News Briefs

Group business is top of mind for hoteliers in 2024, with new research finding that hoteliers are prioritizing ways to strengthen customer relationships, to improve outreach with new and repeat business, and to plan and execute events more effectively.

Recognizing this, Amadeus has harnessed over three decades of expertise to develop an enhanced Delphi solution. Designed to support teams from sales lead to execution, Delphi has been updated to better meet the needs of any hotel, no matter the size. Whether a small property with limited resources, a full-service hotel orchestrating large gatherings, or a hotel management company tracking portfolio performance, Delphi can be tailored and scalable to meet a wide range of needs.

At the core of the elevated offering is a modern user interface built on the Einstein 1 Platform*, enabling Delphi customers to get the combined benefit of Amadeus and Salesforce feature releases. Other highlights include:

• Widened accessibility and expanded integrations for limited-service properties
• Tailored training options from self-onboarding to expert-led masterclasses
• Centralized and unified database to grow relationships and repeat business
• Comprehensive performance reports to identify trends and enable accurate forecasting

In addition, Amadeus is also expanding its sales and catering suite of solutions with the debut of Delphi Direct. The online booking platform enables hoteliers to transform how they capture group business by allowing meeting spaces to be booked directly on a hotel’s website. This simplifies the entire sales process and unlocks more revenue while allowing teams to focus on capturing larger deals.

“At Amadeus, we’re proud of our investment in this enhanced Delphi with new capabilities and a totally new look,” says Iain Saxton, Senior Vice President of On-Property Solutions, Hospitality, Amadeus. "Delphi has always been a trusted name in the industry, and this latest innovation now extends our full-service sales and catering solution to all types of hotels. Our customers will enjoy improved sales, meeting and event planning, with the ability to sell online. The upgrades allow for true digital transformation.”

Along with Delphi, Amadeus offers a powerful sales and catering software ecosystem, including the new Delphi Direct, Delphi Diagramming, and MeetingBroker, as well as partner integrations designed to usher in a new era of streamlined business growth and management.  

*Salesforce, Einstein and others are among the trademarks of Salesforce, inc.

Pita Pit, a Mediterranean fast-casual brand specializing in made-to-order pita sandwiches, promoted Meghan Haugen to the position of Chief Operating Officer. In her new role, Meghan will be responsible for overseeing the Operations, Marketing, and Franchising departments, and helping to drive the strategic direction and growth of the company.

With nearly two decades of experience in the restaurant and hospitality industry, Meghan brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her new role. She has been an integral part of Pita Pit's success, demonstrating exceptional leadership and a relentless commitment to operational excellence.

"I am honored and excited to take on this new role as Chief Operating Officer," said Meghan Haugen. "I look forward to working with our talented team to continue building on our success, driving innovation, and delivering more value to our customers and franchisees."

Since joining Pita Pit, Meghan has held various leadership roles, where she has consistently delivered impressive results. Her deep understanding of the brand, coupled with her ability to foster strong relationships with franchisees, vendors, and partners, has positioned her as a key leader within the organization.

"Meghan's promotion is a testament to her hard work, dedication, and outstanding contributions to Pita Pit," said Peter Riggs, CEO of Pita Pit. "Her strategic vision and operational expertise will be instrumental in pushing our growth and ensuring that we continue to deliver a better experience to our customers and franchisees."

In her new role, Meghan will focus on enhancing operational efficiencies, driving continuous improvement initiatives, and supporting the growth and success of Pita Pit's franchise network. She will work closely with the executive team to develop and execute the company's strategic plan, ensuring alignment with the company's vision and goals. 

Pictured:  Meghan Haugen, Chief Operating Officer of Pita Pit USA

Denny’s Inc. announced the appointment of two new executive leaders: Monigo G. Saygbay-Hallie, Ph.D. joins as executive vice president, chief people officer for Denny’s Corp. effective August 5, and Patty Trevino joins as Denny’s senior vice president, chief brand officer, effective August 12.  

