News Briefs

Mark Shambura has joined Panera Bread as Chief Marketing Officer. Shambura will lead all aspects of marketing at Panera, including Brand Building, Digital & Loyalty, Product Strategy & Consumer Insights. An accomplished marketing leader with broad expertise in the restaurant industry, Mr. Shambura has previously held marketing leadership roles during pivotal growth periods for top brands including Chipotle, MOD Pizza, and most recently Papa Johns.

"Mark brings an impressive background building brands and leading marketing teams for fast-casual restaurants, and we’re thrilled to welcome him to Panera Bread,” said José Alberto Dueñas, Chief Executive Officer. “As Panera continues to evolve our brand, guided by listening to our guests, Mark’s depth of experience and ability will help drive our growth as a brand that serves great food you feel good about eating.”

Shambura previously served as CMO at Papa Johns, where he led a revitalization of the brand by enhancing its iconic “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” platform, and developing a more modern, innovative omnichannel approach to transform how Papa Johns appealed to both new and loyal consumers. As Executive Director at Chipotle, Mr. Shambura guided the marketing function through periods of both sustained growth and transition, providing leadership over brand strategy, advertising, digital, social, events/sponsorships, promotions, and field marketing, including playing a key role in spearheading its “Real Ingredients” brand strategy.

“I’m proud to join the Panera Bread team and excited to build on the momentum of the brand's transformation as it continues to evolve in service of our guests,” Mr. Shambura said. “Panera propelled and cemented its position at the top of the fast casual restaurant segment through its promise of high-quality ingredients and freshly prepared food, and I’m thrilled to join a highly talented team to help shape its next chapter.”

Prior to his tenure in the restaurant industry, Mr. Shambura gained extensive marketing agency experience, working with a broad array of top global consumer brands for over a decade. Shambura will report directly to José Alberto Dueñas, Chief Executive Officer, and officially assumed the role of Chief Marketing Officer on July 29, 2024.

Lavu, a point of sale (POS) and payments platform, formed a strategic partnership with embedded payroll solutions provider Check for the restaurant industry. Through the partnership, Lavu and Check will deliver a fully integrated payroll solution, Lavu Payroll, which is purpose-built for local restaurants and now available to Lavu customers at no extra cost.

Lavu empowers local restaurant owners to focus on what they do best: delighting customers and inspiring staff. Lavu’s POS solution handles the rest — delivering round-the-clock reliability, unmatched profitability, and world-class service. Now, with Check’s embedded payroll processing seamlessly integrated, Lavu enables restaurant owners to focus more on the tasks that matter to them.

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

To combat inflation, staffing shortages and a shift in consumer dining preferences, Lavu Payroll is designed to simplify operations while boosting profitability for restaurant owners. This payroll solution is tailor-made for the restaurant industry, and will be instrumental in reducing manual timecard entry, ensuring real-time, accurate payments, and easing compliance with local, state, and federal regulations.

Key Features 

• Enhanced Profitability: Lavu Payroll is designed to tackle one of the most significant cost centers for restaurants — labor costs, which average 30-35% of total revenue in the foodservice industry. By automating payroll processes and reducing errors, Lavu helps restaurants lower the overall cost of payroll management, directly impacting their bottom line. With costs for payroll services often ranging from $840 to $1785 per month for small businesses, Lavu’s integrated solution eliminates these expenses, allowing restaurant owners to reinvest in their operations or enhance profitability.
• Free Payroll Integration: Lavu customers can now use Lavu’s advanced payroll system, eliminating the cost of third-party services or manual data entry, while expanding profit margins. This integration syncs directly with Lavu’s POS platform, automatically recording employee hours and reducing costly errors as well as real-time payments to restaurant staff.
• Tailored for Restaurants: Designed specifically for the restaurant industry, Lavu Payroll addresses unique payroll needs, including tip management, overtime calculations, and varying wage rates.

Thanx announced SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, Thanx Connex, and a series of additional enhancements.

