News Briefs

Lazeez Shawarma, a fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain, will implement the Revel POS platform at 225 locations across Canada.

"As we enter a period of rapid expansion, we needed a cloud POS platform like Revel that could help us easily scale our operations," said Sahib Rana, co-founder and director of franchise operations at Lazeez Shawarma. "The Revel platform also provides the software and hardware flexibility required to deliver an exceptional guest experience."

Lazeez Shawarma will also take advantage of the Revel kitchen display system (KDS) that eliminates the waste, cost and hassle of paper tickets. The Revel KDS automatically displays orders from all channels as they come into the POS, which increases speed of service while also improving order accuracy.

• 85% say integrations with other systems is driving POS purchasing decisions, according to HT's 2024 POS Software Trends Survey

Lazeez Shawarma will also utilize Revel Advantage International, Revel’s integrated in-house payment processing solution, to provide a complete POS and payments offering. Revel Advantage International is powered by Adyen, the financial technology platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies.

"Revel looks forward to partnering with Lazeez Shawarma as they execute on their exciting growth plans," said Chris Lybeer, chief strategy officer at Revel Systems. "The Revel POS platform is a proven solution for rapid scalability, and its order management system will enable Lazeez to drive increased revenue and profits by optimizing disparate ordering channels."

The Revel customer display system (CDS) will enable Lazeez to improve the guest experience by allowing them to review order information in real-time, ensuring transaction accuracy. The CDS can also save and store multiple designs to easily put in front of the customer, including recurring promotions, holiday specials, and general messaging.

Jet's Pizza has partnered with ConverseNow, a voice AI technology platform for restaurants.   

By providing a fast and accurate service when ordering over the phone, Voice AI is set to deliver an enhanced guest experience for Jet's Pizza's customers.  The intuitive voice ordering assistants will support Jet's Pizza in processing phone orders, as well as support the growth of the company through intelligent upselling and accurate and efficient ordering. 

"Voice AI is a game-changer for Jet's Pizza, as it allows us to address a big concern of ours: making sure our franchisees are making good use of their human capital. We aim to make technology as good as our pizza. ConverseNow can take a high volume of phone calls with speed and accuracy. This allows our franchise operators to get their employees off the phones and focus on the fun part of the job: Making pizzas," said Aaron Nilsson, CIO of Jet's Pizza.  

Selected for its cost-effectiveness and scalable technology, ConverseNow's Voice AI will be present in Jet's Pizza locations across the US from early 2024.  

Phone orders at Jet's Pizza are responsible for a significant share of its revenue, and utilizing voice AI can increase this share as customers see value in the ordering efficiency. In addition, ConverseNow will enable Jet's Pizza's teams to streamline operations, offering the ability to optimize the deployment of valuable staff hours and improve the speed and accuracy of orders.

Equipped with conversational and emotional intelligence, ConverseNow's AI-powered virtual ordering assistants replicate natural human dialog to gauge customer sentiment and guide conversations. It can detect nuances, predict ordering behaviors, and maximize revenues by upselling items based on contextual data and information available to them in real-time. Its cloud-based, multilingual solution personalizes restaurant orders in high-volume voice channels such as phone, drive-thru, self-service kiosks, and voice-assisted chat on mobile devices.

Voice AI is shown to increase average orders by 23% and revenues by 20% while enabling up to 63% of extra deployable labor time per store per week to be utilized. By allowing human time to be shifted from order-taking to food preparation and high-value guest interaction, AI-powered virtual ordering assistants measurably improve the entire customer experience.

Live in more than 1800+ restaurants across 46 states, ConverseNow has delivered a much-needed answer to the industry-wide labor shortage, processing limitless conversations at once with remarkable accuracy so staff can focus on higher-priority tasks such as fulfillment and in-person service, at times doubling volume during peak hours.

Most recently, ConverseNow partnered with Google and Open AI to access both companies' services to redefine conversations, infusing them with a natural flow and boosting order accuracy while accelerating AI's self-learning capabilities and correcting mistakes that developers don't even know exist, enabling real-time connections between conversational AI and dynamic scenarios.

Zouk Group, a global lifestyle brand specializing in nightlife, entertainmentand dining, has selected UrVenue,as its global technology partner, expanding their current partnership to Zouk Group’s nightlife venues in Singapore, Japan, and Malaysia.

