News Briefs

Powerhouse Dynamics, an Internet of Things (IoT) partner to enterprise-level restaurant, QSR, convenience store and retail brands, has installed its AI-powered DemandSmart Solution in client locations across the country. The solution automatically executes demand response at scale, empowering clients to generate new revenues by lowering their energy use when the grid is experiencing peak demand.

“We are excited to bring this expanded capability to our customers. Not only will they save significant energy costs using our DemandSmart module, but they will also be able to take advantage of our Real-Time Demand (RTD) Hub integration and make money while advancing their sustainability goals,” said Powerhouse Dynamics President Jay Fiske.

DemandSmart integrates with Powerhouse Dynamics’ Open Kitchen® and SiteSage® IoT platforms for restaurant/foodservice operators and retailers, respectively. These platforms are already in use in 15,000+ locations of household-name clients to decrease their energy, operational, and equipment costs.

Connecting Powerhouse Dynamics’ DemandSmart module to the RTD Hub from partner DemandQ enables these locations to take full advantage of grid services previously unavailable due to the administrative burden of effectively executing a demand response or economic dispatch event.

“DemandQ’s RTD Hub marks a significant milestone in the evolution of demand response and economic demand dispatch in energy markets. Automated execution brings demand response and demand dispatch to locations with as little as 10 kW, creating significant revenue opportunities,” said DemandQ CEO Gary Morsches.

Sojern, a provider of AI-driven guest experience solutions, announced its integration with HotelKey, a next-generation hospitality platform.  This collaboration connects Sojern’s Guest Experience Platform with HotelKey's Property Management System (PMS), empowering hoteliers to increase profitability and enhance the guest experience.

"We are excited to partner with HotelKey, a leading next generation hospitality platform,” said Baskar Manivannan, Vice President, Guest Engagement Platform, at Sojern. “With our fully integrated Sojern Guest Experience Platform and HotelKey PMS, hoteliers can now drive profitability with an AI automated and personalized guest experience, increase guest satisfaction scores, generate ancillary revenue, and promote direct bookings. Together, we are revolutionizing the hospitality industry with a fully integrated and user-friendly platform."

Properties are leveraging the collaboration between HotelKey and Sojern to enhance their capabilities across multiple facets of their business.

"We are thrilled with the seamless integration of HotelKey and Sojern's Guest Experience Solution. The Sojern AI Concierge and Reputation Manager have truly elevated our guest services,” said Chuck Valentino, VP of Operations, Vista Investments. “The teams are collaborative and are fine-tuning the AI to cater to our specific requirements, ensuring a personalized and exceptional guest experience."

Sojern offers comprehensive solutions to hospitality challenges, requiring only essential data to deliver exceptional results. From streamlining housekeeping and maintenance to optimizing labor management, Sojern's solutions empower hotels to elevate their operations and provide exceptional guest experiences.

HotelKey stands out with its innovative solutions, focusing on streamlining day-to-day operations and enhancing guest satisfaction. 

“By integrating HotelKey’s PMS and Sojern’s Guest Experience Solution, hotel owners can focus on personalizing the guest experience,” said Aditya Thyagarajan, Co-Founder and President, HotelKey. “Our partnership with Sojern not only simplifies operations but empowers hotels to deliver unparalleled satisfaction to guests.”

Docyt, a provider of AI-driven accounting automation technology, is partnering with x·quic™ on a bundled services offering that empowers hotel owners and franchisees to seamlessly integrate Docyt’s real-time bookkeeping capabilities with x·quic OTA Savings. The combined solution uses AI-driven workflows to streamline financial management and maximize hotel profitability, from single locations to expansive franchise operations.

“It's becoming increasingly important for businesses to be able to reconcile. Everything from contracts to reports, systems, databases, and more, all comes from different sources that may not be compatible and this can create a huge headache," said Nimesh Shah, CEO of x·quic. “The importance of being able to audit data and provide clear insights cannot be understated. Through this partnership, we help ensure that hotel owners can cut through all the noise of disorganized data.”

