News Briefs

Customer-centricity is at the heart of High Return Hospitality. Resort and leisure activity customers expect experiences that go above and beyond the norm to keep them returning for more.

In fact, Gallup reports that fully engaged customers — those who are 23% more likely to spend at a facility — expect property employees to know more than just their name. They crave easy-to-book rooms and activities, simple ordering and payment solutions and more emotional connections.

To create guest and staff champions at every touchpoint, from booking to re-engagement to referral, UK-based Serco Leisure Operating Limited has selected a suite of intuitive, integrable solutions from the Agilysys Hospitality Cloud™. Agilysys, Inc. is a global provider of next-generation SaaS hospitality software solutions and services that will empower Serco Leisure to optimise Return on Experience (ROE) for guests and staff so they can achieve High Return Hospitality. ROE measures how technology creates more engaged and empowered staff members as well as guests that return more often, spend more, and leave stronger reviews.

Serco Leisure is one of the UK’s leading national operators of leisure centres, destination venues, and elite sporting facilities. Founded in 1988, it is part of Serco’s UK Citizen Services business unit, which has 6,000-plus employees. Serco Leisure provides leisure services on behalf of Community Leisure Trusts, local authorities like Nottinghamshire County Council and the Wheelpower Trust, and Sport England. The organisation provides world-class facilities for elite athletes, supporting them with resources to help in their pursuit of becoming part of Olympic teams and/or perfecting their sport. The leisure properties are also open for use by the general public.

Agilysys will provide hospitality solutions that range from a cloud-based property management system (PMS) to a booking system to a sales and catering solution for Serco Leisure’s current 550-bed estate, which includes:

• Holme Pierrepont Country Park, home of the UK’s National Water Sports Centre and base for amateur and world-class athletes in a variety of sports set on 270 acres.
• Stoke Mandeville Stadium, known worldwide as the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement. It boasts on-site accommodations and catering, an air-conditioned gym, a 25-meter swimming pool, an outdoor track, floodlit tennis courts and more.
• Lilleshall National Sports Centre and Lilleshall House & Gardens, the former of which is one of the UK’s National Sports facilities for elite and community sports and the latter of which is a stunning 19^th-century stately home and an idyllic venue for weddings, events and private parties.
• Bisham Abbey, which provides similar services as Lilleshall, plus accommodations, and was once home to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The historic property sits on the borders of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

Serco Leisure is investing in Agilysys’ intuitive and easy-to-use PMS and its latest modern point-of-sale (POS) system, which combines highly interactive terminal and tablet touchscreen applications supporting Windows, Android and iOS devices and includes strong information security for data protection. Its robust reporting and analysis features, extensive enterprise-grade menu and item configuration capabilities and multi-language support help drive service flexibility and increase operational efficiency. The company expects to scale up the cloud-based technology in other divisions in North America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, as well as the larger corporate organisation that includes Serco UL and Europe PLC.

Additionally, Serco Leisure will also adopt and implement three hospitality solutions from the Agilysys Experience Enhancers^™ Collection:

• a commission-free booking experience that encourages upselling unlimited amenities, such as room upgrades, and activity appointments — as part of an integrated itinerary that makes it easy for each customer to see and manage their trip details.
• an Activities booking system for experiences that enhance revenue per guest while creating loyal enthusiasts.
• a comprehensive sales and event management solution enabling an intelligent view of every group, event and attendee to optimise outcomes.

“Our previous system provided a less-than-ideal experience for customers and staff. Also, it did not integrate with other applications or provide proper reporting functionality,” said Steve Nelson, Operations Director of Serco Leisure’s National Sports Centres. “With Agilysys solutions, we’ll be able to deliver a more personalised service for our diverse range of customers, which includes Olympic and Paralympic athletes as well as members of the public. We’re looking forward to working with Agilysys, which will allow us to provide an end-to-end customer journey in a secure environment.”

“Serco Leisure understands the need to modernise its hospitality solutions to be the best in the market,” said Ben Curtis, Managing Director – EMEA for Agilysys. “We are grateful to help the company improve its offerings, which will attract more guests, customers and employees, enabling the company to maximise guest and staff experience and ultimately increase revenue.  

Up and coming QSR  Salad and Go  is expanding in Texas with three new locations opening in February in the Houston markets of Katy, Richmond and League City.

The Katy store located opened February 1, the Richmond location at  is set to open February 17, and the League City store plans to open its doors on February 22. These new locations will mark the start of rapid brand expansion across the Greater Houston area.

These suburbs were strategically selected as ideal markets for Salad and Go as some of the fastest growing communities in the region. Conveniently located in some of Houston's most popular suburbs, the new locations will provide fresh, high-quality meals with quick and easy convenience at an affordable price.

