News Briefs

CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. International (CKE) has partnered with GuestXM powered by Black Box Intelligence in an effort to gain insights on the company’s customer experience (CX) across their QSR brands, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. 

Measuring CX

In order to measure CX for their international restaurants, CKE needed a solution that could capture feedback from customers across all channels, in multiple languages, and provide powerful analytics to help their teams quickly identify issues and opportunities to improve their steps of service. After evaluating several options, CKE chose GuestXM to streamline their tech stack and gain more actionable insights from a platform purpose-built for restaurants.

“With over one thousand restaurants worldwide we need to have a strong pulse on the brand experience. Our direct customer feedback through GuestXM surveys allows us to ensure that the quality of service and value of our products are always aligned to the broader brand vision, regardless of region or franchise,” said Mike Woida, President International - CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc. “With GuestXM, we are able to measure customer satisfaction in all restaurants and identify opportunities across customer experience.”

“After optimizing our surveys, we were able to extract more information with less heavy lifting from our reviewers,” said Karen Reel, Senior Director of CKE International Ops Services & Training. “Not only are we getting a higher volume of reviews, but our completion rates are increasing, giving us more context behind how well we’re delivering on customers’ expectations.”

In a competitive QSR segment, CKE’s new CX intelligence and tools will bring differentiation to the market. 

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. 

Intelligent Hospitality – developer and owner of HotelIQ Decision Cloud, a sophisticated analytics and business intelligence platform for global hoteliers – and Zucchetti North America – the North American outpost of the Italian-based Zucchetti Group, offering an all-in-one, fully integrated tech stack for hotels and lodging accommodations of all sizes and types­ – are proud to announce a new partnership. Using both HotelIQ Decision Cloud and the Vertical Booking CRS (owned by Zucchetti North America), hotels are now empowered to combine Insight with Action, making it possible to boost their bookings, optimize their reservations management and use their property data to better identify opportunities to increase revenue and operational efficiency.

The four pillars of business intelligence, offered through HotelIQ Decision Cloud, are Organize, Analyze, Plan and Collaborate – all of which, combined, give hotels the most complete Insight into their property’s performance, from micro and macro levels:

1.     Organize: Standardize data across hotels and systems. Capture the unique requirements of the business because no two hotels are the same.

2.     Analyze: Track key metrics, across multiple dimensions, with a user-friendly interface and intuitive filters. Oversee business performance at every level.

3.     Plan: Using proprietary algorithms and AI technology, you can highlight opportunities and threats, build accurate forecasts and budgets, giving you a map for your property’s success.

4.     Collaborate: Communicate, schedule and share in-depth reports, keeping all departments on the same page, and working collaboratively, within HotelIQ, to make better, data-based business decisions.

By leveraging the Vertical Booking CRS, in conjunction with HotelIQ Decision Cloud, a fifth pillar of business intelligence is added: Action. The combination of the two systems gives hoteliers proactive data intelligence, empowering more educated decision-making that will yield more bookings throughout the reservations cycle, and into the future. In addition to increasing occupancy, the two solutions combined ensure higher RevPAR on each room sold, maximizing profitability.

“Many hoteliers don’t understand the true magnitude of the gold mine of data that they have access to through their PMS and CRS, and the huge benefits that this data can offer if it’s applied correctly,” said Apo Demirtas, Founder and CEO of Intelligent Hospitality. “The new partnership between HotelIQ and Zucchetti North America will make it possible for hotels to finally realize the potential that properly using this data will create for them, both from an operational perspective (huge time-savings!) and from a commercial and revenue perspective (better, more strategic, interdepartmental, data-based decision-making equals more sales and more revenue!).”

“This partnership offers a powerful combination of technology solutions for all hotels,” said Mark Lewis-Brown, CEO and President of Zucchetti North America. “In today’s uncertain times, real-time property data, provided by HotelIQ, is key in making the right decisions to meet your property’s overall business goals. The implementation of Vertical Booking CRS will ensure that you have the most effective tool for managing your distribution and reservations management processes, helping you do more with less staff, less tech headaches and less paperwork. Overall, it’s a win/win for all hotels and, along with HotelIQ, we’re very excited about the opportunity to help hotels improve their profitability in an even greater way.”

Weldon Spangler, a longtime TGI Fridays board member and highly experienced restaurant executive, has been appointed CEO of TGI Fridays, effective immediately. He succeeds Brandon Coleman, who has resigned for personal reasons.

Spangler will lead implementation of the growth plan to revitalize the brand on a global scale. There are currently 700 TGI Fridays restaurants in 51 countries offering high quality American food and drinks. 

