News Briefs

Restroworks, a global leader in cloud-based restaurant technology, today announced the launch of the RestroNext CX Suite - an all-in-one customer experience platform designed to transform how restaurants connect with guests in a digital-first world. The suite introduces a comprehensive range of solutions, including Self-Service Kiosks, QR Code Ordering, Online Ordering Websites, and Branded Food Delivery Applications.

Built to meet the needs of fast-growing and dynamic restaurant brands, the RestroNext CX Suite offers seamless and customizable ordering experiences - whether in-store, online, or via mobile apps. It is fully hardware-agnostic, enabling deployment on existing infrastructure without the need for heavy capital investment, ensuring a faster, more cost-effective path to digital transformation.

From kiosk-based self-ordering to direct-to-consumer digital storefronts, the suite empowers restaurants to deliver faster service, streamline operations, and take full ownership of guest relationships.

According to a recent Deloitte report, 60% of diners express a preference for self-ordering technology with intuitive UI and built-in payment, which lets diners quickly and easily order their food. Guests can select exactly what they want, with customization options sent directly to the kitchen, enabling restaurants to increase their average check size by offering upgrades and add-ons with every order.

The RestroNext CX Suite features:

• RestroGO – Self-Service Kiosk:
  Drive faster service and kitchen efficiency with kiosks that route orders straight to the kitchen, helping optimize back-of-house operations.

• RestroSCAN – QR Code Ordering:
  Enable guests to browse, customize, and place orders directly from their table via QR codes or tablets, eliminating wait times and delivering a personalized experience.

• RestroWEB – Online Ordering Website:
  Build a branded, commission-free ordering site with a fully customizable storefront to drive direct sales and maximize profitability.

• RestroAPP – Food Delivery Application:
  Launch a native iOS and Android application to manage in-house delivery, loyalty programs, and customer engagement - eliminating third-party dependency.

Commenting on the launch, Ashish Tulsian, Co-founder and CEO of Restroworks, said: "Technology is no longer just a support function for restaurants—it’s the backbone of modern-day restaurant operations. From streamlining last-mile logistics to enhancing the guest experience, digital transformation is fundamentally reshaping the industry. The launch of the RestroNext CX Suite is a pivotal step in our mission to equip restaurant brands with a unified, end-to-end platform—one that seamlessly supports both back-of-house efficiency and guest-facing digital ordering. With RestroNext, restaurants can fully own the customer journey, protect their margins, and build a stronger digital identity.”

Recently, Restroworks cemented its market leadership and was named one of the category leaders in Restaurant Management Software by Gartner Digital Markets. The company achieved over 80% year-over-year growth in 2024-2025, serving 23,000 restaurants across more than 50 countries.

Over the last five years, Restroworks has made significant investments in expanding its global presence in the US, the Middle East, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. The company also invested in high-quality infrastructure and upgraded security compliance to provide a scalable, enterprise-grade cloud platform for multi-national restaurant chains. Restroworks is certified with ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27701, SOC1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, and GDPR compliant.

Trusted by industry giants like Taco Bell, Subway, Belgian Waffle Co., Häagen-Dazs, Nando’s, Caribou Coffee, Chili’s, Sbarro, Restroworks continues to drive innovation across the global foodservice landscape. To learn more about the RestroNext CX Suite, visit www.restroworks.com/restronext-digital-ordering-suite/ 

Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors, opened its 69th Annual Convention in Las Vegas this week with a keynote by President and CEO Patrick Pacious, setting the tone for three days centered on a single mission: “Powering the Future” for hotel owners and their businesses. The event brings together thousands of owners, operators, and industry partners for nearly 100 educational sessions, a trade show where owners can connect with hundreds of qualified vendors, and brand sessions to hear from Choice leaders about recent performance success and where the company is investing to help drive revenue and lower costs.   

“Everything we do at Choice Hotels is about delivering value to hotel owners. The stronger we and our franchisees grow together, the more we can re-invest in their future success,” said Pacious.  

Pacious opened with a clear message: Choice Hotels is not just bigger — it’s better and stronger. The company’s growth has allowed it to attract a more resilient and higher income customer, including more business travelers who now represent 40% of all stays. Its upscale and above brand portfolio grew rooms by 44% last year and with more than 7,500 hotels worldwide, the company is leveraging its growing size to strengthen value for owners, helping to increase revenue opportunities, reduce operating costs, and fuel long-term business success. Some of the results Choice and its owners have achieved include:  

