News Briefs

RoomRaccoon, a hotel management software for independent hotels worldwide, has announced its new partnership with Pricepoint, the pioneer in AI-powered revenue management solutions. The integration will provide hoteliers with an airline-grade dynamic pricing solution that uses artificial intelligence to learn booking curves and customer behavior models.

The two-way integration works seamlessly with the RoomRaccoon Hotel Management System, allowing PricePoint to continuously analyze historical booking data and market trends to determine the optimal price per room. The system automatically updates room rates and syncs them through RoomRaccoon’s channel manager to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and direct sales channels, ensuring hotels stay competitive without manual intervention.

“Independent hotels don’t always have the resources to dedicate a team to fine-tuning their pricing strategy,” says Tymen van Dyl, the CEO and Founder of RoomRaccoon. “By adding Pricepoint to the RoomRaccoon ecosystem, we’re making it possible for our hoteliers to access  sophisticated, AI-powered revenue management that takes the guesswork out of pricing and puts rate management on autopilot.”

Mateusz Snir, Founder and CEO of PricePoint shares: “This integration is ideal for hoteliers seeking to optimize their revenue management strategies. Combining RoomRaccoon's comprehensive property management capabilities with Pricepoint's AI-driven dynamic pricing engine enables hoteliers to automatically adjust room rates in real-time, responding swiftly to market demand fluctuations. Pricepoint not only drives an average revenue increase of 19% and a 13.4% boost in occupancy but also eliminates manual price adjustments thanks to this seamless integration. This partnership with RoomRaccoon underscores our commitment to providing innovative solutions that deliver tangible benefits to the hospitality industry."

The integration represents a significant step forward for independent hoteliers looking to stay competitive in a fast-changing market and is available to hoteliers worldwide. 

DoorDash  and  Coco Robotics have teamed up on sidewalk robot delivery for DoorDash customers in select areas of Chicago and Los Angeles.

Eligible customers can see the availability of Coco’s fleet of emissions-free sidewalk robots and may have one assigned to their order from nearly 600 participating merchants through the DoorDash app. This builds on an existing pilot program with Wolt—DoorDash’s international arm—where Coco robots have been making deliveries in Helsinki since earlier this year. 

During the initial pilot phase, Coco completed over 100,000 deliveries for DoorDash customers. This expanded partnership reinforces DoorDash’s ongoing commitment to advancing last-mile logistics by building the most efficient, sustainable, and scalable multi-modal delivery platform.

“Not every delivery needs a 2-ton car just to deliver two chicken sandwiches,” said Harrison Shih, Senior Director of DoorDash Labs. “We believe the future of delivery will be multi-modal, and we’re thrilled to partner with Coco to expand sidewalk robot deliveries that complement the Dasher network as we continue to enhance the DoorDash experience for customers and merchants.”

Robot delivery is part of DoorDash’s broader global multi-modal delivery platform strategy—integrating Dashers, drones, and autonomous robots to meet increasing demand while lowering costs and emissions.

“Partnering with Coco and DoorDash has allowed us to consistently deliver fresh food to our customers on time,” said Eric Dela Cruz, owner of Main Chick Hot Chicken in Los Angeles. “We worked with Coco to establish a ‘taxi line’ of robots so we can get food out to our customers faster, even during our busiest hours. The improved operational efficiency translates directly into happier guests and stronger repeat business. We’re excited about what this partnership means for our growth.”

Coco has been operating in Los Angeles since 2020 and recently launched in Chicago, Miami and Helsinki, Finland. Coco has a fleet of over 1,000 emissions-free delivery robots.

The partnership with Coco was developed through DoorDash Labs, DoorDash’s robotics and automation arm. DoorDash Labs expanded its investment in autonomous delivery through its partnership with Wing, which introduced drone deliveries to the U.S. after an initial pilot in Australia. By leveraging a multi-modal approach that integrates Dashers, robots, and drones into DoorDash’s logistics network, the goal is to ensure the most effective fulfillment method for every order while driving increased demand for local merchants and creating more earning opportunities for Dashers.