Docyt AI empowers single and multi-entity hotel operators, management companies, and franchisees to automate bookkeeping and other back-office tasks to unlock real-time financial reports, KPIs and unit-economics insights to run their businesses more efficiently and profitably. The platform empowers hoteliers to execute bill payments, employee reimbursements, track & reconcile corporate credit card spending, access revenue reports, track cash & merchant processor deposits, and view real-time statements. Docyt AI integrates seamlessly with over 30 POS, property management, and payroll systems, enabling hoteliers to quickly shift manual data management to AI, digitizing and automating the financial workflows, and enabling real-time financial reporting.

OTA Savings by x·quic™ saves hotels time and money by identifying and claiming unredeemed virtual cards with active funds as well as OTA commission overbilling. Its advanced, AI-powered technology reconciles OTA reservations to the penny, ensuring hotels only pay commissions based on the exact room revenue they collected.

Together, Docyt AI and OTA Savings by x·quic™ help hoteliers easily shift data management to AI, digitizing and automating the financial workflow, and enabling real-time financial reporting.

“Docyt and x·quic™ share a common mission to harness the power of AI to transform bookkeeping processes in the hospitality industry,” said Sid Saxena, Docyt’s co-founder and CEO. “Our partnership delivers an integrated solution that helps hotel management save time and money in reconciling OTA and bookkeeping services, enabling them to run their businesses with greater efficiency and profitably than ever before.”

GoTab announced its integration with Tripleseat, the cloud-based sales and event management platform. This strategic partnership marks the beginning of a transformative era in event planning and streamlines laborious, error-prone manual tasks into effortless user-friendly solutions.

With embedded payment processing capabilities, Tripleseat enables operators across restaurants, hotels, and other unique venues to book, manage, and collect payments for events in a single integrated offering. Through the integration, deposits made in Tripleseat are transitioned seamlessly into event day tabs in GoTab’s point-of-sale (POS) system. From there, GoTab and Tripleseat work together to provide a streamlined close-out process for guests and operators.

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

“Planning and managing events is a time-consuming task for all parties involved, and this integration significantly alleviates some of the pain points that event professionals experience every day,” said Tim McLaughlin, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at GoTab. “The demand for events and experiences continues to grow across the hospitality industry. This integration marks another milestone in our goal of helping businesses improve operationally without sacrificing the quality of hospitality they provide.”

On top of this integration, GoTab continues to elevate the event experience through its custom Event Cards, which can be QR or RFID based and allow event managers to craft a personalized selection of privileges tailored to every event and attendee. GoTab’s Event Cards eliminate the hassles of redeeming and reconciling physical drink tickets, ultimately creating a more seamless experience for guests, employees, and event managers. Furthermore, the Event Cards help managers ensure that taxes and gratuities are covered in advance, so guests can utilize their full spend on prepaid event cards.

By combining the power of GoTab and Tripleseat, event deposits can be retrieved and applied effortlessly within GoTab, ensuring a smooth and efficient operation on the day of the event. Furthermore, through this integration, event sales reporting becomes consistent and transparent, and all event deposits and payments are tracked in one centralized location, providing valuable insights for event managers and simplifying the process.

"As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, it's crucial for platforms like Tripleseat and GoTab to adapt and integrate seamlessly, " said Jonathan Morse, CEO of Tripleseat. "This partnership represents our commitment to providing our customers with cutting-edge tools that simplify event management processes and enhance the overall guest experience. We empower venues to streamline operations, increase efficiency, and deliver exceptional events."

Through this partnership, GoTab and Tripleseat are enabling operators to increase revenue by over 30% for large-scale events, group reservations, and off-site catering. The integration also eliminates the hassle of booking and deposit payments, allowing users to enjoy a stress-free event experience from start to finish.

To learn more about GoTab’s recent product innovations and growing list of partner integrations, please visit https://hubs.la/Q02vvr6y0. To learn more about Tripleseat or to schedule a demo, please visit www.tripleseat.com.

In 1,500 U.S. IHOP restaurants, Dine Brands Global, Inc. has upgraded to TRAY POS.

