News Briefs

Flyby Robotics, the end-to-end drone automation and delivery company, raised $4M in pre-seed investment funding.

Drone Delivery Now Available

This news comes alongside their pilot launch and a series of active partnerships with food retailers and innovative snack brands across the US. The first cohort of live retailers include smoothies from Nekter Juice Bar, salad from MAD Greens, sushi from Tokyo Joe's, and crunchy shiitake mushroom chips from Popadelics. During the live pilot, customers from participating retailers are able to order drone delivery for just $3, and experience delivery times averaging under 4 minutes.

"Nekter Juice Bar has always pushed forward to the forefront of technology to improve the guest experience, starting with our best-in-class app with more than 1.3 million loyalty members and user-friendly online ordering capabilities," said Steve Schulze, co-founder and CEO, Nekter Juice Bar. "We are now continuing that tradition of innovation working with future-looking companies like Flyby."

This pre-seed will fund product development with the goal of achieving Level 4 autonomy for Flyby's flight systems, which currently perform at Level 3. At Level 4 autonomy, drones operate without any human intervention throughout the delivery process, but allow a pilot in a remote command center the option to manually override in rare circumstances.

Flyby has already developed a package deployment system, which gently winches products down from a hovering drone to customers' doorsteps. The system is designed to uphold a product's quality during flight and delivery, and allows Flyby to deliver fragile products like smoothies.

QSR Automations earned recognition for excellence in customer service and support.

At MURTEC, QSR Automations’ VP of Hardware Solutions and Support, Kathi Klein, received fHospitality Technology ’s 2023 Top Women in Technology Lifetime Achievement Award. 

During her more than 30 years in the restaurant technology industry – half of those at QSR Automations–Klein has amassed incomparable knowledge in understanding and troubleshooting kitchen display, front-of-house, and the associated hardware and networking platforms needed to run them. 

But what truly sets Klein apart is her natural ability to nurture relationships and foster talent, which has made her an effective leader in QSR Automations’ Support Services Team. During her long tenure at QSR Automations, Klein has built one of the industry’s strongest and most effective support teams. In fact, under Klein’s guidance, the team has received a 99 percent satisfaction rate from customers in 2021, and last year handled more than 16,000 inbound and outbound calls, which earned them a bronze award for Excellence in Customer Service from the 2022 Stevie Awards. 

This was the third bronze Stevie award for the team, as last fall, Klein accepted two additional bronze awards from the Stevie Women in Business Awards on behalf of QSR Automations–one for excellence in customer service, and the other for growth. QSR Automations was selected for these honors from more than 1,500 nominations from around the world.

“Just as our technology is the heart of a restaurant kitchen, our people are truly the heart of this business,” said Angela Leet, CEO of QSR Automations. “My colleagues are passionate about innovation both in and out of the office, and it’s immensely gratifying to see them recognized for these achievements.”

QSR Automations, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., with offices in the United Kingdom, is a global industry leader in kitchen automation and guest management services.

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.

Partner Tech USA Inc, a global technology company and innovator of intelligent POS and self-service solutions, announces Cleo C10 and C14, anall-in-one POS terminal with a 10.1 or 14.1-inch touch display, built-in receipt printer, optional second display, and embedded peripherals for all the merchant’s preferred payment types. 

Adding new features, functionalities, and modules to existing POS is a priority for 71% of respondents, according to HT’s2 2023 POS Software Trends Report.

Cleo's base houses a POS computer and keeps the checkout counter clutter-free by hiding all cables in the base.  The base has a built-in thermal printer and optional embedded readers for magnetic stripe cards, EMV chip cards, and NFC contactless payments as well as a fingerprint sensor.  The main touch display with adjustable viewing angle attaches to the base and so does the second optional customer-facing display. Additional peripherals such as a handheld scanner, a separate payment terminal, or an additional signage display can be connected via the ports located at the back of the base.  Cleo is available for Windows 10/11, Android 12, and Linux Ubuntu. 

Key takeaways

• Corporate travel spend in the U.S. and Europe is projected to surpass half of 2019 levels in the first half of 2023 and rise to two-thirds by the end of the year. Full recovery following the pandemic appears likely by late 2024 or early 2025.
• Live events are set to comprise a significant share of corporate travel, advancing from the fifth biggest driver of increased spend in 2022 to the top spot in 2023. More than half of travel managers in both the U.S. and Europe expect industry events to spur travel growth this year.
• International trips will account for a larger portion of the recovery this year: The international share of travel costs for U.S. companies is expected to rise from 21% in 2022 to 33% in 2023.
  • Amid increased workplace flexibility and use of technology, travel for clients outweighs travel for team building and internal meetings.
  • Travel buyers are renegotiating contracts with suppliers and balancing lower expected trip volumes with higher rates for hotel rooms and airfare.
  • One-third of U.S. companies and 4 in 10 European companies say they need to reduce travel per employee by more than 20% to meet their 2030 sustainability targets.