 Zouk Group and UrVenue first became partners in 2021 with the opening of Zouk Nightclub, AYU Dayclub, FUHU restaurant, and RedTail social gaming bar, all of which are located within Resorts World Las Vegas, a 3,500-room luxury resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

Founded in 2011, UrVenue debuted as an e-commerce solution, selling advance tickets and table reservations at Las Vegas’ largest and most complex nightclubs and dayclubs. UrVenue’s technology followed an organic evolution to become a robust commerce, operations, and guest experience platform for individual venues and for hotels and resorts with pools, beaches, sportsbooks, bars, lounges, restaurants, recreation, and more.

Zouk Group Las Vegas was the inaugural client to utilize UrVenue’s two-way integration with OpenTable and its Itinerary Builder feature, which enabled unified booking of Zouk nightclub and Ayu Dayclub, whose inventory is managed in UrVenue, and FUHU and Redtail restaurants, whose inventory is managed in OpenTable. By enabling this cross-booking of experiences in a single shopping cart, Zouk increased conversion rate and the total order value of each purchase.   In 2023, Zouk Group Las Vegas also became the first client to use UrVenue’s new inventory distribution capability, enabling 3rd party resellers to sell Zouk’s live inventory in real time.

The expanded global partnership with Zouk Group now includes the use of UrVenue at Zouk’s Singapore venues, Phuture, Capital, and its namesake venue Zouk, as well as its newest venue Zouk Tokyo, inside the prestigious Ginza Hotel by Granbell.

Zouk Group selected UrVenue because of its advanced commerce, operations, and guest experience features, including VIP table management, club and festival ticketing, interactive 3D booking maps, and unified booking for upselling and cross-selling experiences.  These features earned Zouk and UrVenue recognition as a finalist for the  Skift IDEA Awards in 2021.  Other cutting-edge capabilities Zouk is leveraging include automated price yielding for better revenue management, 3rd party distribution of experiences, and unique payment capabilities such as deposits on food and beverage minimums and full pre-payments online across different countries and currencies. UrVenue also partnered with Zouk Group to create a digital, e-commerce hub and is developing and maintaining a new, modern website for Zouk Group's global lifestyle brand.

As a result of strong growth in the Americas region, Hyatt announced new senior leadership appointments in the Americas region and subregional structure designed to further support Hyatt’s continued focus on growth, operational excellence and performance optimization within its largest region. With this new organizational structure, Hyatt’s Americas region is now comprised of two subregions: U.S. & Canada and Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC), led by two newly appointed subregional presidents, respectively: Susan Santiago and Gabriel Felip who both report to Pete Sears, Group President, Americas, effective January 2024.

In her new role as President, U.S. & Canada, Santiago is responsible for the growth and performance optimization of Hyatt’s owned and managed portfolio. She is in her 32^nd year with Hyatt and has held numerous positions leading operational performance, most recently as Senior Vice President of Hyatt’s Lifestyle Division and Miraval brand.

As President, Latin America & Caribbean, Felip leads operational performance for all managed and owned Hyatt hotels in the region across all brands, including Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection. Felip is an industry veteran with more than 30 years of hospitality and tourism experience and previously served as Hyatt’s Group President of Inclusive Collection Global Operations.

“Our new Americas structure enables us to further support our hotel teams and owners in more customized, regionalized ways – and this is designed to help us continue driving strong results through intentional and sustainable growth for the region,” said Sears. “With these changes, we continue our momentum in positioning Hyatt as the preferred hospitality brand, delivering meaningful and memorable experiences for guests and driving results for our owners.”

Included in the Americas’ new subregional structure are three newly created roles within the operations, commercial services and finance functions, respectively: Yvette Martinez-Edwards has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Field Operations, Luxury & Miraval, reporting to Santiago, Shyla Gardner re-joins Hyatt as Vice President, Commercial Services, Latin America & the Caribbean, reporting to Asad Ahmed, Senior Vice President, Commercial Services, Americas, and Juan Pablo Puerta now serves as Senior Vice President, Finance, Latin America & the Caribbean, reporting to Liz Bauer, Senior Vice President, Finance, Americas.

