News Briefs

At HITEC 2024,  Amazon announced a new set of Echo Show visual capabilities for Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality. The company also announced a new strategic collaboration with Viator, the world's largest travel experiences marketplace with over 300,000 global tours and activities. 

Many hotel operators currently provide custom Alexa-powered voice experiences in every guest room — including Reverb Atlanta, Circa Resort & Casino, and The Wynn in Las Vegas, as well as select U.S. Walt Disney World Resorts. These properties use Alexa to engage their guests, empower their staff, and generate revenue — all through the intuitive use of voice and touch.

These additions to the Alexa Smart Properties portfolio deliver robust capabilities for engaging guests during their stays — deploying targeted communications and marketing, and establishing real-time feedback loops.

When hotels provide Alexa’s Echo Show devices in guest rooms, these new visual capabilities give them more control over how they connect and engage with their guests. Through the intuitive nature of voice-enabled Alexa interactions and the ease of touch, Amazon’s Echo Show devices allow guests better connections with the hotel and surroundings. These visual capabilities deliver three key features:
 

• Persistent Visual Alerts adds a new option for prioritized guest communications. These alerts deliver prioritized communications through a full-screen visual that appears on top of the current content on screen. Every alert has a visible dismiss button, and remains on screen until the guest dismisses it by voice or touch, or at a pre-set time. Critical hotel information (e.g. window washing during daytime hours) or time-sensitive offers (e.g. 30% off a same-day spa appointment) will have more timely visibility to guests than verbal staff reminders or printed materials that are often delivered out of context. In addition to prioritized communications, hotels can deliver mid-stay guest surveys as alerts to create real-time guest feedback loops. Instead of discovering a negative guest experience in a post-stay survey or a public review, hotels can now address concerns while they can still impact guest satisfaction.
• Full Rotating Card Panel (RCP) Composition gives hotel operators complete, customizable access to the composition of the rotating cards on the Echo Show devices in guest rooms. They can highlight property information such as restaurants and other amenities, provide recommendations on local attractions, weather information, or other content options with whatever content mix they choose.
   
• A Branded Shortcut (coming soon) will provide an on-screen touch-enabled shortcut on Echo Show devices that’s always visible over any screen content. Guests can more easily return to the property’s menu of custom Alexa skills — adding efficiency so they can focus on the reason for their travel. The hotel’s brand will be used in the shortcut to further build affinity with the hotel.
   

The Viator experience on Alexa is a pre-built Alexa skill that new and existing Alexa-enabled hotels can easily add to their Echo Show devices in guest rooms at no additional charge. This Viator experience on Alexa is available at launch partner Circa Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, is currently available in the U.S. and will be made available internationally over time.

For more information about Alexa Smart Properties for Hospitality, visit the website or contact Amazon.

PopID and Steak n Shake announced today that all Steak n Shake locations in the United States now accept PopID Check In (to review favorite orders and loyalty points) and PopPay for checkout. With more than 300 locations, Steak n Shake is the first national restaurant brand in the United States to adopt biometric check-in and checkout nationwide. PopID’s biometric check-in feature makes kiosk ordering faster, easier, and more personalized.

The implementation of PopID in every Steak n Shake location was accomplished rapidly and at low cost through a partnership between PopID and ACRELEC, a leading supplier of kiosk-ordering hardware and drive-through products. Cameras were shipped to every restaurant for attachment to the existing ACRELEC kiosks. “As explained in our recent publication, ACRELEC believes that our integrated biometric solution provides various benefits to restaurant operators related to throughput, ticket size, and loyalty engagement,” says Bruno Lo-Re, President of ACRELEC America.

“We are thrilled about our partnership with PopID and to be on the edge of biometric technology for the benefit of our customers. Our guests now have the option to use biometrics for a faster and more seamless experience,” says Sardar Biglari, Chairman of Biglari Holdings, the parent company of Steak n Shake.

Now that biometrics are enabled for all ordering and payment inside Steak n Shake restaurants, PopID and Steak n Shake will begin implementing biometric check-in and checkout at the restaurant’s drive-through units. “Similar to the kiosks, biometric check in can increase loyalty participation and revenue at the drive thru while also reducing payment processing costs,” says John Miller, CEO of PopID and Chairman of Cali Group. “Additionally, biometric payment at the order confirmation screen enables staff members to work on tasks other than taking payments by card and phone at the order pick-up window.”

Duetto, a global leader in revenue management solutions, and SHR (an Access company), a leading provider of innovative and intelligent technology solutions for hotels and resorts, today announced a strategic partnership designed to revolutionize the casino resort industry. Using Duetto’s Dynamic Rate Engine (DRE), SHR Group will enable its casino customers to deliver real-time personalized pricing online to maximize revenue, as well as increase occupancy and guest satisfaction.

The newly certified SHR<>DRE API connection returns real-time rates and restrictions on the customer level, offering loyalty program members special rates and comp rooms based on their lifetime value. This collaboration enhances the experience for players and streamlines operations for casino resorts.

“Duetto’s dynamic pricing model delivers real-time, value-driven promotions that evolve based on player activity and worth. Now, thanks to our integration with SHR, these players can be rewarded instantly and can book their discounted or comp rooms easily online, encouraging them to stay more often,” said John Lingos-Webb, Senior Director of Global Partnerships, Duetto.

