News Briefs

Nemacolin, an award-winning, luxury destination resort nestled within 2,200-acres in the Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania, has partnered with Hapi and Salesforce to roll out high-touch, personalized service across its entire campus, which includes lodging, restaurants and activities.

In addition to two championship golf courses and a casino, Nemacolin features a salon, shops, an award-winning spa and a holistic healing center. Dining options include four high-end restaurants and six casual dining options, as well as seven bars and lounges. Accommodations include two luxury hotels, a Tudor-style lodge, two-bedroom townhouses and high-end private homes.

During the COVID lockdown, Nemacolin was forced to transition from mainly group business to placing a high emphasis on leisure travel and the leisure guest experience. As such, leadership today is focused on personalized guest experiences that will drive customer service scores and repeat leisure business.

To ‘wow’ guests with personalized touches throughout their stay, Nemacolin has turned to Salesforce for their Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Analytics products. Together, these tools will provide a central, unified view of each guest and a platform for staff members across the property to access and action guest profile details.

“Historically, our strategy was to get people to book rooms, and if they want to do something else while on property, we expected them to call us back,” says Dan Swanson, Director of Revenue Strategy at Nemacolin. “Now, we've started to implement a high-touch experience by looking beyond bookings and really understanding our guests – who they are, what their preferences are, what they’ve spent money on, and what their satisfaction scores are. Now we can proactively help them make those appointments.”

While Salesforce is widely recognized as a leader in Customer Relationship Management across many industries, leadership at Nemacolin wanted a partner with deep hospitality expertise to help setup and deploy the Salesforce ecosystem, including integrating the multitude of operating systems across the property and ensuring normalized data was flowing properly. They turned to Hapi Guest, the only solution to securely integrate hotel data into Salesforce Cloud environments in real time.

“Hospitality is a finicky business that takes a while to learn. Hapi understands it, and that's the experience we were looking to take advantage of,” Swanson says. “The plug and play nature of what Hapi brings from an interface perspective is exciting, meaning if we need to unplug any of our systems, we can plug a new one in the next day.”

Hapi Guest will help extract and organize all the data that is collected by different sources across the expansive Nemacolin property. Data will be normalized to ensure a single guest profile and then sent to the Salesforce ecosystem via a single feed.

“Hapi Guest is enabling hotels like Nemacolin to use Salesforce to create traveler personalization at scale, reinventing guest journeys across all channels,” says Luis Segredo, CEO of Hapi. “We’re proud of this partnership with one of the world’s most unique luxury resorts and look forward to helping them access and action their guest data.”

As part of a national effort to raise awareness and offer expert insights, Denny's is kicking off a series of summits focused on how companies and individuals can better manage and improve their mental health and wellness.

The first summit is taking place on April 22 at the HPAC Theater in Spartanburg, S.C. The summit will be free to the public and attendees can participate in-person or virtually.

"Denny's has always been committed to feeding people's bodies, minds, and souls, and this summit series perfectly aligns with our holistic approach to wellness," said Kelli Valade, CEO of Denny's. "The COVID-19 pandemic has placed the topics of mental health and personal well-being front and center. Now is the time to think about how we can bring our whole selves to all facets of our lives, including the workplace."

The summit keynote speaker is Dr. Daniel E. Dawes, Senior Vice President for Global Health and Executive Director of the Institute of Global Health Equity at Meharry Medical College. Dawes will discuss the importance of addressing mental health equity and the path forward to achieving a healthier society. Other nationally recognized panelists include:  

• Dr. Shaneeta Johnson, a surgeon, clinician, educator, and researcher at Morehouse School of Medicine and Senior Fellow in Global Health Equity at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute
• Dr. Monique May, a board-certified and licensed family physician best known as the "Physician in the Kitchen"
• Dr. Bennie L. Harris, Chancellor of the University of South Carolina Upstate
• Sharon Lykins, Denny's Vice President of Product Innovation

"Mental health and wellness significantly impact the quality of life of individuals, families, and communities across the Upstate region and beyond," said USC Upstate Chancellor, Bennie L. Harris, Ph.D. "We are thrilled to join forces with a global leader like Denny's to address one of the most critical public health issues of our time."