Celebrated human resources, talent manager and culture leader Monigo G. Saygbay-Hallie will serve as executive vice president, chief people officer for Denny’s at the enterprise level, leading people initiatives across Denny’s and Keke’s Breakfast Café. Saygbay-Hallie brings more than 20 years of restaurant and retail experience in leading teams and developing talent. She joins Denny’s, having most recently served as chief people officer at Checkers & Rally’s Drive-In restaurants. Before Checkers, she served in HR leadership roles at Sysco Corporation, and YUM! Brands. 

“It is a tremendous opportunity to join a legacy brand like Denny’s and Keke’s as a growing brand. I’m most looking forward to helping to expand and elevate the culture and benefit the brand’s people,” said Saygbay-Hallie.  

New Brand Leader

The company also welcomes accomplished marketing and brand leader Patty Trevino as Denny’s senior vice president, chief brand officer. Trevino brings two decades of experience in the restaurant industry and most recently served as executive vice president, chief marketing officer at Red Lobster. She has also held marketing leadership roles at Carl’s, Jr., Bloomin’ Brands and Burger King. Trevino’s position focuses on Denny’s restaurants, overseeing all facets of branding including strategy, public relations, social and digital marketing, consumer experience and product innovation.  

“Denny’s is THE iconic American restaurant brand. They are America’s diner. Being part of this stellar team, strengthening our guests' value proposition, delivering craveable food, and enhancing brand love and affinity will be a true honor,” said Trevino.  

Both roles will report to Kelli Valade, Denny’s Inc. president and CEO. “Monigo and Patty are proven leaders who will contribute immediately to our company and brand strategies,” said Valade. “They both have invaluable experience that will provide a positive impact on our teams, franchisees and guests. We are giving them a warm welcome to the Denny’s family.”  

Commonwealth Hotels, a Covington, Kentucky-based hotel management company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Jon Gustin as vice president of operations. In his new role, Jon will oversee the operational excellence and strategic growth initiatives of Commonwealth Hotels, bringing with him a wealth of experience and a proven track record in the hospitality industry.

Jon Gustin joins Commonwealth Hotels with a distinguished career spanning over 15 years in various senior leadership positions. Most recently, Jon served as the senior director of operations for Placemakr, where he was instrumental in driving operational efficiencies and growing the company from a start-up. Prior to that, he held key roles including director of hotel division for Blue Water Development, regional director for Dimension Development, and area general manager for TPG Hotels and Resorts. Jon has also held various leadership positions with White Lodging, contributing significantly to their operational success.

"We are thrilled to welcome Jon Gustin to the Commonwealth Hotels family," said Jennifer Porter, president of Commonwealth Hotels. "His extensive background in hotel operations, coupled with his strategic vision and leadership skills, make him an ideal fit for this pivotal role. We are confident that Jon will play a key role in driving our continued growth and delivering exceptional experiences for our guests."

Jon Gustin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Hospitality Business from Michigan State University and a Juris Doctorate from Texas Southern University. His unique blend of hospitality expertise and legal acumen will further strengthen Commonwealth Hotels' commitment to operation excellence and guest satisfaction.

"I'm excited to join Commonwealth Hotels and work alongside such a talented team," said Jon Gustin. "I look forward to leveraging my experience to drive operations efficiencies, enhance guest experiences, and contribute to the overall success and growth of the organization."

Guestline, part of Access Group, has introduced a host of self-service options to its GuestStay offering, incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to further reduce pressure on hotel staff while empowering guests.

The self-service portal from Guestline, part of the GuestStay product, enables guests to manage their hotel reservation with options to modify or update dates, rate plan or room type, and to pre-order additional products and services like breakfast or parking in advance of their stay. With greater automation embedded, AI identifies, categorises, and creates actionable requests in the Property Management System (PMS), saving valuable time administering each booking and ensuring guests’ needs are recognised and fulfilled more efficiently.

In addition to managing their stay, guests can secure a restaurant booking through ResDiary, a leading provider of bookings and table management software to clients in the hospitality sector and also part of Access Group, which is now fully integrated with the portal to offer a seamless experience for table reservations. 

