Knightscope, Inc., a developer of autonomous security robots and blue light emergency communication systems, today announces another successful deployment of its K5 Autonomous Security Robot (ASR) at M Resort Spa Casino, a PENN Entertainment, Inc. property and the Official Team Headquarters Hotel of the Las Vegas Raiders.

"We are always looking for ways to enhance and elevate our guest experience," said Patrick Durkin, VP of Marketing for M Resort. "M-Bot is a welcomed addition to the security team as it helps provide guest assistance, peace of mind and safety for our guests and staff."

The K5, affectionately named “M-Bot” by resort staff, patrols the parking lots and garage wearing the M Resort logo. M-Bot greets guests with a friendly voice and promotes the M Resort brand while providing additional eyes and ears for the large human security team. The robot also offers a two-way communication system to enhance the safety of visitors and workers. Even more importantly, M-Bot provides some relief to human guards required to patrol in the blistering Las Vegas heat.

“There is a good reason Knightscope Security Robots have been spotted at so many casinos across the country,” said William Santana Li, chairman and CEO at Knightscope. “Entertainment and gaming professionals acknowledge the importance of technology to manage positive customer relationships and ensure an experience with the highest levels of safety.”

Resort, gaming and hospitality professionals looking for innovative security solutions or improved emergency communications for properties in the U.S. are encouraged to book a discovery call or meeting now at www.knightscope.com/discover to learn more about Knightscope’s autonomous security robots and blue light emergency communication systems.

Meyer Jabara Hotels emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever. The management and ownership group is coming off a record-setting year. To keep the company on this trajectory for financial stability and growth, MJH appointed 30+ year hotel finance veteran Jay Sarkar as Chief Financial Officer.

“In today’s economy, average daily rates and revenues are up; that’s the good news,” said MJH President Justin Jabara. “The bad news is the cost of goods, capital projects, interest, and labor are up too. To keep Meyer Jabara Hotels financially strong and growing, we brought in an expert in hotel finance. Jay is a results-driven, hands-on CFO who is known to develop corporate strategies and translate them into actionable financial plans that maximize profitability and performance. He is a forward-thinking leader with tactile foresight and demonstratable success capitalizing on growth opportunities, improving bottom-line performance, and optimizing organizational efficiencies. We are delighted to bring Jay on board and consider him a trusted advisor and partner to our stakeholders and executive team.”

In addition to managing the accounting processes for Meyer Jabara’s 31 individual hotels, Sarkar is tasked with planning the financial future of the management company. He will be working alongside the Chief Investment Officer, VP of Investments & Asset Management and the VP of Development to get more hotels into the portfolio.  

“While we wait for the economy to stabilize, we will focus on finetuning the finance department and making it a well-oiled, plug-and-play machine,” Sarkar said. “In addition, we will be creating a new reporting process built on accuracy and timeliness to make sure all financial data is consistent across all Meyer Jabara Hotels. Key to financial success will be adding more revenue from the management-company side of the business.”

Longevity in Hospitality

Hospitality is Sarkar’s passion. Prior to joining Meyer Jabara Hotels, Sarkar served as CFO for StepStone Hospitality in Providence, R.I., and prior to that held a CFO post at Alena Hospitality in Orlando. He also held regional controller and numerous finance positions with Pyramid Hotel Group in Oak Brook, Ill.; Adams Mark Hotels in Indianapolis and Northbrook, Ill.; and numerous Starwood Hotels & Resorts in New York. Sarkar is a licensed Certified Public Accountant. He received his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix and Bachelor in Accounting degree from Mercy College in White Plains, NY.

“It is truly an honor to join a hospitality company whose success comes from 45 years in the hotel business,” Sarkar said. “You don’t see longevity like this in too many industries. The Meyer Jabara name – derived from the partnership of Bill Meyer and Richard Jabara – holds a lot of weight in our industry. I am proud to work for this multi-generational family venture now under the direction of Justin Jabara. The Journey Culture and tutelage behind the Meyer Jabara name is its real strength.”

QSR Krystal recently launched a new franchise website to further attract partners and continue their aggressive growth plans.

The site was developed by Hot Dish, a full-service, Franfocused and BrandFocused ad agency. The new site was built to support a lead conversion strategy and a speed to market approach.

"Krystal has a goal of reaching 500 units in the next few years and our franchise partners play a vital role in this endeavor. We're continually developing ways to better support our partners and to ensure our shared growth and success," said Casey Terrell, Chief Marketing Officer for Krystal Restaurants LLC. "With its more than 90-year history, Krystal has stood the test of time and is a proven concept that offers partners a winning business model. In addition to our legacy that is backed by our unique and highly craveable menu, we offer partners flexible store designs that fit their markets and extensive support from onboarding to opening and beyond to help them achieve their goals."