With a dedicated focus on driving operational excellence within Hyatt’s luxury brands, Martinez-Edwards oversees Hyatt’s managed luxury and Miraval hotel portfolio for the Americas region. Most recently, Martinez-Edwards served as Vice President of Field Operations where she led a group of full-service Timeless Collection properties in the East region. She also previously led Hyatt’s sales strategy in Latin America & the Caribbean, and for the Miraval brand.

Gardner leads a cross-functional LAC Commercial Services team that provides a specialized commercial strategy for the LAC market and further develops strong brand stories that embrace Hyatt’s culture and key differentiators for Hyatt’s full LAC portfolio, including the Inclusive Collection. Prior to this role, Gardner acted as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Playa Resorts and previously served as an Area Director of Sales and Marketing in Mexico for Hyatt.

To further support Hyatt’s intentional long-term growth strategy, Puerta is responsible for leading the finance function and driving property performance optimization throughout Latin America & the Caribbean. Puerta also continues to lead the function for Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection in the region. Prior to this role, Puerta served as the CFO of Apple Leisure Group.

Smokey Bones, owned by FAT (Fresh. Authentic. Tasty.) Brands Inc. unveiled its new and improved Bones Club loyalty program. The revamped program offers guests an instant reward upon joining, exclusive ongoing deals and offers, the opportunity to earn valuable points to be redeemed towards future purchases, and special surprise and delight features. 

After enrolling guests receive an instant $5 reward and 50 Bones Club points to use on a future visit, and they earn five points for every dollar spent. Points are redeemable for favorite food items, as well as get access to exclusive features, including drink specials, limited time offers, birthday treats, and other promos reserved. 

“In a time where guests are placing increasing value on exceptional experiences, we're thrilled to introduce our refreshed Bones Club. The enhanced program is customizable and better in tune with our guests’ desires, allowing it to work harder for them – and thereby inspire true loyalty,” said Cole Robillard, Chief Marketing Officer at Smokey Bones. “The Bones Club is our way of recognizing our most engaged and important guests, providing exclusive offers and privileges designed to resonate with meat lovers and eating out enthusiasts alike, thus amplifying the impact of every dollar they spend at our restaurants.”

Current Bones Club members will experience a seamless and automatic update to their program with no action for any additional steps. 

Are influencers the next generation of travel agents? Arlo Hotels, an independent, experience-driven lifestyle hotel brand with properties in New York, Miami and Chicago, and Washington D.C. launching in 2024, is further innovating the hospitality industry with the launch of their If You Arlo app. The unique loyalty program ushers in a new era of travel where traditional travel agents are superseded by social media agents composed of influencers, friends & family, and content creators who creatively drive bookings while earning perks along the way. Through the If You Arlo (IYA) app, influencers can share insider discounts and tips with their followers while being rewarded with credits, status, and surprise rewards at any of the Arlo Hotels.

[Related Content: @hotel describes itself as an OTA for Instagram and has found that social media is the perfect spot to find, attract and market to valuable leisure consumers.]

According to a recent survey, 83% of millennials said they are more likely to book a hotel after seeing images from someone they follow on social media. Social media is the number one medium to influence travelers’ decisions. Arlo Hotels is carving its path to acknowledge and reward those who truly drive their guests’ decision-making process.

“Social influencers are a new class of travel agents, but they have lacked the infrastructure to make it actionable - until now,” explains Jimmy Suh, chief commercial officer at Arlo Hotels. “Travel is tailor-made for socially driven commerce. Our aim with the If You Arlo app is to offer influencers an opportunity to capitalize on their passion for travel and Arlo Hotels. We recognize that many of our guests’ decisions stem from the folks they follow and trust, i.e. their social network. With the app, we can now understand who these folks are and reward them for it. We’re also very community-driven, and if we can offer our community a program to pay it forward by offering their friends and followers exclusive discounts, it’s a win-win.”

Independent, lifestyle hotels are at a disadvantage compared to big chain hotel brands as they do not have the distribution reach. Further, independent hotels rely heavily on online travel agents (OTAs) for much of their distribution. OTA’s do not offer the consumers the insight of the unique stay experiences that many of the lifestyle hotels, such as Arlo Hotels, offer to their guests. Social media can level the playing field between independent hotels and big chain brands while offering more relevant information about the hotels. If You Arlo app capitalizes on both opportunities and along the way paves a unique path to a powerful new distribution channel.