“SHR’s award-winning booking engine now integrates real-time RMS lookups via Duetto’s Rate Engine API. This collaboration with Duetto expands SHR’s existing casino functionality and provides our customers with a wider range of tools to offer personalized rates and comp rooms to their loyalty guests,” said Dan Edmonds, VP Casino Strategy & Solutions, SHR Group.

With Duetto's Open Pricing and dynamic discounting based on customers’ total worth, casinos can strategically determine which guests get a comped room or a discounted cash rate during high-demand versus low-demand periods, without the risk of over-investing and eroding the bottom line.

At HITEC,  visit the Duetto booth #1751 at HITEC or SHR at booth #447.

Zucchetti North America - the North American outpost of the Italian-based Zucchetti Group – is excited to launch brand new reservation management functionality for chains in the Vertical Booking CRS, as well as a new and improved Booking Engine, designed to enhance conversions and maximize revenue through the direct channel.

The Vertical Booking CRS has added new reservation management functionality for chains, which has been very well received by our clients as they can now manage their rates and distribution across their entire portfolio of properties in minutes through the CRS. The new functionality includes the ability to:

·       Manage rate plans, cancellation and payment policies, discounts and corporate contracts across the entire portfolio of properties, in minutes, to eliminate manual data entry and maximize productivity.

·       Offer discounts to your corporate clients using multiple discount codes.

·       Create corporate and group agreements at the group level, making it easier to create and manage multiple room blocks across multiple properties.

The conversion-focused Booking Engine from Vertical Booking now offers more customization features, new booking conversion tools, an updated look and feel, plus a more responsive and streamlined booking process for guests – in short, it’s everything that hotels need to maximize their conversion rate to drive more bookings through the direct channel. For hotels who operate a chain of properties, the new multi-property Booking Engine will enable potential guests to search for a room across the entire portfolio of properties and then filter the search results by their favorite amenities to enable them to find the perfect room in the perfect hotel, every time.

“In today’s highly competitive marketplace, hoteliers need the best possible operational technology to help support their business goals and the updates to the Vertical Booking CRS and Booking Engine were designed to provide valuable functionality for our clients with multiple properties,“ said Mark Lewis-Brown, CEO & President of Zucchetti North America. “All of the solutions in the Zucchetti North America tech stack (including PMS, CRS, Booking Engine, RMS, POS and more!) work together to convert more direct bookings and maximize revenue – and with these new features and functionalities, we can now offer even more ROI for our hotel clients across North America.” 

Meet Zucchetti North America at HITEC Charlotte from June 25-27 at Booth 4044 on the tradeshow floor to find out more or for a demo.

Samsung Electronics  announced Samsung Hospitality TV compatibility with AirPlay, allowing hotel guests to connect their iOS and iPadOS devices to the TVs in their rooms easily and securely.

Guests will be able to enjoy the convenience of watching their favorite shows and movies from popular streaming services, listening to personal playlists on various music platforms, viewing photos, practicing presentations, playing games and more on the TV in their room. By simply scanning a unique, on-screen QR code, guests can privately and securely connect their iPhone or iPad to the Samsung Hospitality TV,

Ensuring both convenience and robust security, no personal information is ever stored or saved and all information about paired devices is automatically erased upon guest checkout. This feature not only enhances the guest experience but also provides peace of mind regarding data privacy. Additionally, hotel managers and operators can easily update their management systems to enable AirPlay technology, simplifying the integration process.

The integration of Apple AirPlay is part of Samsung’s broader strategy to enhance the in-room experience for hotel guests while providing powerful management tools for hotel operators. Samsung’s latest hospitality TVs include LYNK Cloud and SmartThings Pro for enhanced connectivity, seamless management and improved guest experience.

“Samsung is committed to building a robust and connected ecosystem that enhances convenience, usability, and overall guest experience,” said Hoon Chung, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “AirPlay allows both iPhone and iPad users to easily share their favorite content on the big screen in their hotel room, making their temporary stay at a hotel feel more like home. LYNK Cloud and SmartThings Pro also give hotel management better business insights while making their operations more seamless and efficient.”

For hotel managers and operators, LYNK Cloud is a comprehensive cloud solution for Samsung Hospitality TVs that offers customizable content, remote device management, and access to OTT entertainment. Equipped with an e-commerce platform, LYNK Cloud provides an in-room ordering system that offers guests interactive services such as booking hotel services, ordering room service, a digital concierge and more, all bundled in solution. With LYNK Cloud, hotel managers can also use insights to personalize content and experiences for hotel guests to create impactful promotional content across different rooms or properties worldwide.

SmartThings Pro brings enhanced connectivity to hotel managers, delivering more interoperability and security with IoT devices in their properties. Hotel IT managers can connect and control Samsung smart devices² throughout the hotel, such as Hospitality TVs, Smart Signage, air conditioning systems and more IoT devices³ through one efficient dashboard. The SmartThings Pro Dashboard enhances multi-unit management, device performance monitoring – all designed with scalability and developer-friendly integration in mind. To meet the diverse set of hotel partners’ needs, SmartThings Pro also offers customizable Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for seamless integration with existing systems, and a customizable dashboard.