Thanx introduces Thanx Connex, a new capability that allows brands to seamlessly share their customer data with any major data warehouse or database. Thanx Connex gives businesses access to customer data and the ability to perform transformations within their preferred systems without taking on the complexity of building and managing the data pipeline independently.

Thanx Connex supports major platforms, including Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, and MySQL, giving brands complete control over their data. 

Integration Hub

Over the past few years, Thanx has accelerated its investment in interoperability with the restaurant technology ecosystem. The Thanx Integration Center now features over 60 pre-built integrations, streamlining how brands connect their existing technologies with Thanx.

Related: RTN Marches Towards Restaurant Industry Standardization with Object Model Repository Milestone

The Thanx Integration Center seamlessly connects with critical business systems and guest engagement technologies, including POS, online ordering, delivery, CDP, marketing automation, feedback, location services, kiosks, and UX platforms. This unified approach enables brands to enhance customer engagement efforts, gain richer insights, and deliver personalized experiences without adding more work for IT. In the last few months alone, Thanx has announced integrations, including POS provider Qu, kiosk provider Bite,  AI-powered SMS marketing provider Attentive, and omnichannel location platform Flybuy.

Strengthening Data Security

In another key milestone, Thanx has achieved SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, underscoring its commitment to maintaining the highest data security standards, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality. 

To achieve this certification, Thanx underwent a rigorous third-party audit, assessing the effectiveness and sustainability of its data management systems. SOC 2 Type 2 compliance validates that Thanx protects sensitive customer data while adhering to security best practices over an extended period.

In addition to SOC 2 Type 2, Thanx complies with other industry standards, including CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and PCI (Payment Card Industry) standards, ensuring comprehensive protection across multiple data privacy and security areas.

Slang.ai, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered phone answering platform built for restaurants and hospitality partners, today announced a partnership with OpenTable to provide AI-powered service to restaurant partners in the U.S. and Canada. This marks a pivotal moment in the hospitality sector, as the collaboration can help drive efficiencies for restaurants, while elevating the booking experience for diners.

"By providing a human-like automated experience, we're eliminating the need for guests to face voicemail frustration. With OpenTable's extensive reach and our advanced AI capabilities, we're ushering in a new era of seamless booking convenience," said Alex Sambvani, founder and CEO, Slang.ai.
 

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

The integration – now available on OpenTable's Integration Marketplace – will enable diners to seamlessly book, modify, and cancel reservations over the phone. For restaurants that opt in, this means being able to automatically answer every phone call – saving employees' time to provide enhanced service on premise and helping to capture more booking revenue. Diners will have a seamless, human-like booking experience, and can also get answers to pertinent dining questions – like hours, dress code, parking, and more – in and outside of operating hours.

Restaurants leveraging Slang.ai's AI platform have reported existing restaurant partners utilizing the technology have seen staff call volume reduced by 50%, and an increase in phone-based booking revenue. With tailored responses that reflect each brand's unique identity, Slang.ai empowers restaurants to stay ahead of the competition, offering a modern, tech-driven approach to customer engagement.

"Slang allows us to deliver consistent messaging to our guests, allows them to ask more questions, and allows the answers to be tailored exactly to what we want," says Jad Izzedin, Executive Brand Director, Texas de Brazil.

To gain insights into the transformative impact of AI in the restaurant industry, Slang.ai recently released a survey called "AI in the Restaurant Industry; How Businesses Are Embracing AI Technology." 

Oravel Stays, the parent company of the global travel technology company OYO, announced that it has agreed to acquire G6 Hospitality, an economy lodging franchisor and parent company of the iconic Motel 6 and Studio 6 brands, from Blackstone Real Estate for $525 million, in an all-cash transaction.

OYO has steadily expanded its footprint in the United States since its launch in the region in 2019 and currently operates over 320 hotels across 35 states. In 2023, OYO added nearly 100 hotels to its US portfolio and aims to add ~250 hotels in 2024. Motel 6’s franchise network produces gross room revenues of $1.7 billion, which generates a strong fee base and cash flow for G6. OYO will leverage its comprehensive technology suite as well as its global distribution network and marketing expertise to further strengthen the Motel 6 and Studio 6 brands and drive continued financial growth.