As Salad and Go continues growing its national presence with a strong focus on Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada, the brand's expansive growth has it on a positive trajectory to provide fresh and affordable food to communities in more than 125 locations by the end of 2023. Houston is the next step in the brand's expansion across Texas with plans to open additional stores in the market throughout the new year.

Salad and Go's chef-curated menu provides guests with food for any time of the day by offering a variety of delicious and healthy items including salads, wraps, breakfast burritos and soup as well as beverages including hand-crafted lemonades, teas and cold brew coffees.

Salad and Go ensures each meal contains fresh, quality ingredients while keeping prices low by vertically integrating operations and distribution, and sourcing ingredients directly from high-quality local farmers and suppliers whenever possible. The brand's mission to make fresh, nutritious food convenient and affordable for ALL extends beyond its stores and is demonstrated in the work the brand does to donate 4,000 meals every week to those in need, as well as in partnerships with nonprofits to support and fundraise for various worthy causes.

Focus Brands says dual branding is the future of QSR, and the parent company of Auntie Anne’s®, Carvel, Cinnabon, Jamba, McAlister’s Deli, Moe’s Southwest Grill, and Schlotzsky’s, is leading the charge. Today, the Focus Brands portfolio boasts 175-plus open dual branded units with at least 65 more in various stages of development across the country. 

Drive-Thru Convenience

The Focus Brands portfolio brands have signed agreements to open more than 50 dual and tri-brand locations in the coming year, many of which include drive-thrus for added convenience as interest in dual branded franchise opportunities continues to surge.

Flexible Store Formats

Focus Brands is among the brands introducing new store formats, including Krystal, Jack-in-the-Box and Panera Bread, which opened its Panera To Go, solely offering Rapid Pick-Up and Delivery shelves where guests and delivery drivers can easily pick up orders.  

Focus Brands has long pioneered the concept of dual branding, predominately in malls and non-traditional locations with Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon. Now, the company’s portfolio brands have found new opportunities with streetside dual branded units, which is paving the way for immense franchise growth. 

“Dual branding is the future of our brands, especially on the specialty side of the business,” said Brian Krause, Chief Development Officer at Focus Brands. “There will always be a place in malls, but there is an immense amount of growth opportunity in streetside venues, and, by dual branding, there is more opportunity for enhanced revenue.”

The company invested heavily in consumer research to identify how to create combinations of its iconic brands to resonate with consumers and meet them where they want to be met.

Focus Brands has identified four dual-brand concepts:

• Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon
• Auntie Anne’s/Cinnabon/Carvel
• Auntie Anne’s/Jamba
• Cinnabon/Carvel – Cinnabon Swirl. 

While key consumer benefits vary by dual-brand combination, one consistent benefit has been convenience. Having these brands together in one location makes them far more accessible than they are individually. This convenience also creates opportunity for franchisees, as co-branding leads to an expansive menu that drives enhanced unit-level volume. 

 

HID, a worldwide leader in trusted identity and physical security solutions, today announced its inaugural State of the Security Industry Report, which gathered responses from 2,700 partners, end users, and security and IT personnel across a range of titles and organization sizes representing over 11 industries.

By looking at what’s driving the next innovations and the technology that supports them, the security industry is empowered to create more value for its organizations and its people. Conducted in the Fall of 2022, the survey reveals five common threads, as follows:

1. Nearly 90% of respondents acknowledge sustainability as an important issue

End users are increasingly demanding that suppliers provide footprint transparency in terms of their operations, product sourcing and research and development practices, with 87% of respondents stating that sustainability ranks as “important to extremely important.” Mirroring this trend, 76% said they have seen the importance of sustainability increasing for their customers.

To support this growing demand, security teams are leveraging the cloud and the Internet of Things, even more, to optimize processes and reduce resources. Additionally, new products and solutions are being strategically developed to address sensible energy usage, waste reduction and resource optimization.

2. Most organizations still need to fully embrace identity “as-a-service” (IDaaS) to support hybrid work

The majority of survey respondents—81% of them—stated they are offering a hybrid work model. As an example, 67% of respondents state that multifactor authentication and passwordless authentication are most important to adapting to hybrid and remote work, while 48% point to the importance of mobile and digital IDs.

Interestingly, the survey also reveals almost half of the organizations aren't quite ready to implement a comprehensive IDaas strategy.

3. Digital IDs and mobile authentication to propel many more mobile access deployments

Identification and authentication are more commonly completed via mobile devices, including smartphones and wearables. The growing popularity of digital wallets from major players such as Google, Apple and Amazon is a key driver of this trend. And expanded capabilities allow smartphone users, for example, to add keys, IDs and digital documents directly in the wallet app. These include, but are not limited to, drivers’ licenses in eight states, verifiable COVID-19 vaccination information, employee badges, student IDs and hotel room keys.

Commercial real estate companies (40%) are outpacing other verticals as large commercial real estate firms are leveraging mobile access as part of their larger tenant experience apps, according to the HID survey.

