News Briefs

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store  has teamed up with global superstar Dolly Parton.  Parton will be the face of "Rewards That Rock," a campaign that honors the brand's recently launched rewards program, Cracker Barrel Rewards, and her new album, Rockstar. 

To celebrate the partnership, Cracker Barrel and Parton are giving rewards members the chance to win one of 667 custom-designed Dolly Rockin' chairs. 

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. 

Shift4, a provider of integrated payments and commerce technology, has completed its previously announced acquisition of Finaro, a cross-border ecommerce payments provider and fully licensed bank with a large European presence. The completion of this acquisition significantly expands Shift4’s total addressable market both in terms of geographic coverage and industry verticals.

Finaro will provide the global infrastructure and cutting-edge technology needed to drive Shift4’s international expansion into Europe and beyond. In addition to expanding Shift4’s geographic footprint, the acquisition will enhance the company’s cross-border ecommerce capabilities to deliver a unified global payments platform for merchants and partners around the world.

“Finaro is highly complementary to Shift4 in terms of geographic coverage, capabilities, and addressable markets. It also empowers us to follow our existing strategic customers into new markets which represents a significant opportunity,” stated Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman. “By coupling Shift4’s card-present solutions with Finaro’s strengths in cross-border ecommerce, the combined organization offers a truly unified commerce experience that can compete with the biggest payments companies in the world.”

Isaacman added, “With Finaro’s tech center based in Israel, we realize that this comes during an extremely difficult time for those employees and their loved ones. The ability to work together during these trying times is a testament to the talent and character of everyone on the Finaro team. We are proud to welcome them into our Shift4 family.”

This acquisition not only augments Shift4’s ecommerce offering, but will also enable Shift4 to soon offer its card-present technology across Europe – including the company’s SkyTab restaurant point-of-sale system and VenueNext stadium solution. Additionally, Shift4 has more than 500 software integrations and over 200,000 merchant customers, many of which have a multinational presence and provide immediate international opportunities that can now be unlocked as a result of this acquisition.

Finaro will soon rebrand as Shift4 to operate under a single brand reflecting the company’s unified global payments platform. To learn more about Shift4, visit www.shift4.com.

iSeatz, a leading provider of travel loyalty technology solutions, has released its latest survey report that examines American consumers' priorities for holiday travel in 2023 and how loyalty programs can leverage opportunities to engage travelers during the upcoming season.

The report, The Tipping Point for Travel Loyalty: 2023 Holiday Travel Trends,  is based on a survey conducted by iSeatz in August 2023, which polled over 2,000 consumers in the United States belonging to a loyalty program that incorporates travel-related rewards and 151 loyalty program professionals across industries.

Among the report's key findings is the fact that travel loyalty programs are well-positioned to provide the reward and redemption options that make holiday travel more attainable for members while capitalizing on the heightened interest in travel that the season usually brings, but many don't consistently deliver the value they promise.

2023 Consumer Insights: Unpacking Holiday Travel Trends

The survey uncovers a US traveler demographic keen to journey but still way of high prices. It also reveals their appetite for more deals and value. Key insights from the report include:

• Consumers plan to travel more this holiday season than in 2022: While just 40% of U.S. adults surveyed traveled last holiday season, a notable 54% are gearing up for holiday trips this year.
   
• Price was a driving factor last year and maybe this year, too: 45% of the 60% of the consumers who didn't travel in the previous holiday season attributed their decision to affordability concerns, either due to steep prices or insufficient travel rewards. This year, value remains at the forefront of travelers' considerations.
   
• Loyalty programs can help consumers offset travel costs: 42% of consumers would travel more during the holidays if they got more discounts through their loyalty program, and 32% would if they had more points available to help offset the cost of the trip.
   
• Loyalty programs could be offering members more: Surveyed consumers said they would welcome their loyalty programs' help with holiday travel costs, but 45% reported that their loyalty programs aren't doing anything at all to offer benefits for the holiday period.

Actabl, a provider of hospitality software that empowers hotels with actionable insights and a member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), announced Alice by Actabl is available on Oracle Cloud Marketplace and can be integrated with Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP). Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a centralized repository of enterprise applications offered by Oracle and Oracle partners.

Alice by Actabl enables high level business benefits. This integration between Alice and OHIP allows staff and management to improve the accuracy of guest information and increase efficiency through the delivery of:

●       Booking information whenever reservations are created or modified,

●       Guest arrival statuses such as check-in, check-out, and special requests,

●       Room and housekeeping status.

Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for Oracle customers seeking trusted business applications offering unique business solutions, including ones that extend Oracle Cloud Applications. Oracle Cloud is an enterprise cloud that delivers massive, non-variable performance and next generation security across a comprehensive portfolio of services including SaaS, application development, application hosting, and business analytics. Customers get access to leading computing, storage, data management, security, integration, HPC, artificial intelligence (AI), and Blockchain services to augment and modernize their critical workloads. Oracle Cloud runs Oracle Autonomous Database, the industry's first and only self-driving database.

“Working on this with the team at Oracle has been great and we appreciate having a partner who shares our mission to make innovative, state-of-the-art technology accessible to hoteliers. Actabl’s integration with OHIP further extends our commitment to the Oracle community and enables customers to easily reap the benefits of Alice by Actabl” said Pritesh Patel, director of product integrations, Actabl. “We look forward to leveraging the power of the Oracle Cloud to support our customers’ day-to-day operations, growth, and ongoing success.”

Actabl is actively building a comprehensive platform for hotel intelligence and operations management technology demonstrating its dedication to delivering exceptional customer experiences and continuous product improvements. With a strong focus on customer engagement and learning, Actabl has attended over 60 conferences in 2023, providing individualized training to enhance customer knowledge and maximize software utilization. Additionally, the company has increased team capacity and introduced new measurement tools to expedite implementation timelines.

"Actabl's integration with OHIP has given us a significantly more stable and reliable PMS integration, resulting in smoother operations, increased associate confidence, and reduced support needs,” said Jeremy Campbell, senior corporate manager of property systems, Montage International. “We are fortunate to have such an incredible partnership with Alice by Actabl and their amazing team.”

Mews has released a bespoke integration to Expedia Group that allows properties to connect the Online Travel Agency (OTA) directly to Mews PMS.

The direct connection automatically updates prices, restrictions and availability in Expedia Group whenever changes are made in Mews Operations. This real-time link reduces the risk of overbookings, decreases sales discrepancies and can reduce the cost of ownership of a hotel’s tech stack.

This follows other direct OTA connections to Mews, including booking.com – which recently recognized Mews as a Premier Connectivity Partner – and dayuse.com, where hotels can increase their revenue by offering daytime reservations.

Mews also offers a direct connection to Google Hotel Search, which allows hotels to display their live rates via Google, encouraging more direct bookings. Learn more about the Google Hotel Search connection in this webinar.

“OTAs like Expedia Group are important distribution tools for hoteliers, and the Mews team has worked hard to build this direct connection,” said Matt Welle, Mews CEO. “Expedia Group is one of the two biggest reservation sources for Mews customers, and this integration will empower properties to better manage their inventory, consolidate tech stacks, and boost profit margins."

Although the latest integration will help hoteliers across the world, it is of particular importance in the United States, where Expedia Group is a heavily favored booking channel.