"This acquisition is a significant milestone for a startup company like us to strengthen our international presence. Motel 6's strong brand recognition, financial profile and network in the US, combined with OYO's entrepreneurial spirit will be instrumental in charting a sustainable path forward for the company which will continue to operate as a separate entity," said Gautam Swaroop, CEO OYO International.

Under its ownership, Blackstone invested significant capital to create value and enhance the Motel 6 brand, including executing a strategy to transform the business into a leading asset light lodging company with a franchise network of ~1500 hotels across the United States and Canada.

Julie Arrowsmith, President and Chief Executive Officer at G6 Hospitality, said, “We are grateful for our successful partnership with Blackstone and the transformation that has positioned us well for this new chapter. OYO's innovative approach to hospitality will allow us to enhance our offerings and great value to our guests while maintaining the iconic Motel 6 brand that travelers have trusted for over six decades.”

Rob Harper, Head of Blackstone Real Estate Asset Management Americas, said, "This transaction is a terrific outcome for investors and is the culmination of an ambitious business plan that more than tripled our investors’ capital and generated over $1 billion in profit over our hold period. We believe G6 is extremely well-positioned for the future and we look forward to seeing its brands continue their success in the years to come.”

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as Blackstone’s lead advisor and Jones Lang LaSalle Securities, LLC and PJT Partners acted as financial advisors. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as Blackstone’s legal advisor.

New research published today by Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, has uncovered the importance of a frictionless payment experience for hotel customers, with over a third (37%) of consumers admitting to have left the booking process because they haven't been able to pay the way they would like.

The findings published in Adyen’s first Global Hospitality Report, suggest the payment experience could be impacting hotel revenues. Despite consumer sentiment finding otherwise, over one in ten (12%) hospitality businesses said offering guests a variety of payment options is not important. In addition to this, nearly a third (31%) confessed that they can’t currently accept payment options like BNPL and Apple Pay.

New global payment trends are emerging across the hospitality sector in 2024, as research found that one of the most popular ways to pay for a hotel experience online was via a digital wallet (15%). One in ten (10%) guests said they had booked a stay via social media for the first time over the past 12 months, and 6% said they had done so using BNPL over the same time period.

The majority of consumers (59%) said that a seamless experience from booking to check-out was important to them when choosing a hotel. The report pointed towards three new trends:

1. Payment flexibility is a deal-breaker

Offering a wide range of payment options is important to almost half (49%) of consumers surveyed, with four in ten (42%) admitting greater options would support them making bigger purchases. Four in ten (40%) hotel guests said they don’t like paying the full cost of a hotel upfront - reflecting a broader shift towards careful budget management and mirroring the rise in popularity of BNPL services.

2. Cancellation policies are well researched

Flexibility in cancellation policies also emerged as a critical factor in hotel selection, with 59% of travelers considering free cancellation 24-48 hours before arrival a deal-maker. The data underscores a traveler's desire to ensure plans can be adapted last minute.

3. Financial experiences affect returning travelers

Four in ten (44%) of hotel goers have not rebooked a stay due to finance-related issues or grievances. Specifically, problems with payments, such as card declines or incorrect charges (13%), being requested to share card details over the phone (11%), experiencing delayed charges or refunds (11%) and overpayment due to error (10%).

“Travel expectations are sky high, with payment options playing a critical role in shaping the overall guest experience and influencing future booking decisions,” said Mark Rademaker, Head of Hospitality, Adyen.

“Today’s guests demand easy booking processes, transactions and hassle-free cancellations, otherwise they may decide to go elsewhere. We spoke to senior leaders at hotel businesses worldwide, and it was encouraging to find 60% saying that their company would be looking to enhance and improve their payments journey over the next 12 months, and 58% stating that investment in financial technology capabilities could offer a differentiated service over competitors.”

“With potential guests abandoning bookings due to payment inflexibility, and some not returning due to finance-related issues, the hospitality industry must urgently look at how experiences can be enhanced in an era where every touchpoint matters and payments are no longer just a transaction.”

You can read the report in full here.