PAR Technology Corp. announced the launch of its PAR POS Spring Release, which combines enhanced core performance and new features to elevate operations. Significant investment and focus have been made in innovating key areas such as guest convenience, in-store resilience and platform extensibility in response to growing market expectations.

PAR was among the POS software vendors featured in HT's POS Software in 2025: Key Trends and Features on the Horizon 

"At PAR, we're building for the future. We have the scale to consistently evolve our platform while investing in purposeful innovation—so our customers never have to choose between stability and innovation," said Oli Ostertag, General Manager of PAR POS. "This release reflects that balance, delivering faster, more resilient core performance alongside smarter tools for staff, convenient guest experiences, and simplified enterprise administration. And by reimagining our APIs, we're making it easier than ever for operators and integrators to build with us."

Key Features

Enhanced Guest Convenience & Experience
This new release will bring additional enhancements around guest convenience. Guests can now enjoy secure, contactless payment and ordering options such as Pay via SMS and QR code with PAR® Pay, along with the ability to pay for in-store orders via their loyalty accounts, and the flexibility to add items to open orders throughout their stay.

These features offer a seamless dining and checkout experience that prioritizes convenience without disrupting service flow. Operators benefit from faster transactions and improved table turnover, helping staff serve more guests with greater efficiency.

Streamlined Staff Operations
As part of its commitment to point-of-service innovation, the PAR POS Spring Update introduces Geofencing Integration for ETA on Kitchen Chits—displaying real-time guest arrival estimates to improve prep timing, reduce waste, and streamline pickup operations. Seamlessly integrated with geolocation platforms, the feature is fully customizable with a rich library of fonts, sizes, and colors for maximum clarity and kitchen flexibility.

Restaurants will also enjoy the option of tailored pricing on item modifiers to accommodate specific guest requests. For example, "add mayo" can be priced differently from "heavy mayo," allowing operators to reflect nuanced guest requests and maximize profitability with greater pricing accuracy.

Greater tax support is included in this update, accommodating and reflecting regional quantity-based tax rules, such as those in Ontario, Canada, as well as marketplace facilitator taxes from third-party delivery services such as DoorDash and Uber Eats for more accurate reporting and better visibility into tax obligations.

Platform Extensibility and Flexibility 
PAR continues to invest in its platform's core performance and adaptability. Operators can now define and manage custom data—like product codes, category tags, and tracking numbers—tailored to their brand and fully accessible via API for seamless syncing and reliable cross-system tracking. Meanwhile, a new real-time Data Feed significantly accelerates item availability updates—reducing sync times from 5–10 minutes to near-instant—while also boosting performance for reporting and API integrations. Together, these upgrades reinforce PAR's commitment to core platform performance, reliability, and adaptability.

The PAR POS Spring Release reflects PAR's ongoing commitment to pushing the innovation envelope for growing and enterprise restaurants in the industry. For more information on PAR Technology and PAR POS, please visit partech.com. 

Smarter Tools for Smarter Kitchens

• Energy Intelligence: Monitors and optimizes energy use across key equipment, reducing utility costs by up to 15%
• Real-Time Equipment Monitoring & Alerting: Tracks performance and visualizes issues using digital twins to enable proactive maintenance and extend asset life
• Predictive Maintenance: Uses AI to detect early warning signs before breakdowns occur—minimizing downtime and repair costs
• Remote Equipment Control: Adjusts settings on the fly from anywhere, giving operators unmatched flexibility and responsiveness
• Temperature & Environmental Control: Continuously monitors refrigeration and HVAC systems to maintain food safety standards and ensure ideal working conditions
• AI-Powered Forecasting: Predicts guest traffic and demand down to the hour using historical patterns and live data — helping reduce waste, improve prep accuracy and optimize staffing
  
   

Popmenu's digital marketing and online ordering solutions are available on Oracle Cloud Marketplace and can be deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), and integrate with Oracle Simphony POS. Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a centralized repository of enterprise applications offered by Oracle and Oracle partners.  