Why this matters

Though leisure travel reached pre-pandemic levels, corporate travel has been slower to return. A variety of factors appear to impact the decision to travel for business including employee safety, client interest in meeting in person, the value of attending a conference, and whether virtual conferencing platforms can replace a trip. Although pandemic concerns and testing regulations generally waned in the second half of 2022, financial concerns seem to continue to create uncertainty for the sector. The third edition of Deloitte’s corporate travel study, “Navigating Toward a New Normal,” examines why and when employees are expected to travel for business, as well as the dynamics creating headwinds and opportunity for the sector.

The study is based on a survey of 334 U.S.-based and European executives with travel budget oversight, fielded between Feb. 7 and Feb. 23, 2023.

International travel and events account for much of expected growth in 2023

While full recovery to 2019 levels appears possible by late 2024 or early 2025, accounting for inflation and lost gains would potentially leave the corporate travel market between 10% to 20% smaller than it was prior to the pandemic. Amid higher airfares and room rates, the number of trips is likely to lag even further behind. However, international trips and live events are set to account for much of expected growth in 2023.

• Corporate travel spend across the U.S. and Europe is expected to rise to more than half (57%) of pre-pandemic levels in the first half of 2023 and surge to 71% by the end of the year.
• Most companies surveyed – 71% of U.S. companies and 68% of those in Europe – expect a full recovery in travel spend by the end of 2024.
• U.S. respondents expect international trips to account for 33% of 2023 spend, up from 21% in 2022 and similar to 2019 levels.
• The top reason reported for international trips involves connecting with clients and prospects: in the U.S., the main drivers are to connect with global industry colleagues at conferences and to build client relationships; in Europe, client project work, followed by sales meetings are the biggest reasons for trips beyond the continent.
• While higher travel prices are the most significant factor deterring companies from travel, live events are poised to be the major driver of business travel demand, leapfrogging to the top reason for international travel from the U.S. in 2023, up from fifth in 2022.
• With events top of mind, companies are adjusting their internal plans: Half report splitting larger gatherings into smaller, regional, virtually connected events, and 44% have adopted a hybrid approach. Further, 42% of those surveyed in the U.S. and 54% in Europe plan to integrate more clients into internal events.
• A majority of companies surveyed (70%) strategically evaluate and weigh potential outcomes of business travel, such as revenue generation, alongside the side effects of cost, health risks and emissions.

Workplace flexibility and technology continue to shift the course of business travel

Although pandemic concerns about travel generally declined among those surveyed, the ability to leverage technology in lieu of trips, ultimately reducing costs, continues to impact business travel’s growth trajectory. According to the survey, technology can support nearly every business need travel serves – to some degree. In addition, a future work from home rate is expected to be 3.2 times higher than before the pandemic. Together these factors will continue to impact how and when employees travel for work.

• Business leaders are weighing the benefit of in-person interactions, as internal trainings and team meetings (44%) are rated the most replaceable by technology, compared to client rapport building (11%) and client acquisition (7%).

• Two-thirds (67%) of respondents say their employees are traveling more to cities within driving distance of their location.
• Trips to company headquarters by relocated employees are also on the rise, most of which (70%) are either completely or partially paid for by the company.
• U.S. companies are increasingly incorporating non-hotel lodging, including private rentals, into their corporate travel policies. Nearly half (45%) of those surveyed have non-hotel lodging in their corporate booking tools, up from 9% last year, and 57% have agreements with specific branded apartment or home rental providers, up from 23% in 2022. Only 10% of U.S. companies surveyed do not reimburse for non-hotel accommodations, down from half (49%) in 2022.

Key quote

“As business travel continues its climb, higher airfare and hotel costs are likely slowing the increase in trips taken. As business leaders take a strategic view of their travel plans and the industry adapts to a new normal, live conferences and events in particular are proving they can offer effective opportunities to connect in person, especially as remote and hybrid work remain fixtures of the corporate world.”

—     Eileen Crowley, vice chair, Deloitte & Touche LLP and U.S. transportation, hospitality and services attest leader

Contract negotiations aim to right-size travel costs

Companies likely garnered significant cost savings from not traveling during the pandemic. Now, after three years of reduced travel, higher airfare and room rates driven by inflation have many companies working to accommodate shifting expectations from their employees.

• About half of respondents (51%) report employees’ expectations of luxury services such as first or business class airfares and upscale hotels, as well as the need for last-minute (45%) or flexible bookings (52%), are pushing costs higher.
• When negotiating contracts with suppliers, about 1 in 5 (19%) companies say hotels are less accommodating on rates because they expect lower volume, and 11% report the same for airlines. 
• Regionally, 63% of U.S. travel buyers surveyed report favorable airline pricing on positive volume expectations, compared to 54% of those in Europe.
• Higher rates are having less of an impact on the number of trips taken: 45% of companies say they limit frequency to control costs, down from 72% in 2022. Instead, they focus on mitigating the cost per trip with cheaper lodging (59%) and lower-cost flights (56%).