• Loyalty membership has surged past 70 million, with members booking direct more often, staying longer, and spending more. The revamped program’s enhancements — longer booking windows, premium room redemptions, and exclusive experiences — have helped drive a 30% increase in redemptions and 13% growth in average length of stay.  
• Over 6% year-over-year increase in converting lookers into direct bookers as a result of the ChoiceHotels.com refresh, with upscale online booking conversion up more than 14% in the first quarter of 2025.  
• Area Directors helped owners find over $25 million in potential operational cost savings last year, an average of $33,000 per participating property.  
• A new food group purchasing program shows an average savings of 9% on food costs, based on market-basket comparisons since the program launched in July 2024 to March 2025.   
• In 2024, hotels that used ChoiceROCS, a consultancy program designed to help drive increased revenue by leveraging functional expertise and advanced data analytics to provide pricing and strategy recommendations, saw a 100-basis-point premium in RevPAR Index versus hotels not using the program. In total, ChoiceROCS drove $81 million in incremental revenue to participating properties. 

The scale of the company has helped facilitate the strategic investments in proprietary tech tools, the loyalty program, and an owner success system that helps its hotels stand out from the competition. “Becoming bigger has allowed us to build a better and stronger business for you,” Pacious told the crowd.   

Scale That Works for Hotel Owners 

In a competitive high-cost landscape, scale and attracting more and different customers are essential. From negotiating reduced OTA fees and leveraging Choice’s scale with suppliers, Choice delivers tangible results for its franchise owners. In Q4 2024, group business revenue jumped 45% year-over-year, and transient business revenue in upper midscale rose 20%.  

Through strategic partnerships — with AAA, AARP, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, and Westgate Resorts — a strengthened Choice Privileges loyalty program, and more, Choice Hotels is drawing more guests directly to its properties and marketing channels. AARP members booked over 1.1 million room nights at Choice hotels in 2024, and the average return on investment for hotels with an official AAA appointment is $50,000.  

Innovation for the Long Haul 

Choice continues to lead at the intersection of hospitality, franchising, and technology. The company has been leveraging Artificial Intelligence for over 5 years now, and is harnessing its power to deliver personalized marketing, smarter revenue management, and new tools to help owners grow their business. 

Last year, Choice Hotels launched an ambitious endeavor to develop and implement a suite of cutting-edge, complementary and needle-moving capabilities to be delivered over the next two years. These consist of four areas: 

1. Empowering franchisees across all segments to manage rates with greater flexibility. 
2. Driving more occupancy from small-to-mid-sized companies by making it easier for them to do business through a self-serve platform, with no new increased labor costs for hotels.
3. Attracting and retaining new and existing guests through enhanced, AI-ready digital marketing capabilities that enable delivery of personalized messages to drive the right customers to hotels.  
4. An AI-infused, streamlined group travel system that will help franchisees identify the optimal opportunity and respond to requests for proposals.  

A Segment Leader Built for What’s Next 

The company has earned its reputation as a leader in midscale and extended stay, and Pacious made clear that the company intends to stay ahead by continuing to invest where it matters most. Choice recently launched new, cost-effective prototypes for Comfort and Country Inn & Suites, refining their brand identities and introducing new brand features to drive growth and success. And with one in every four midscale hotels in the U.S. flying a Quality Inn flag — a brand that celebrated its 85th anniversary last year — Choice is helping owners capture the full potential of their share of today’s competitive travel economy.  

In extended stay, Choice continues to lead. In 2024, Choice brands accounted for half of all economy and midscale extended stay hotels open and under construction. Last year, the company celebrated the opening of its 500th property, and continues to innovate from the front with transformative solutions like “Lobby in a Box” and “Kitchen in a Box,” which make conversions easier and faster. Its midscale Everhome Suites brand is growing at a rapid pace, with 25 hotels projected to be open by the end of 2025. And the WoodSpring Suites brand continues to operate under a proven formula, with gross operating profits above 55%. 

In the upscale and upper upscale segments, where Pacious declared that “today’s Choice is the industry’s one to watch,” the company’s growing presence is fueled by a strong commitment to success, strategic investments and the rollout of a series of brand refreshes designed to stand out in a sea of sameness. In 2024 alone, upscale-and-above room count rose to over 110,000 rooms, and Choice Privileges members now benefit from access to 180,000 upscale rooms, including through partnerships with Westgate Resorts and Preferred Hotels & Resorts.  

Pacious closed with a message of momentum: Choice Hotels is delivering and has bold plans for tomorrow. From midscale and extended stay leadership to AI-powered transformation, Choice’s scale isn’t just making it bigger — it’s making it better. That scale, combined with a relentless commitment to innovation, is powering new possibilities for hotel owners ready to grow alongside one of the industry’s most forward-looking franchisors.  