Spangler brings extensive background in the restaurant industry and his impressive career spans over 30 years of experience, during which he has built a reputation for his unwavering focus on customer experience, store operations, and marketing with successful tenures at Subway, Papa Murphy's, Dunkin' Brands, and Starbucks.

Rohit Manocha, Co-Founder of TriArtisan Capital, a New York-based private equity firm and the controlling shareholder of TGI Fridays with extensive experience in the restaurant sector, will continue to collaborate closely with Mr. Spangler and the dedicated team at TGI Fridays in his role as the active Chairman of the company.

RoomRaccoon, a hotel management system for independent hotels, has partnered with HyperGuest, a hotel distribution and connectivity platform. This strategic partnership will empower RoomRaccoon users to tap into a worldwide distribution marketplace and directly market and sell their rooms to B2B demand partners at scale.

The two-way  API connection with RoomRaccoon’s Channel Manager ensures that inventory and rates are communicated to HyperGuest across all channels in real-time so hoteliers can capture more bookings at low commissions from travel providers like agencies and consortia, specialized OTAs, and corporate travel services.

“As we continue to expand our hotel distribution connectivity marketplace,  we are excited to partner with HyperGuest and grant our users access to their extensive B2B distribution network,” says Stevie Reffin, Head of Partnerships at RoomRaccoon. “The partnership will empower hoteliers with streamlined rate management and  heightened visibility for their properties, leading to higher occupancy rates and greater profitability.”

With transparent booking data, the integration with HyperGuest gives hotels more control over the guest relationship. Unlike other OTA bookings, RoomRaccoon users can access guest information from the moment of booking for more personalized services. Additionally, with RoomRaccoon’s automated upsell feature, RaccoonUpsell, hoteliers can automatically upsell and cross-sell amenities and services to maximize the value of each guest. 

Kristine Meyer, Strategic Partnership Manager at HyperGuest, says: “We're thrilled to announce our collaboration with RoomRaccoon! This partnership is a significant milestone for both organizations. With shared visions and a passion for innovation, we believe this alliance will extend HyperGuest's reach and provide substantial added value to RoomRaccoon's customers.” 

The RoomRaccoon and HyperGuest integration is available to hoteliers worldwide. 

OTA Insight, a provider of cloud-based market intelligence for the travel & hospitality industry, has rebranded to Lighthouse. The rebrand consolidates multiple products and acquired companies into a single, unified commercial platform. This shift marks a significant milestone in the company's continued evolution as a unified platform that fundamentally reimagines commercial strategy for the travel and hospitality industry.

The name Lighthouse was chosen to symbolize the company’s role in illuminating insights, transforming confusion into clarity, and enabling confident decision making. "Our capabilities and vision have outgrown the OTA Insight name," said Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO.  “As Lighthouse, we bring the most accurate, real-time data from multiple sources into a single platform, process that data using the latest AI & machine learning techniques, and complement it with amazing customer service. We listen to our customers and continuously innovate to deliver straightforward, intuitive tools that save time, boost revenue, and remain user-friendly.”

The enhanced Lighthouse platform introduces new business intelligence capabilities, new short-term rental insights, and a new look and feel to enhance the user experience for commercial decision makers. Data from strategic acquisitions, including Transparent and Kriya RevGen, is now seamlessly integrated into the Lighthouse platform. 

Core Lighthouse products and capabilities include:

• Rate Insight: Rate shopping and competitive price intelligence for both hotels and short-term rentals
• Market Insight: Forward looking market demand monitoring to improve forecasting, room price setting, and marketing strategies
• Benchmark Insight: Performance benchmarking with market, category, and competitor intelligence
• Parity Insight: performance management tools to measure room price parity across a multitude of distribution channels
• Business Intelligence (BI): BI solutions for single-property, multi-property and multi-brand portfolio revenue managers
• Pricing Assistant: AI powered room price recommendations with automated workflows 
• Distribution Insight: API monitoring and analytics to measure and optimize distribution performance
• Destination Insight: supply and demand analytics for DMOs, hotels and short-term rentals
• Hotel Data Solutions: tool sets to access the largest and most accurate hotel and short-term rental data set in the industry

Lighthouse currently serves hoteliers across 185 countries. The company’s platform is built on data sets covering over 725,000 hotels and 19 million short-term rental properties globally. Revenue and hospitality professionals, destination marketing organizations, asset managers, and short-term rental professionals all rely on Lighthouse to make decisions with confidence. 

In conjunction with the brand update, Lighthouse has also launched a new official company website. To learn more and explore the new site, visit www.mylighthouse.com.