmaps.  His leadership will underpin Ascent's progress toward Family Dining digital leadership and also toward becoming a world-class shared services provider for its franchise systems and company operations.

As the President of Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, Ronayne will be responsible for accelerating the brand's growth across franchised and company-owned locations. With the support of the executive leadership team, she will also oversee long-term strategy for Perkins' continued expansion and maintaining the brand's position as a leader in the full-service family dining segment. Prior to joining Ascent, Ronayne served as the Managing Director of Canada for Little Caesars Pizza, where she led the growth and performance of the chain's Canadian division of restaurants. Ronayne also previously served as Vice President of Global Franchise Development for Freshii, Inc. and Regional Director of Canada and Northeast U.S. for Starbucks' Teavana division.

Domino's Pizza Inc. introduces its new and improved loyalty program. 

Domino's Rewards offers loyalty members even more opportunities to earn and redeem points across its corporate and franchise store locations. Domino's enhanced rewards program allows customers to:

• Earn points for less
  • Loyalty members will now earn 10 points on every order of $5 or more
• Redeem points for even more menu items – and earn free Domino's after just two orders
  • Members can redeem a variety of points for more menu items:
    • 20 points: A free dipping cup, a 16-piece order of Parmesan Bread Bites or a 20 oz. drink
    • 40 points: An order of Bread Twists or Stuffed Cheesy Bread
    • 60 points: A medium, two-topping pizza; pasta; Oven-Baked Sandwich; or a 3-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
• Earn more rewards
  • Loyalty perks are now even better, as members will have exclusive access to member-only deals, special discounts and opportunities to earn bonus points!

"We are thrilled to give the brand's loyal customers additional ways to earn free Domino's items more often," said Mark Messing, Domino's vice president of digital experience and loyalty. "At a time when most brands are scaling back their loyalty programs and making it more difficult to earn and redeem points, Domino's is doing the opposite. We want to make it easier to reward our customers and give them more options so they can get rewarded faster."

Marketing a LTO 

From now until Oct. 22, 2023, rewards members can take advantage of a limited time offer to redeem 20 points for a free order of Domino's new Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread, which is normally a 40-point redemption, in celebration of the product's recent launch. 

Voicify, the market leader in conversational AI, today announced it has been selected as the Conversational Voice AI provider for 

Danté Restaurant and Bar has selected Voicify AI Answering to service customers who call its New York City locations.

High Volume Calls

Danté's use of voice AI frees up staff to serve in-person guests and fulfill orders while extending a high-touch, high-end experience to customers who call. 

Each Danté location fields 1,500 customer calls per month. 

"We were named #1 World's Best Bar in 2019 and Best Bar in America for both 2019 and 2020, so we have a reputation to guard," said Linden Pride, Owner of Danté. "As a result, we're highly selective when it comes to customer-facing technologies. Among conversational AI providers, Voicify was the obvious choice because of their deep expertise and superior technology. Voicify automates aspects of our front-line service to free up human employees to focus on the personal, face-to-face guest service that has won Danté a top spot in the hearts and minds of so many New Yorkers for more than a hundred years."

Before Voicify, these calls were answered by onsite staff or went to voicemail. Voicify is answering calls even when the venues are closed.

Guests can ask basic questions that are answered by Voicify AI Voice Assistants. Questions include 'What hours are you open?'; 'Do you deliver?'; 'Tell me about your menu'; and 'May I place an order?'. With AI acting as a front-line automated assistant, restaurant staff spend less time on the phone and more time serving in-person guests and fulfilling orders. 

An Intelligent Option

Danté  is among a growing number of restaurant operators adding Voice AI to help with operations. Recently, Jersey Mike’s added Voice AI Phone Ordering.  Checkers & Rally's, Panera, CKE Restaurants and Good Times are using – or piloting the use of AI – in the drive-thru to help automate the ordering process so that staff can focus on other tasks such as customer service and food production.  

• RTN's AI Share Group Spotlights Real-World AI Use Cases

Voicify is optimized to handle natural human speech. This means that Danté customers can speak their questions or requests without modifying their speech at all. As part of the conversational flow, Voicify AI assists phone customers using the most appropriate messaging method. For example, the AI assistant can automatically send an SMS text with a link to restaurant location directions or the restaurant's online ordering platform. Voicify assistants continually learn and improve based on customer interactions. As needed or at customer request, the AI assistant can connect the guest with human staff.