HRS announced the latest enhancement to its award-winning Green Stay Initiative. The new Green Stay Audit Platform – automation offered at no cost to hoteliers worldwide – is designed to help the hotel community as they take steps to reduce emissions and more efficiently convey their attributes as they compete for corporate room nights, including transient and meetings-related segments.

Hotels continue to be challenged in four specific areas in their quest to justifiably make investments in more sustainable on-property practices:

• Capturing and generating verifiable data on their carbon emissions;
• Efficiently communicating their data during corporate RFP processes, using concise, repeatable and standardized methods that conform with regulatory requirements;
• Getting educated on achievable steps a hotel can take to further reduce/remove emissions; and
• Resource constraints impacting their ability to progress on these items.

This is particularly a challenge for smaller, regional hotel groups and individual properties who lack the expertise and resources to tackle these issues. Larger, multi-national chains also have a distinct need for more time-saving automation as they seek to share their sustainability highlights with corporations.

Introducing HRS’ Green Stay Audit Platform, Featuring the AI-Infused Green Stay Assistant

HRS’ award-winning Green Stay Initiative has set new standards in leveraging scientific data to help the managed travel ecosystem reduce the emissions tied corporate lodging. HRS’ hotel-focused efforts level the playing field on this important issue. Hotels in 180+ countries, including 600+ chains, participate in Green Stay today. Properties at the Advanced and Professional levels in Green Stay respectively earned 15 and 19 percent more room night bookings from HRS clients over the past year.

Today, the Green Stay Initiative is the only corporate hotel-focused sustainability technology is that is certified by both the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO. HRS is a two-time winner of the Business Travel News Sustainability Award for Data and Reporting (2023/25).

The new Green Stay Audit Platform – featuring the Green Stay Assistant – elevates HRS’ provision of timely, effective information and services to the hotel community. As Earth Month comes to a close, this announcement comes at a time of economic uncertainty across continents, with corporations being more precise in allocating their transient and meetings-related lodging spend to properties that will also help them achieve their carbon emission goals. Highlights include:

• Hoteliers – even those without specialized sustainability expertise – can easily enter metrics tied to energy, waste, and water via a standardized and guided process, now with the support from HRS’ AI-powered Green Stay Assistant (real-time chat functionality). This reduces the burden on lean teams while facilitating participation in more RFPs without extra staff or external consultants.
• The AI-powered Green Stay Assistant introduces users to the three levels of Green Stay, what is involved in attaining each level (Basic / Advanced / Professional), with details on required data sets. Hoteliers can type in the topics they seek more information on, and the Assistant responds with information and prompts, taking them to the next logical step in their learning process.
• Instead of spending significant time responding to multiple client-specific questionnaires, hotels report once through the new platform and are immediately set to address the sustainability needs of virtually any corporate hotel program. This immensely increases sales process efficiency for corporate hotel sales departments.
• Hoteliers can quickly see which Green Stay level they are at as they compete for hotel volume, enabling them to assess current status, plan specific upgrades, and strive to reach the distinctive label of “Green Stay Champion.”
• Access to the Green Stay Knowledge Hub, a repository of case studies, reports and YouTube videos organized to help hoteliers with their education and reporting skillsets, as well as keep them abreast of evolving national and regulatory sustainability requirements.
• Access to HRS’ world-class Emissions Compensation Program (ECP), which already drives savings for corporations. Education about HRS’ ECP can help hoteliers consider their own choices for alignment, which can confer a competitive advantage in RFP scenarios.

Enhanced HRS Platform for Hotels also Drives Benefits for Any Hotel’s Corporate Clients

The HRS platform makes it easier and faster for hotels to complete sustainability assessments, even those with limited resources. This is vital for corporate travel executive during RFP processes, leading to:

• Higher hotel participation, increasing the share of properties with verifiable footprint data;
• Broader data across markets and categories, improving procurement and booking decisions;
• More visibility into hotel program performance, enabling better steering + auditable reporting; and
• Enhanced RFP compliance via automation, which reduced friction in the sourcing process.

“The Green Stay Audit Platform is a timely new arrival for our Group as we use more automation in our sales processes,” said Laura Baroncelli, Deputy Group Director of Sales for Starhotels, the Italy-based hotel company with 31 properties in key business destinations including Florence, London, Milan, New York and Paris.  “Beyond the functional part of accelerating our RFP responses, the platform promises to educate our colleagues about carbon emission reduction and the metrics we use to convey our progress during corporate sales engagements.” Starhotels has participated in Green Stay since 2022.

Hotels that participate in HRS’ Green Stay Initiative today have had their existing data uploaded into the new platform and received emails with dedicated URLs so they can access details about their property and take advantage of the wider range of resources now available to them. There is also a simple path for hoteliers that are new to the Green Stay Initiative to follow and get their initial assessments underway.