4. Nealy 60% of respondents see the benefit of contactless biometrics

Biometric technologies represent a major break from more conventional means of access control. Using biometrics as an additional authenticating factor (e.g., biometric scans to verify an individual’s physical identity) can help organizations eliminate unauthorized access and fraud. The importance of this trend is exemplified in the survey data, which shows that 59% of respondents are currently using, planning to implement, or at least testing biometric technologies in the near future.

5. Supply chain issues continue to be a concerning factor, but optimism begin to emerge

According to the survey, 74% of respondents say they were impacted by supply chain issues in 2022, although 50% are optimistic that conditions will improve in 2023. Most affected are commercial real estate companies, with 78% citing supply chain problems as their main concern.

More than two-thirds of organizations with fewer than 1,000 employees indicate that they were highly impacted by supply chain issues in 2022, but they are also the most optimistic that these issues will resolve in 2023.

By better understanding the aforementioned topics, security professionals will be better prepared to adapt faster, deliver exceptional digital plus physical experiences, and capitalize on breakthrough innovations in solutions and services. Read the survey in its entirety here.

Le Bristol Paris announced its exclusive entry into the Web3 ecosystem. As the first hotel of its standing to expose itself to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, Oetker Collection’s Masterpiece Hotel in the heart of Paris seeks to embrace its legacy as a house of distinction as it disrupts traditional codes to meet demand for increased connectivity and experiential community.

By taking this pioneering step forward into the digital future of luxury hotels, Le Bristol Paris’ objective is to create experiences that expand the hotel’s influence and offer new ways to interact with its extraordinary art de vivre.

The multi-phase project to welcome Web3 audiences to Le Bristol Paris will begin with a very limited drop of 11 NFTs, ‘Le Bristol Unlocked’, created in collaboration with the start-up Metav.rs. Each NFT owner is granted membership to Le Bristol’s L’H3ritage Club.

Privileges such as anytime access to dedicated and secret menus at the hotel’s restaurants and weekly access to its fabled rooftop swimming pool (normally open to guests only) will be proposed among other perks. In addition, each NFT unlock doors to one of 11 rewards encompassing ‘money-can’t-buy’ experiences never offered before by Le Bristol.

In this first foray into Web3, Le Bristol Paris is becoming the first Palace hotel to create a blockchain community, erecting the bridge between timeless excellence and disruptive new technology.

Le Bristol Paris’ 11 limited-edition ‘Le Bristol Unlocked’ NFTs will be available for purchase in cryptocurrency exclusively on April 14, 2023 via https://www.oetkercollection.com/hotels/le-bristol-paris/lh3ritage/

Crystalbrook Collection Hotels & Resorts, a group of eight luxury properties along the east coast of Australia, has turned to Hapi to connect several guest data sources and help develop 360-degree insights and personalized guest experiences in Salesforce.

Through a new integration with SevenRooms, a global guest experience and retention platform for the hospitality industry, Hapi is combining and normalizing insightful Food and Beverage data from 16 restaurants and bars across Crystalbrook’s portfolio, alongside guest data from their accommodation PMS platform. This information is delivered to Salesforce through a single data stream, unlocking the ability for Crystalbrook to create personalized F&B offers, targeted messages and enhance their holistic guest experiences.

“We wanted to understand how our customers are dining in our restaurants and bars, and merge that information with their accommodation profiles, so we know our customer from a 360-degree point of view,” said Joe Dwyer, Group IT Director at Crystalbrook. “This data helps us fully understand a guest’s lifetime value, and opens the door for Crystalbrook to provide personalized offers and experiences designed to drive loyalty.”

Through the new Hapi-SevenRooms integration, hoteliers now have the ability to transform their guest experiences by building single guest profiles with data from across their properties, and implementing personalized customer journeys that connect with, and retain, customers. 

By tightly integrating the F&B program with the hotel, operators will see greater efficiencies, increased revenue, and a better guest experience. In the Marketing department, combining profiles and preferences from the dining outlets and the hotel systems provides much more guest data to create true personalized offers. 

Now, guest data from the restaurants can be shared with Salesforce Marketing Cloud to power automated marketing campaigns. For example, hotels can automatically target return guests with personalized offers based on their past dining history, stay history, or timely events, such as an anniversary or birthday. 

“By adding their restaurant data into Salesforce alongside their hotel data, hotels now know more about their guests than ever before and can provide personalized touches across the entire guest journey,” said Luis Segredo, Hapi CEO. 

"We're excited to partner with Hapi to provide hoteliers with the deep customer insights they need in order to continue enhancing the guest experience for consumers," said Brent-Stig Kraus, CRO at SevenRooms. "The ability to own and leverage guest data will not only help hoteliers increase profitability, but also support them in building direct guest relationships, driving repeat business, and delivering exceptional experiences."