Designed to deploy quickly and integrate directly with existing phone, POS, kiosk and other restaurant technologies, Voicify AI sets the standard for conversational AI by learning quickly and delivering intelligent and reliable performance for any situation.  

 RoomRaccoon, a leading Hotel Management System for independent hotels, has announced its strategic partnership with Reconline, a renowned hotel distribution and connectivity solution. The partnership offers RoomRaccoon users a seamless connection to some of the industry's most influential Global Distribution Systems (GDS), including Sabre, Amadeus, Galileo, and Worldspan.

The integration empowers RoomRaccoon users with a powerful yet affordable way to manage their online distribution. By establishing a real-time connection with major Global Distribution Systems (GDSs), RoomRaccoon users can reach over 450,000 travel agents all over the world and showcase their properties to a wider audience of potential guests. This, in turn, can help them to increase their revenue. 

"As a partner, we are delighted that RoomRaccoon is leveraging our best-in-class GDS hotel distribution technology to provide its hotel customers with the opportunity to tap into new streams of revenue in this growing market segment," said Markus Maissen, Managing Director, reconline AG.

“As we continue to expand our hotel distribution connectivity marketplace, we are excited to partner with Reconline and grant our users access to their extensive distribution network,” says Steven Reffin, Head of Partnerships at RoomRaccoon. “Thanks to enhanced distribution, our hotels can showcase their properties to a global audience, driving increased bookings and revenue.” 

Hotels can now automate their room reservation process with the help of RoomRaccoon and Reconline. With RoomRaccoon's Channel Manager, the hotel's property management system can efficiently send real-time information to the distribution system. This ensures that travel agents have access to the most accurate data regarding room availability and rates.

The RoomRaccoon and Reconline integration is available to hoteliers worldwide. 

Cloudbeds, the hospitality management platform powering more reservations and happier guests for independent lodging businesses around the globe, has today revealed rankings of the highest revenue-generating Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) worldwide, as well as by various countries and regions.

The findings, featured in Cloudbeds’ 2023 ‘Big Book of OTAs’, underscore the robust resurgence of OTAs, with the highest revenue-generating platforms experiencing a remarkable hold in the market. Meanwhile, regional OTAs across Asia have been rising in popularity, signaling the return of Asian travelers to the market.

The analysis follows extensive research by Cloudbeds involving tens of thousands of independent properties globally, including hotels, inns, motels, hostels, short-term rentals, and serviced apartments.

Sebastien Leitner, VP of Partnerships at Cloudbeds, said: “Based on data gathered from thousands of customers’ independent properties between 2021 and 2023, we’ve witnessed a remarkable pace of recovery for Online Travel Agencies. While top OTAs like Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb have held onto their spots as the top revenue generators, we’ve also seen China’s Trip.com climbing two spots.

“For independent properties, building a comprehensive channel mix is integral to securing a steady stream of reservations, yet navigating the complex world of OTAs is no easy feat. That’s why our team at Cloudbeds analyzes booking data from tens of thousands of independent properties each year, offering insights into which OTAs dominate globally, regionally, and across different property types.”

Below are the ten highest revenue-generating OTAs globally in 2023, according to data from Cloudbeds’ independent customer properties:

1. Booking.com
2. Expedia
3. Airbnb
4. Hostelworld
5. Agoda
6. Trip.com
7. Hotelbeds
8. Vrbo
9. Traveloka
10. Despegar / Decolar

The new rankings from Cloudbeds also highlighted the OTAs that drove the highest revenue for its customers in leading travel destinations across North America, LATAM, Europe, and the APAC region.

While Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb consistently ranked among the five highest revenue-generating OTAs in all 11 countries, Cloudbeds observed the return of Asian travelers as Agoda and Trip.com rose in North America and made their debut on Latin American lists.

Meanwhile, Hostelworld climbed the ranks in multiple countries, notably leaping five spots in Thailand and the Philippines, demonstrating a renewed demand for hostels, shared accommodations, and experiences.

In line with previous years, Cloudbeds’ data consistently shows that independent properties of all sizes experience a boost in revenue when additional OTA channels are added, with six channels being the magic number.

For a comprehensive overview of the top distribution channels worldwide – including a breakdown by many regions and countries – download a free copy of Cloudbeds’ second annual “Big Book of OTAs: A Hotelier’s Guide to Top Distribution Channels” at cloudbeds.com/online-travel-agencies.