Industry Vet Moves to Krystal

The new franchise website comes on the heels of recent franchise deals that Krystal has inked with popular celebrities in music, media, and sports, as well as a notable multi-unit deal with seasoned restaurant professional Argus Wiley and his Red Door Foods. The Wiley deal includes the purchase of 21 existing Krystal restaurants and a development deal for 15 new locations. Krystal also recently expanded internationally with the opening of their first Puerto Rico location.

Krystal also recently opened a new U.S. prototype designed with off-prem in mind and has been posting breaking record sales. 

Selfbook, a Tiger Global and Amex Ventures backed technology company that is modernizing hotel payments and bookings, announced its latest flagship product, Station. Station is a hospitality-focused platform harnessing financial technology to give hoteliers more control over their revenue, this product exists at the heart of Selfbook’s ecosystem. Station works in harmony with Selfbook’s Direct booking layer and newly released Express secure payment enablement to facilitate the hospitality journey as a whole, from the guest’s room selection to on-demand payouts for hotels.

Station is the arrivals hub for all facets of hotel bookings management and payment processing. This intuitive dashboard is the hospitality industry’s first platform designed to simplify the labor-intensive and manual systems that hoteliers typically use to manage bookings and process payments. Station automatically captures and processes all booking and payment data passed through Selfbook’s Direct and Express checkout interface and payment rails to ensure all information is securely handled within one environment.

Selfbook’s central mission is to revolutionize an outdated hotel booking and payment experience for guests and hoteliers alike. Station simplifies the unwieldy and time-consuming processes that hoteliers face behind the scenes when managing bookings and payments, while Direct and Express were created to modernize the booking and payment flow for end users.

Station’s key strengths lie in its ability to automatically schedule and process payments based on custom and dynamic rate plans, improve Selfbook’s fraud prevention capabilities, send payment links to recapture failed payments, and more. Within Station’s unified digital ecosystem, hotel admins can intuitively navigate bookings and associated rates and payments, add charges, trigger refunds, and request next-day payouts, enhancing financial control and visibility, all while saving time and effort.

Express, the second new addition to Selfbook’s stable of products, which is also launching, offers a variation of the guest-facing seamless booking experience offered by Direct. Crafted for hotels with custom booking engines, Express empowers hotels with plug-and-play payment blocks, streamlining the checkout experience without changing the look and feel of a hotel’s existing system. Express supports a custom combination of the fastest-growing payment methods including digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, global credit and debit cards, and Affirm’s ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ to create a checkout flow suited to each hotel’s preferences.

As a unit, Selfbook’s three core products offer a wealth of features crafted to drive revenue for hotels. From the option for guests to pay for their stay upon booking rather than at the hotel, reducing the likelihood of cancellation, to flexible cancellation policies offering guests a wider variety of refund windows, Selfbook brings a guest-first approach to hospitality that directly benefits hotels.

“Hotel arrival experiences are so often interrupted by immediate requests for the guest’s credit card. Our purpose in creating Station is to ensure that all payment orchestration happens securely behind the scenes to facilitate a truly hospitable and transaction-free check-in experience for guests every time they arrive at their destination,” said Khalid Meniri, Co-Founder and CEO of Selfbook.

“If time is wasted, your organization is losing money. For those of us who manage companies that may not be affiliated with global enterprises to support payment automation needs, Station is the answer,” said Sean Murphy, Managing Director at Hotel Esencia. “The immense value of data being stored in one place to enhance analytics, the ability to extend a seamless experience for guests, and reducing the tiresome chore of using multiple platforms to process one transaction is unmatched. At Hotel Esencia, Station is paving the way for us to perform at our highest level, and we certainly couldn’t be more excited for what the future holds!”

Epson plans to showcase leading  and essential hospitality technology solutions at MURTEC 2023, the multi-unit restaurant  technology conference. Epson solutions, engineered for flexibility and reliability, can help  restaurants run more efficiently and address many situations – line busting, self-ordering,  curbside delivery, and online ordering. MURTEC will be held from March 6-8 at the Paris Las  Vegas Hotel & Casino in booth #306. 

“Restaurants are faced with orders coming in from multiple online and dine-in touchpoints, and  there is a need for solutions that can help streamline operations,” said Mauricio Chacon, group  product manager, Business Systems Division, Epson America, Inc. “Show attendees will have  an opportunity to explore our latest products and come away with ideas for how to improve  business efficiencies and best serve customer needs and experiences.” 

Demonstrations in Epson’s booth at MURTEC include: 

- Fastest POS receipt printer in the industry¹ – The OmniLink^® TM-T88VII offers  lightning-fast print speeds and flexible connectivity between multiple devices to help  merchants deliver the best customer experience in virtually every environment. 

- Liner-free thermal label printers – The OmniLink TM-L100 offers our broadest media  support and the versatile TM-L90II LFCfeatures fast, efficient operation to help  restaurants streamline processes and improve efficiency in the way they serve  customers and meet demands for digital orders, including buy-online-pickup-in-store  (BOPIS) and delivery.