The brand is nearing the end of a roughly two-year migration initiative which set out to enable a cloud-native POS platform that could retain its current hardware stack while providing cost-effective hardware flexibility for restaurant franchisees and operators.

At MURTEC 2024, Dine Brands' CEO John Peyton shared how since 2019, it has tripled its spend on technology in a strategy that’s paying powerful returns.

Improved Operations

“This is a critical step in the evolution of our iconic brand,” said Justin Skelton, CIO and Senior Vice President of Information Technology at Dine Brands. “POS systems are essential to efficient operations and have major impacts on the guest and team member experience. Through this process, we’ve seen this technology has the power to decrease table turn times and increase tip and check.”

By updating 15-plus year-old POS systems in IHOP restaurants, the Dine Brands IT team has already been able to provide franchisees with a variety of features to improve operations, including reporting and performance analytic improvements, and more. The system’s open architecture allows for quick and robust integrations to the brand's critical platforms, from back-of-house technologies to online ordering and payment platforms.

• 71% say the ability to integrate with other systems is driving their POS purchase decisions, according to HT’s2 2023 POS Software Trends Report.

"We’ve not only modernized the IHOP guest and team member experience but have also adapted to the needs of our franchisees as the industry evolves," said Jay Johns, President of IHOP. “With new technology like server tablets, our franchisees’ team members can stay closer to our guests and ultimately provide a more efficient and joyful dining experience.”

The organization has reported over 10,000 POS server tablets being leveraged across IHOP locations using TRAY, which enable faster ordering and checkout directly at guests’ tables.

"Our collaboration with IHOP is illustrative of the industry-wide need for smart and efficient technology that can cut costs and improve efficiencies for restaurants, and is compatible with existing or new hardware," said Peter Kellis, CEO of TRAY. "Restaurants like IHOP are seeking ways to incrementally improve operations without massive spend and equipment changes, and that can be achieved with cloud-based solutions. We are proud to serve IHOP and look forward to supporting the brand for the long term."

Wow Bao unveiled a new mobile app with a fresh interface and all-in-one navigation that allows guests to order delivery anywhere, anytime from its over 700 virtual kitchens. Platforming with Lunchbox, an enterprise restaurant technology solution provider, users can now purchase Wow Bao from over 6,000 retailers nationwide all from the palm of their hand, via a fully branded custom UI.

A pioneer in technology, Wow Bao was one of the first in the industry to unveil a mobile ordering app in 2010.  Wow Bao's President and CEO Geoff Alexander shared the brand's automated vending experience during a Restaurant Technology Network Town Hall.

After several advances to its Hot Buns Club rewards program the brand required an app that consolidated ordering, earning, and tracking points and rewards. The app also incorporates Wow Bao’s CPG vertical and through Smart Commerce, enables users to link to their local grocer to purchase the product from their personal device.

Additionally, users can enter Wow Bao’s Dim Sum Palace Roblox experience through the app. Once in the experience, they can uncover clues and claim a free box of Wow Bao and enter to win bao for a year.

“The launch of Wow Bao’s new app couldn’t have come at a better time in our technology evolution, as we have always aimed to provide our fans with the most delicious food and most seamless way to enjoy it, all while earning rewards for their loyalty,” said Geoff Alexander, president and CEO of Wow Bao. “We partnered with Lunchbox because they’re a best-in-class leader in restaurant loyalty, catering, and online ordering. Their team exceeded our expectations and delivered a stellar product in record time.”

Lunchbox partnered with Wow Bao to develop a custom mobile user interface, providing the brand’s loyalists with a unique experience and further access to its products across delivery, grocery, and rewards. On developing the app and working with Wow Bao, Nabeel Alamgir, CEO and co-founder of Lunchbox said, “Geoff has been a trusted partner of Lunchbox, tapping in to advise on roadmap and strategy through our Food Tech Council – we’re honored to hand back the support, platforming one of our industry’s biggest innovators and giving their fan base more ways to order. It’s our mission to innovate alongside the brand and deliver an exceptional experience.”