Journalist Roland S. Martin will moderate two panels, "Mindful Eating," which will address the connection between food and wellness, and "Wellness at the Workplace," which focuses on mental health at work.

A second mental health summit will be offered on October 10 in Nashville, Tennessee.

DIRECTV HOSPITALITY and Aimbridge Hospitality are working together to improve the in-room guest experience from coast-to-coast, effective immediately.

The collaboration represents the first agreement between DIRECTV® and a major hotel management company, as well as an effort by two industry leaders dedicated to enhancing how Americans consume content in their hotel rooms. Aimbridge currently has more than 170,000 rooms under management in the U.S. representing a wide variety of lodging brands in addition to independent hotels.

With the expansion of their relationship, Aimbridge will be able to extend exclusive DIRECTV benefits to its owners that are not available from any other management company, including white glove service and access to DIRECTV HOSPITALITY’s latest technology, the industry-leading Advanced Entertainment Platform.

Additionally, DIRECTV HOSPITALITY has the opportunity to showcase some of its exclusive, marquee sports programming, including, ESPN+ FOR BUSINESS and MLS Season Pass within hotel lounges, bars, and restaurants at Aimbridge-managed properties that choose DIRECTV service.

“Aimbridge Hospitality is pleased to partner with DIRECTV HOSPITALITY in enhancing the guestroom experience at our U.S.-managed hotels,” said Keryn McNamara, Aimbridge Hospitality’s Senior Vice President, Hotel Technology.  “With this new partnership, our hotel owners receive additional value-added benefits as we deepen our guest innovation at scale.”

This latest announcement comes less than a year after DIRECTV struck strategic alliances with Marriott and Hyatt for the U.S. market at the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC) last June.

“DIRECTV is extremely proud of our partnership with Aimbridge Hospitality and our mutual commitment to taking the in-room guest experience to the next level,” said Kim Twiggs, DIRECTV HOSPITALITY.  “Combining DIRECTV’s robust sports & entertainment programming with Aimbridge’s extensive management portfolio is a win for hotel guests nationwide.”

Twiggs and McNamara appeared on a “Technology Leaders” panel at the ForWard: Women Advancing Technology Conference earlier today in Chicago, where they formally announced the business relationship between the two companies.

Orders.co has partnered with Grubhub to streamline order management for more than a thousand independent and enterprise restaurants across the country. 

With this integration, restaurant operators will be able to update menus across ordering channels with a centralized menu management system, streamline operations by ingesting Grubhub orders directly into their POS via Orders.co and sync in-store hours of operation. Together, the partnership alleviates some of the pain points operators face when having to update menus and hours across multiple systems.

• Tighter integrations with other operating systems are driving 29% of restaurants’ POS upgrades, according to HT's 2023 POS Software Trends report 

"Our restaurant partners continue to tell us that the ability to manage all orders in one place is paramount for their operations, and we're excited to partner with Orders.co to help streamline their day-to-day order management," said Steven Delzell, director of restaurant product at Grubhub. "In a world where operations are nearly exclusively digital, it's more important than ever that we continue to provide solutions for our partners that help them deliver a better experience all around."

This integration is now available to restaurant operators and Grubhub will provide a free 30-day trial for restaurants on Grubhub who sign up with Orders.co. In addition, restaurants not currently partnered with Grubhub can sign up for a free 30-day trial here.

HRS, a global corporate lodging and payment technology platform, announced the addition of Radisson Hotel Group its groundbreaking Green Stay Initiative (GSI). As more corporate hotel procurement leaders prioritize a hotel’s sustainability-related credentials during the bidding process, Radisson Hotel Group’s choice to participate in the global GSI program enhances their opportunities to win more corporate volume. Radisson Hotel Group’s 1,100+ properties across 95+ countries will gradually participate in GSI, beginning with an initial group of properties in Europe this quarter. 

The timing of this announcement aligns with the increasing number of government proclamations requiring corporations to report their progress on reducing carbon emissions. The most recent example is the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, adopted by the European Union parliament in November 2022. This EU-wide regulation, mandating “more detailed reporting,” begins in January 2024.  