- Mobile POS solutions – The m-Series OmniLink TM-50II and TM-m30II-SL offer a  modern compact design, engineered for versatile connectivity, performance, and  reliability for hospitality environments, including kiosk usage. 

- Wearable wireless receipt printers – The Mobilink^™ TM-P20II, TM-P80II and TM-P80II  Plus portable receipt printers offer a sleek and modern enclosure, improved rugged  design and enhanced wireless connectivity, delivering operational agility by untethering  operators from a POS terminal, even taking them beyond the four walls if necessary. 

- Kitchen Display System (KDS) – Ideal for quick-service restaurant (QSR) and small restaurant environments, Epson’s KDS system digitizes, routes and displays order  information to support a kitchen’s workflow. 

- On-demand color labeling – The compact ColorWorks^® C4000 color label printer offers restaurants an easy solution for adding high-quality color to labeling to improve branding  of in-house produced items, print color coupons and reduce delivery errors with color  coding. 

- Back Office Printing: Epson’s business printers, engineered with PrecisionCore Heat Free^® inkjet technology, are ideal for everyday store printing needs. Two compact  Supertank business models – the WorkForce^® ST-M1000 monochrome printer and  WorkForce ST-C4100 color MFP – are designed for reliability and include up to 2 years  of ink in the box.^2,3 

Epson’s high-quality and innovative technology solutions enable today’s restaurateurs to  streamline processes and operations for increased efficiency and enhanced customer  experiences. For additional information about Epson’s hospitality solutions, visit  www.epson.com/poshospitality. 

On March 2, 2023, Guestcentric will launch HyperCommerce  - a comprehensive solution that addresses all hotel ecommerce and distribution needs and empowers hotels to generate business and grow direct revenue.  

After researching how hotel clients were engaging with Guestcentric’s Hotel CRS, the company started building HyperCommerce in Q4 of 2022, launching it at the start of 2023. HyperCommerce is based on four main pillars to help hotel operations and business performance: 

• Maximize profit
• Boost performance in direct bookings
• Personalize interactions with guests
• Spread the brand to other guest communication channels

Guestcentric’s HyperCommerce platform  allows hotels to offer tailored experiences,to advance to attribute-based pricing and generate ancillary revenue streams. It responds to the need to be present everywhere and adapts to new channels that are used  for search and booking, such as social media and conversational interfaces. 

The comprehensive solution offers hyper-personalization - delivering clear distinctions between local and international guests. It is also designed to cater to the next generation of travelers - with shorter attention spans. HyperCommerce also learns and provides relevant suggestions for hotel performance improvements, direct pricing strategies, as well as context-based reporting. It also integrates with hypercharged conversion mechanisms, allowing hotels to enter the direct consumer travel funnel earlier, and reduce selling on mass distributors.

A robust and reliable solution, HyperCommerce is also operationally simple, offering  turnkey integrations with digital optimization services. Its user-friendly interface enables hotels to onboard new team members  faster and to perform routine tasks more quickly. It also simplifies all reservation-related problems hotels face, from handling exceptional reservations issues to generating additional demand  to the hotel’s own booking engine. 

In the run up to the launch, Guestcentric’s CEO, Pedro Colaco, said: “The hotel industry is on the cusp of a revolution. To stay competitive, hotels need to embrace technology and provide the best possible experience to their guests. That’s why we’ve created our HyperCommerce solution – to help ambitious hotels achieve their full potential.”

Sérgio Serra, CTO of Guestcentric added: “We want HyperCommerce to be a ubiquitous platform that empowers hoteliers to drive better online experiences for guests and convert them into direct reservations. That's what drives us every day, in every little detail of the technology we are building. That's why, for example, we don't just give data, we give actionable information that helps to measure the success of our tools and quickly address situations where the performance is not at the expected level. We are very excited with the set of functionalities we will be rolling out over the next few months. This is not just technology -  It's a facilitator for online revenue growth.” 

Sergio Koiffman, VP of Revenue Management for Hospitality Advance International , added: “Guestcentric’s direct booking solutions have always been visionary and disruptive for our industry. Over the years, Guestcentric has leveled the playing field for independent hotels to compete on direct.

With the launch of HyperCommerce, Guestcentric brings hotels to a new era of business growth. Guestcentric’s  HyperCommerce is  easily the most integrated, user-friendly and conversion-driven solution on the market today. It empowers us hoteliers to perform a diverse array of commercial activities quickly and cost-effectively. We also appreciate the great human support team - they really know us and help us solve issues quickly. All in all, HyperCommerce is a great solution for independent hotels and hotel chains like ours, with complex reservations needs and constantly changing client demands. ” 

HyperCommerce will be made publicly available on April 2, 2023. To find out more about the solution, click here.