Oracle is expanding the global rollout of its Oracle Hospitality OPERA Cloud Property Management System (PMS), today announcing plans to bring the system to 2,000 additional hotels under the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts portfolio by the end of next year. Currently, hundreds of Wyndham branded hotels are live on OPERA Cloud with franchisees using the system to simplify everyday hotel tasks, personalize guest experiences, and help boost revenue.

“We’ve brought hotels onto OPERA Cloud at incredible pace,” said Scott Strickland, chief information officer at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. “Today, we’re averaging 20 hotels a week with franchisees migrating in a matter of days and seeing immediate benefits including greater efficiencies, lower costs, and the opportunity to deliver better guest experiences. That includes helping us deliver new innovations to hotels such as room upselling, integrated revenue management, and mobile housekeeping management, among others, all on a global scale.”

Beyond operational and cost efficiencies, Wyndham franchisees can use the Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform (OHIP) within OPERA Cloud to connect with RevIQ, Wyndham’s next-generation, cloud-based, mobile-first revenue management system designed to help owners optimize their revenue strategies and grow market share. Created in collaboration with IDeaS, an industry leader in hotel revenue management software, RevIQ is built specifically for the needs of Wyndham franchisees and is designed to deliver top-tier performance while keeping control, flexibility, and simplicity at the forefront. Both it and OPERA Cloud are the latest in a growing list of initiatives supporting Wyndham’s ongoing, multi-year digital transformation.

With OPERA Cloud, hotels can easily: 

• Scale in the cloud – Built specifically to run hotel operations, the PMS is flexible and can scale to meet the needs of each hotel without requiring installation and maintenance of on-site hardware.
• Enable mobile “anywhere” access – Operators can run their hotel from anywhere while team members can untether from the front desk to serve guests throughout the property
• Operate globally – Designed to meet fiscal requirements across more than 200 countries, operators can customize the system to operate in 20 languages.
• Streamline operations – Easy integration with thousands of key partner interfaces means a smoother, more streamlined guest experience with the opportunity for enhanced personalization.
• Unlock new insights – Oracle Hospitality OPERA Reporting and Analytics helps hotels and Wyndham unlock insights needed to boost performance at the department, hotel, and chain level.
• Increase revenue opportunities – Flexible rate and inventory control options, as well as advanced reservations functionality, help boost occupancy and profits while Oracle Nor1 allows for incremental revenue through automated upsells like room upgrades, late checkout, and more.
• Quickly train staff – Oracle’s library of OPERA Digital Learning content, combined with the OPERA Cloud’s intuitive user interface, make training new team members easier than ever.
• Tailor event management – Oracle Hospitality OPERA Sales and Event Management (OSEM) helps maximize revenue by providing detailed, real-time information on room and event offerings, including space availability, menus, packages, and pricing.
• Enhance security and performance – The PMS is built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, elevating the guest experience while helping deliver higher performance, security, and reliability across its globally properties. 

“Wyndham is the model of how a global brand can rapidly adopt cloud-based, mission critical technology,” said Alex Alt, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Hospitality. “With OPERA Cloud, Wyndham can scale to meet the needs and size of each unique property, speed innovation to support the evolving demands of customers, and help hotels create efficiencies that allow limited staff to focus on higher value tasks.” 

A Domino's Pizza franchise, Team Washington Inc., has earned over $163,000 in proven incremental sales and $78,000 proven incremental profit since partnering with Upside last summer. With an overall ROI of 73%, this partnership marks a new and innovative approach for the pizza retailer in attracting, retaining and satisfying customers while maintaining a profitable business model. 

Additional Revenue 

“The restaurant industry has been significantly hit by record-level inflation, so we needed to change how we approach and attract customers,” said Lauren Kibler, Director of Marketing & Development at Domino's Team Washington Inc. “Our partnership with Upside adds value for existing and new customers alike, ultimately allowing us to continue growing our business.”

Upside’s technology helps Team Washington identify nearby customers not dining at their restaurants and uses profitable cash back promotions to welcome them through their doors. Since partnering with Upside, 50% of the transactions from Upside were from new customers. 

“Team Washington, Inc. is a savvy retailer who recognized that paying for clicks and impressions do not necessarily guarantee a positive impact on their bottom line,” said Ryan Gaylor, Vice President of Restaurant at Upside. 

More than 50,000 food and fuel retailers partner with Upside to connect their businesses with nearby consumers to drive incremental profit. On average, restaurants on Upside receive 1.6x more visits from customers, which drives more transactions, more spend, and proven profit. To learn more, visit upside.com/business/restaurant. 

XTM Inc., a Miami and Toronto-based Fintech creator of disruptive payment innovations and mobile solutions specifically for service industries including hospitality, personal care and service staff, announced that the Company closed a partner agreement with Virtual Health Care Provider CloudMD Software & Services Inc., enabling them to offer on-demand health care and mental health support to their 200,000 Today Program members.

The Company notified employers of the offering via an internal message yesterday and had opt-ins of 70 locations representing close to 5,000 service workers. Individual members will also have the opportunity to opt-in directly through their Today Financial app.

“We are committed to helping to inspire today's service workers,” said Marilyn Schaffer, XTM, CEO. “Financial wellness is closely linked to physical  and mental wellness and to this end, we are thrilled to add virtual health care to our portfolio of inspirational offerings. Helping reduce absenteeism, improve productivity and lessening the anxiety associated with waiting in a walk-in clinic, for example, with your child while you're supposed to be on-shift are all benefits we want the Today employer and member to embrace. We worked hard to find a partner that would support the mental health aspect of wellness, and enable us to offer this for a small monthly fee that is less than many people spend on a single latte. We found that in CloudMD.”