Launched just two years ago, HRS’ Green Stay Initiative has recorded impressive traction in the global corporate hospitality ecosystem. The technology enables corporate hotel procurement leaders to efficiently view and consider sustainability metrics and information amid other categories (i.e. room rates, cancellation policy, etc.) as they make preferred supplier decisions. More than 600 hotel brands across 170-plus nations participate in GSI today, including seven of the top 11 hotel chains in the world. Dozens of Fortune 500 corporations use the solution as part of their hotel procurement process, with some companies mandating hotels to use the technology in order to secure preferred supplier status. 

Radisson Hotel Group: Early Leaders in Adopting Sustainable Practices 

Radisson Hotel Group cares for people, communities and planet and airms to be Net Zero by 2050 based on the approved near-term Science Based Targets. With unique solutions such as 100% carbon neutral Radisson Meetings, the Group makes sustainable hotel stays easy. To faciliate sustainable travel choices, all Radisson Hotel Group hotels are becoming verified on Hotel Sustainability Basics. Dozens of individual properties have won green awards in recent years, and EcoVadis honored Radisson Hotel Group with the Silver award for sustainable supply chain paractices across its brands.

“We continue to our Net Zero transition while delivering a unique sustainable lodging experience in our hotels worldwide with a combination of Hotel Sustainability Basics, recognized eco-labels and unique value propositions such as 100% carbon neutral Radisson Meetings,” said Gianni Di Fede, Senior Vice President Revenue Management, RevGen Analytics and Distribution at Radisson Hotel Group. “HRS’ Green Stay solution makes it easier for our properties to convey their green attributes to corporate procurement audiences. Using this technology simplifies RFP-related administrative processes with HRS corporate clients, which supports our hotels at a time when corporate transient and meeting volume ramps up in 2023.”

“Radisson Hotel Group has always been a leader when it comes to adopting technologies that enhance services to all their guests. We’ve collaborated with Radisson Hotel Group on several automation-focused projects in recent years, so we’re pleased to move forward with GSI,” said HRS CEO Tobias Ragge. “Resource-challenged hotels gain from precisely this type of automation as they seek to compete for corporate room nights even as they tightly manage their sales-related expenses.” 

Corporate hotel program leaders, hotel executives and media can learn more about the impact of sustainability-related trends in lodging procurement via this recent report from HRS. 

Hostaway has become the first vacation rental property management software (PMS) to launch a ChatGPT-powered artificial intelligence tool within its platform. 

From today, all PMS & channel manager clients will have the option to use AI within Hostaway to optimize their listings and increase bookings, without adding to their workloads.

As rising guest expectations increase the demands on short term and vacation rental operators, data-driven automation is critical to achieving efficiencies while maintaining the highest standards required of professional managers and hosts.

Hostaway’s new AI tool will transform listings to be more inviting and engaging. It will also match the tone of voice and professional style to each operators’ brand and audience — from formal to friendly and anything in between — creating brand consistency across listings. 

This new technology not only saves time but increases the visibility of listings in a way that some managers may struggle to achieve by themselves.

The launch of its first AI enhancement is just the latest improvement the Hostaway team has made to its award-winning platform in the past year. Last month, the company updated its Guest Portal, enabling property managers to upsell to guests before and during their stay, helping clients stay competitive, drive revenue and deliver best-in-class stays. 

In 2022, Hostaway launched a website builder, fully-customizable rental agreements, and centralized financial reporting as well as integrations with nine booking channels, including Homes & Villas by Marriott International, Hopper, and Amadeus. Hostaway now have more than 150 integration partners. 

Saber Kordestanchi, Co-Founder and COO at Hostaway said: “We are delighted to introduce this feature to our platform, easing the strain on our customers by giving them the tools they need to elevate their listing descriptions and increase bookings.

“We take pride in responding quickly to developments in technology and the wider travel industry. AI is going to transform the experience of property managers as well as guests and this is just the first of many enhancements we expect to make.”