Chris Jones, Senior Product Manager at Guestline, said: “By empowering the guest to manage their own stay, our hotel partners are not only liberated from administrative tasks, they also benefit from faster access to more accurate first-party data, which can drive better efficiency and personalisation. With AI we can provide even further automation to support hotel teams. This means staff can focus on what’s most important - providing guests with a memorable, engaging experience. In trials, the self-service has proven particularly popular with corporate travellers who appreciate the ability to make amendments in a few clicks and to make specific requests ahead of their arrival.”

Through the guest self-service portal, hotels are able to surface more of their F&B offering and wider ancillary products and services throughout the digital guest journey to secure demand and drive increased TRevPAR while delivering an enhanced guest experience. This is especially relevant for online travel agent (OTA) bookings, where bookings are often room only.

Jones said: “As well as happier guests and refocused staff, hotels using the guest portal see increases in restaurant bookings thanks to the integration with ResDiary. We are already seeing properties with around 25% of their table bookings now coming via the GuestStay portal, with even more upsell options to the portal to drive additional revenue already in development.  At a time when room-only margins are tight, every little uplift on guest spend counts - and with staffing issues still prevailing in hospitality, reducing ‘zombie jobs’ and creating more autonomy for guests is a vital part of our vision for GuestStay and the portal.”  

As well as guest self-service, the portal enables hoteliers to prompt guests to complete admin processes from their own devices in their own time, such as pre-arrival digital registration, checking their spend during stay, and settling their bill and checking out on the day of departure.   

Hundreds of Guestline customers are already benefiting from these tools, with the company continuing to innovate and invest in improving guest communications. With digital registration completion averaging 31%, staff and guests alike enjoy much faster check-ins. By collecting up to 100% more real guest email addresses, hotels are also driving more repeat business through their direct channels rather than via online travel agencies (OTAs).  

Additional functionality and features are planned for later in 2024, enabling hoteliers to further improve the visibility of its wider ancillary services and F&B offering and grow revenues through automating upsells and upgrades.

Grazzy, the digital payments platform for hospitality and service-focused businesses, announced the completion of a $4MM Seed round led by Next Coast Ventures with participation from AZ-VC, InRevenue Capital, Iron Skillet Partners, and Tuesday Capital. The latest funding will help Grazzy expand its team, accelerate new customer onboarding, and scale partnerships, integrations and go-to-market strategies to continue the company’s exponential growth.

Grazzy's grew its customer base 100X in the last 18 months, a reflection of confidence in the hospitality market that digital tipping is a powerful tool for labor retention, and that Grazzy's uniquely flexible and scalable solution is the best fit for large enterprises. That enterprise trust in Grazzy was further reinforced last Fall, when the company became the only digital tipping provider to be approved by all four of the major global hotel brands.

“We’re meeting a seriously understaffed market with a solution that can truly deliver more money, more often to front-line employees,” says Grazzy Founder and CEO Russell Lemmer. “On the Grazzy platform, we’ve moved millions of dollars directly to thousands of worker wallets. And we did that while saving our enterprise customers thousands of dollars a month in recruitment and retention costs. This latest funding will support new customer acquisition, feature development, and ecosystem partner integrations that will further accelerate Grazzy’s remarkable growth.”

Grazzy's innovative platform has proven clear benefits to its customers, enabling businesses to improve employee satisfaction and retention through efficient, same-day payment solutions. By addressing the industry's need for modern, secure tipping options, Grazzy helps companies save on recruitment and retention costs while ensuring that front-line workers receive their earnings promptly.

"Carnation Auto Spa has experienced a remarkable boost in employee take-home pay since partnering with Grazzy," said Drew Shepard, Operating Partner at Iron Skillet Partners and CEO for Carnation Auto Spa. "We've seen a 5x increase in tips and a 4x increase in the total value of tips earned by our staff. The addition of digital tipping options has also significantly improved safety across our 20+ locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by minimizing the amount of cash on-site and reducing the risk of theft."

"AZ-VC is delighted to invest in Grazzy's latest funding round. They are a power player in the market, offering modern solutions compared to the outdated habit of tipping cash. Grazzy's ability to quickly and seamlessly scale across different areas and size of service makes them a valuable partner to any business looking to incorporate digital tipping solutions", says Ashok Santhanam, Venture Partner at AZ-VC.