Sustainability drives some travel decisions

Travel, in general, attracts attention as a significant contributor to carbon emissions. However, 49% of companies noted that choosing sustainable providers drives costs up. As a result, business leaders are forced to weigh the expense and environmental impact of trips.

• One-third (33%) of U.S. companies and 40% of European companies surveyed say they need to reduce travel per employee by more than 20% by 2030 to meet sustainability targets.
• To meet sustainability goals, 42% of those in the U.S. and 45% in Europe say they are in the process of implementing a structure to assign carbon-emission budgets to teams alongside financial budgets.
• Travel suppliers’ sustainability efforts lead to engagement with travel buyers to varying degrees. Mandated use by survey respondents is low, however, about one-third consider factors like a hotel’s sustainability certifications and ratings (32%), an airline’s use of sustainable fuel (31%), or a car rental fleet’s availability of electric vehicles (27%) to calculate a trip’s carbon footprint.

Key quote

“The return of corporate travel continues to take a winding road as both business leaders and travel suppliers consider not just rising costs, but the necessity of certain in-person meetings amid the increasing use of technology to offset financial and environmental goals. Suppliers who take a long-term view of their relationships with travel buyers and communicate with them about their sustainability progress should be better poised to navigate ongoing shifts in travel priorities.”

—     Mike Daher, vice chair, Deloitte LLP and U.S. transportation, hospitality and services non-attest leader

Tripadvisor^®, the world's largest travel guidance platform, released the third edition of its Review Transparency Report, revealing detailed trends around review contributions and the steps taken to ensure the integrity of user-submitted content.

The report, which is published biennially, analyzed a full year's worth of community contributions - over 73 million reviews and opinions in total - to give readers a deep dive into global submissions. The report also reveals how review trends have shifted since 2020, when the previous edition of the report was published. Key trends include:

Strong growth for reviews and business listings

The report reveals a significant increase in the volume of reviews left on the platform during 2022 - up +20% from 2020 levels to 30.2 million - as the world's explorers returned in force following two years of lockdowns, and restrictions. During 2022, Tripadvisor also saw business owners respond to over 10 million reviews, while community members asked and answered more than 940,000 questions from fellow users.

As global recovery continued in 2022, the platform saw an influx of new listings created, with 1.3 million new businesses added to the site, leading to a record 11.1 million listings at year end, up +16% from 2020's total of 9.6 million. Regionally, two out of five newly listed businesses were located in Europe, while Asia and North America each accounted for about 23% of the total.

Success in combating fake and paid reviews

Only a fraction of total review submissions from 2022 (4.4%) were determined to be fake or fraudulent, totaling just over 1.3 million. Of these, Tripadvisor's robust detection and moderation processes prevented 72% of submissions from ever making it onto the platform, a significant improvement on the 67% prevented during 2020.

Reviews from paid review companies represent an even smaller proportion of fraudulently submitted content, but have the very real capability to negatively impact consumer trust. In total, Tripadvisor removed 24,521 reviews associated with paid review companies in 2022. Nearly half of these originated from just six countries: India, Russia, U.S., Türkiye, Italy, and Vietnam.

Once fraudulent content has been identified and removed, Tripadvisor takes a range of actions against offending businesses, including content bans, ranking penalties and for the most severe cases, red badges. The Review Transparency Report reveals that Tripadvisor applied a ranking penalty to more than 33,000 businesses for fraud and issued 341 red badge warnings in 2022, each of these enforced with a ranking penalty.

"Tripadvisor is built on trust, and we will never stop improving our systems to ensure our community has access to reliable content and the businesses listed can compete on a level playing field," said Becky Foley, Vice President, Trust & Safety at Tripadvisor. "The findings from this report show that our approach is working; we're catching a higher proportion of fraudulent content before it is published, with nearly three-quarters of fake reviews never even making it to the platform."

Progress in helping to keep travelers safe

During 2022, almost 600 reviews were posted by Tripadvisor's community that described a serious safety incident during a travel or dining experience. Listings associated with these types of reviews, are subject to additional measures, aimed at increasing awareness among travelers.

Tripadvisor is able to place additional filters on listings associated with reviews that contain warnings or serious allegations, helping users more easily identify potentially problematic businesses. And this approach is clearly working, with reviews that reveal a serious safety incident over 10 times as likely to be read, than reviews that do not.

"I'm incredibly proud of our efforts to shine a light on the more troubling review content submitted by our community," added Becky Foley. "Sharing details of distressing incidents requires courage and all those who have been brave enough to share their experiences will hopefully take heart from the fact that their reviews are being seen by others and are making a real-world difference."

The 2023 Tripadvisor Review Transparency report can be viewed in full at this link: http://tripadvisor.com/TransparencyReport2023