“Automation and innovation are unquestionably keys for our industry as we try to drive more sustainable practices by hoteliers, particularly as they navigate labor challenges and progress on their understanding of emission-reducing activities they can take,” said Martin Biermann, Chief Product Officer of HRS. “The new Green Stay Audit Platform represents one more leap forward, giving hoteliers a wealth of information and resources at their keyboard. Beyond helping hotels compete for and win more corporate transient and meetings-related room nights, this enhancement also moves the ecosystem forward on the primary goal of reducing the emissions related to corporate lodging.”

Today Resy relaunched the Resy Android app, now available on the Google Play Store. This milestone gives millions of Android users a seamless way to discover and book reservations at over 20,000 restaurants.

Android users now have in-app access to key Resy features like Notify, Hit Lists, Invite Guests, exclusive dining experiences, and more—empowering them to explore and reserve unforgettable meals with ease. Additionally, eligible American Express® Card Members can enjoy benefits like Global Dining Access through the Resy Android app. In the coming months Android users can expect more features to be added, including Discover Tab, which gives mobile users access to Resy’s extensive original editorial content, and additional filters on map, which allows users to narrow their search based on availability or editorial collections like “New on Resy” or “Great Sushi”.

In addition to helping more diners discover and book their next great meal, the new Android app will help restaurant partners reach an even larger network of potential diners.

The Resy Android app is available for download now on the Google Play Store. Resy for Android will support Android versions 12.0 and up.

TakeUp, the AI-powered revenue optimization platform designed for independent hospitality properties, and ThinkReservations, a leading property management and booking system, have strengthened their partnership with an enhanced integration that delivers even greater pricing intelligence to independent hotels, inns, bed & breakfasts, and glamping retreats. This deeper collaboration unlocks new, invaluable data insights, giving properties the ability to compete more effectively with larger brands.

With this expanded integration, TakeUp now provides properties with access to booking search volume data, a powerful metric that was previously unavailable. This unique data—displayed directly within the TakeUp web app—reveals the total number of searches made on the ThinkReservations booking engine for specific occupancy dates. By analyzing search volume trends, property owners and operators can gain a real-time view of traveler demand, allowing them to make smarter strategic decisions based on guest interest, not just confirmed bookings.

"This deeper integration with ThinkReservations is a game-changer for independent properties," said Bobby Marhamat, CEO of TakeUp. "By unlocking booking search volume data, we are giving properties an unprecedented advantage–they can not only optimize their pricing strategy in ways that were previously only available to larger brands but also make smarter decisions about marketing campaigns and guest experiences."

By leveraging AI-powered pricing insights and human revenue strategist oversight, TakeUp's enhanced integration ensures that ThinkReservations customers now have access to a sophisticated yet easy-to-use revenue management system that helps them maximize occupancy and revenue.

"We believe in providing our customers with the best tools to help independent lodging professionals succeed, and our deepened partnership with TakeUp will continue to help our customers grow," said Richard Aday, CEO at ThinkReservations. "By expanding our integration to include booking search volume insights, we are giving properties the information they need to make smarter pricing decisions and stay ahead of the competition."

Key Benefits of the Enhanced Integration:

• Booking search volume insights provide visibility into traveler demand before bookings occur.
• Automated, data-driven pricing strategies tailored to real-time market conditions.
• Seamless revenue optimization without requiring extensive expertise in pricing management.
• Dedicated revenue strategist providing expert guidance to maximize revenue.

• Tech Talk at the Innovation Theater (Monday, May 19 10:30am CT): SpotOn will host "Strength in Numbers: Building a Financially Savvy Restaurant Community," a panel discussion featuring restaurateurs Amy Hom (Barcelona Wine Bar) and Jonathan Gillespie (Adalina). The session, moderated by Maddy Shannon, SpotOn’s Head of Product Strategy, will offer strategies to empower teams and boost long-term profitability across the industry. The three will host a networking hour at Booth #6045 immediately following the session for operators to connect, swap insights and spark new opportunities.
• Campaign Signage & Video: Campaign messaging will be prominently featured throughout the venue, including the escalators and Innovation Theater. SpotOn’s manifesto video—focused on the shared mission to support the restaurant community—will play ahead of every Innovation Theater session.

• Restaurant Profit Margin Calculator, P&L Template, and Break-Even Point Calculator
• New Restaurant Opening Checklists and Profit Guides
• Restaurant Financing Guide and SpotOn Capital Checklist
• Operational tools such as the Tech Assessment Checklist, POS Reporting Guide, Menu Engineering Worksheet, Labor Management Guide, and Employee Handbook Template
• Guest Experience & Marketing tools including reservation guides, waitlist templates, marketing kits, and review management checklists