The integration of Popmenu's online ordering solutions with Oracle Simphony POS enables:

• Greater efficiency, fewer errors: Online orders for pickup, delivery, and catering that are placed on Popmenu's platform flow directly into the Simphony POS. This helps eliminate manual uploads and reduces risk of human error.
• Synchronized menu updates: Any menu changes made in the Simphony POS appear on Popmenu and OpenTable. Operators can also adjust which menu items show up online with simple toggles.
• Better experience for guests and staff: Online ordering is one stop and easy to use.
• Easy reporting: All dine-in and online order reports live within the Simphony POS. 
   

Through Oracle Cloud Marketplace, Oracle customers can also take advantage of Popmenu's interactive menus, custom-built websites, AI-powered marketing, and AI phone answering to drive new and repeat business.  

According to Popmenu's research, 69% of consumers order takeout or delivery or dine at restaurants at least once a week.* Attracting more guests and providing a smooth ordering experience are top-of-mind for restaurant operators who have to compete more aggressively in a tough market.

Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for Oracle customers seeking trusted business applications and services that offer unique solutions.

OCI is a cloud designed to run any application faster, and more securely, for less. OCI can help address a variety of data privacy, sovereign AI, and low latency requirements as it is the only hyperscaler capable of delivering 150+ AI and cloud services at the edge, in a customer's datacenter, across clouds, or in the public cloud. Oracle's distributed cloud delivers the benefits of the cloud with greater control and flexibility while also providing the consistent performance, SLAs, and global pricing for which OCI has become known.

"Restaurant operators want to remove friction in their ordering process that can hinder productivity and sales. Popmenu's ordering solutions do just that, making sure online ordering is efficient, accurate, and easy for both guests and staff," said Brendan Sweeney, CEO and Co-founder of Popmenu. "We're also excited to help more Oracle customers boost their digital presence and overall order volume through Popmenu's marketing platform. By joining Oracle Cloud Marketplace, we are underscoring our commitment to the Oracle community and making it easy for customers to benefit from our solutions. Tapping into the power of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure will help Popmenu and our customers to deliver on business needs."  

Lighthouse announced the acquisition of The Hotels Network, a marketing personalization technology that drives direct channel growth for hotels. The acquisition will combine Lighthouse's commercial intelligence platform with AI-driven marketing technology from The Hotels Network.

"The Hotels Network team has built exceptional technology that helps hotels drive direct bookings through personalized marketing and conversion optimization," said Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO of Lighthouse. "By integrating the marketing capabilities from The Hotels Network with the existing market demand and pricing data in the Lighthouse platform, we're enabling hotels to transform market intelligence into personalized guest booking experiences that grow revenue through direct channels."

Founded in 2015, The Hotels Network serves over 20,000 hotels across more than 100 countries, including celebrated brands such as Minor Hotels, One&Only Resorts, H World International and Preferred Hotels & Resorts. The Hotels Network has a proven track record, delivering an average 32% uplift in direct bookings for its hotel partners. 

The ability to deliver personalized offers and marketing messages to travelers has become a key piece of the commercial strategy technology stack, as hoteliers seek to enhance the digital guest experience and boost direct revenue. The Hotels Network is the only platform in the market that combines integrated pricing data, predictive personalization, and cross-channel marketing capabilities in a single cloud-based solution. By leveraging real-time user behavior, predictive algorithms, and proprietary AI agents like KITT; The Hotels Network allows hoteliers to attract, engage, and convert guests from their very first interaction. 

"Joining Lighthouse accelerates our mission of helping hotels worldwide to maximize their direct channel potential," said Juanjo Rodriguez, founder and CEO of The Hotels Network. "Our combined AI capabilities and commercial intelligence will give hoteliers a powerful edge to elevate their direct booking strategies to capture more revenue."

Lighthouse continues to expand its commercial platform through investment in technologies that serve the commercial needs of leading hotels throughout the world. The acquisition of The Hotels Network adds another capability to the Lighthouse platform, which has grown to include pricing intelligence, business intelligence, benchmarking, parity management, and other capabilities designed to serve the needs of hospitality commercial teams.