“Our partnership with XTM will enable us to empower their members to lead healthier lives,” said Adam Kelly, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer of CloudMD. “We know the traditional healthcare system is strained, and through our EAP and telemedicine programs, we can offer faster time to care for both personal and medical challenges. Service industry workers face difficulty in accessing care due to their changing and irregular work shifts. There's no need for them to spend weeks waiting for a General Practitioner (“GP”) appointment.”

The new partnership will enable large chains, individual locations, or individual workers to opt-in at an attractive per-member, per-month cost, enhancing the value of being an XTM member and improving health, wellness, and productivity of participating organizations. 

TGI Fridays today unveiled its newly reimagined Fridays Rewards loyalty program, helping guests enjoy their Fridays' favorites more frequently, for less.

The revamped Fridays Rewards program streamlines the restaurant loyalty experience, making it simpler for fans. With the free-to-join program, members are able to link with their cell phone number to automatically earn a point for every dollar spent – no app download required.

• 71% are leveraging data gathered via the POS for digital engagement, according to HT’s 2023 POS Software Trends Report.

"We want to give our fans more opportunities to enjoy those Fridays feels each and every day at our restaurants. The new Fridays Rewards program is our way of showing appreciation to our loyal guests and offering them more flexibility in what menu items they can enjoy on us," shared Lindsay Eichten, Director of Loyalty, CRM, and Paid Media at TGI Fridays, and  HT's  Top Women in Restaurant Technology Rising Star Award Winner. "With the revamped program, we are helping guests redeem rewards as often as possible, so they know they can always get a delicious deal and meal at Fridays."

As fans accumulate points, they have the flexibility to curate how they redeem them across two reward tiers.

How it works

• 75 Points: Score any appetizer, kid's meal, nonalcoholic beverage, or dessert for free
• 150 points: Score any entrée for free

To celebrate the launch of the refreshed program, TGI Fridays is helping guests earn their first free reward even faster. Any guest who makes a purchase between May 12 and June 12 will receive 150 bonus points – enough to enjoy a free entrée on their next visit.

The new Fridays Rewards also brings diners more everyday rewards, including either free chips & salsa or $3 off any appetizer, once per day, every day. For even more savings, the program will offer members personalized monthly offers that help them accumulate points faster.

Boostly has become the first website design agency to directly embed ChatGPT into its direct booking websites. 

The groundbreaking integration allows property managers to access a powerful AI-powered language model directly within the back end of their Boostly website, enabling them to effortlessly generate high-quality and SEO-optimized content. 

Property managers can instruct the AI tool to create detailed property listings, tailored blog posts, and branded website copy, saving crucial resources and empowering property managers to enhance their direct booking strategy in minutes. 

The integration comes as part of the launch of Boostly 3.0, the website design agency’s latest platform release, which features a number of updates including the capability to integrate multiple property management systems into one single website, and a Zapier integration that enables property managers to automate email marketing campaigns.

This announcement arrives during an impressive growth phase for the direct booking specialist, which is now generating an average of £39.2k per website for its customers and recently won the Best Web and App Solution Award at The Shortyz Awards 2023. 

Mark Simpson, Founder of Boostly, said: "A common pain point we see again and again at Boostly is property managers who don’t have extensive writing or marketing experience, yet want to write website and listing copy that converts. This integration represents a major step forward for our customers, as they can now leverage the power of AI to create content that drives direct bookings and maximizes revenue.

“Our goal has always been to provide the most effective and user-friendly website solutions for property managers, and embedding ChatGPT is a significant milestone in that effort.” 

Launched in 2016, Boostly is the only company globally that offers direct booking website design and online training for property owners and managers. The direct booking powerhouse provides online training, content creation, WordPress website design and CPD-accredited marketing services to thousands of businesses worldwide. 

Canary Technologies, a guest-management system, is integrating with Maestro PMS to provide hoteliers the tools they need to meet evolving guest needs and operational challenges.

This joint effort provides a 2-way integration between systems and puts the power of Canary’s Guest Management solutions like Check-In, Checkout, Upselling, Guest Messaging, Digital Tipping, and Digital Authorizations directly into the hands of Maestro’s property-management system customers. Thanks to this new partnership, hoteliers that rely on Maestro PMS can now boost revenue, improve the guest experience and increase staff efficiency with Canary.

“Digitizing the guest journey requires new and innovative approaches, and we’re proud to join Maestro PMS in an effort to support hotel operations and help hoteliers provide better guest experiences,” said Harman Singh Narula, Co-Founder of Canary Technologies. “Efficiency and adaptability are important advantages in today’s business environment for hotels, and this partnership will provide new ways for hoteliers to advance their competitiveness in the resurging post-pandemic travel era.”

“Maestro PMS is proud to name Canary Technologies our newest integration partner,” said Warren Dehan, Maestro president. “In today’s new normal, it’s critical that technologists find new ways to work together and help hoteliers deliver frictionless and memorable experiences that keep guests coming back. That starts by making hospitality jobs attractive once again to employees, and giving staff the digital tools they need to communicate more effectively with management, guests and each other. Together with Canary Technologies, Maestro is creating a more enjoyable and productive work environment while making hotel operations more streamlined, efficient, and fun.”