News Briefs

Sonder Holdings Inc., a next-generation hospitality company that is redefining the guest experience through technology and design, announced the appointment of Tom Buoy as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, effective December 11, 2023.

Buoy has resigned from Sonder’s Board of Directors and transitioned into this newly created position in the company’s leadership team. As Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Buoy will be responsible for all aspects of revenue generation and strategy, including revenue management, marketing, sales, and distribution.

Buoy has over 30 years of experience in the hospitality sector. He was previously Interim Chief Executive Officer and Board Director for Radisson Hotel Group Americas, where he was responsible for the corporate offices and more than 680 hotels in the company’s portfolio throughout the Americas. Additionally, Buoy served as Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer at Radisson Hotel Group Americas, and was part of the company’s Executive Committee. During his career, he led the commercial transformation at Extended Stay America, and also served as Senior Vice President, Customer Marketing and Revenue Management for Morgans Hotel Group (previously Ian Schrager Hotels).

“Tom is one of hospitality’s most seasoned commercial leaders, so I’m thrilled to welcome him to our management team. In Q3, our revenue grew 29% year-over-year as we continued to make progress towards our goal of sustainable positive free cash flow. We have significant revenue opportunities ahead of us, and Tom’s leadership and deep hospitality experience will help us to deliver results,” said Francis Davidson, Co-Founder and CEO of Sonder.

“As I experienced firsthand during my time on its Board, Sonder is an incredibly dynamic business, with a bold mission to revolutionize hospitality for the next generation. I’m excited to transition into the company to oversee all aspects of topline revenue growth, combining industry best practices with disruptive thinking, at this key moment in Sonder’s journey to profitability,” said Tom Buoy, incoming Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Sonder.

This transition comes about with the upcoming departure of Shruti Challa, Chief Revenue Officer. She will support during the transition in an advisory capacity.

“Shruti has been an outstanding executive at Sonder, having built a phenomenal team from the ground up, and skillfully navigated the pandemic where we outperformed all benchmarks. I'm incredibly proud of what she's done for the company, and I am excited to see the new opportunities she pursues,” said Francis Davidson, Co-Founder and CEO of Sonder.

Domino's Pizza Inc. introduces its new and improved loyalty program. 

Domino's Rewards offers loyalty members even more opportunities to earn and redeem points across its corporate and franchise store locations. Domino's enhanced rewards program allows customers to:

• Earn points for less
  • Loyalty members will now earn 10 points on every order of $5 or more
• Redeem points for even more menu items – and earn free Domino's after just two orders
  • Members can redeem a variety of points for more menu items:
    • 20 points: A free dipping cup, a 16-piece order of Parmesan Bread Bites or a 20 oz. drink
    • 40 points: An order of Bread Twists or Stuffed Cheesy Bread
    • 60 points: A medium, two-topping pizza; pasta; Oven-Baked Sandwich; or a 3-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
• Earn more rewards
  • Loyalty perks are now even better, as members will have exclusive access to member-only deals, special discounts and opportunities to earn bonus points!

"We are thrilled to give the brand's loyal customers additional ways to earn free Domino's items more often," said Mark Messing, Domino's vice president of digital experience and loyalty. "At a time when most brands are scaling back their loyalty programs and making it more difficult to earn and redeem points, Domino's is doing the opposite. We want to make it easier to reward our customers and give them more options so they can get rewarded faster."

Marketing a LTO 

From now until Oct. 22, 2023, rewards members can take advantage of a limited time offer to redeem 20 points for a free order of Domino's new Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread, which is normally a 40-point redemption, in celebration of the product's recent launch. 

Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, an early adopter of Hi Auto’s drive-thru voice AI ordering technology, plans to launch Hi Auto's new voice cloning feature as a test in its select Ohio drive-thru locations. Guests who visit Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken Ohio locations will be greeted with the voice of sports broadcaster and former NFL player Keith Byars. 

Hi Auto’s voice cloning solution enables QSRs to incorporate fully customized voice options into their drive-thru voice AI ordering technology, resulting in a more  personalized and novel ordering experience, ultimately enhancing customer engagement.

“Lee's has been blessed to partner with Hi Auto since December of 2020, utilizing their AI voice recognition technology to help our employees and restaurants through the pandemic. We look forward to implementing their latest innovation to make our customer's drive-thru experience the most unique experience in the Dayton market,” said Lee’s Famous Recipe  Chicken Owner and Operator Chuck Doran. "We’ve partnered with Keith Byars since his radio program launched 2018. The integrity, quality and excellence Keith brought to the football field and continues to bring to his broadcasts is what we strive to provide every customer that visits Lee’s. This is just one more step in that quest.”

"Three years ago, Lee's embarked on a pioneering journey with Hi Auto, leveraging their cutting-edge artificial intelligence for our drive-thru orders, marking a milestone in operational efficiency and customer service," said Ryan Weaver, CEO of Lee's Famous Recipe Chicken. "This collaboration not only enhanced our labor efficiency by saving approximately 5-6 hours daily, but also significantly improved order consistency and upselling conversions."

Hi Auto’s voice AI ordering technology, which is deployed in over 400 drive-thru locations across the U.S., is transforming how QSRs serve their customers by helping to optimize the deployment of valuable staff hours and improve the speed and accuracy of orders. Voice AI reduces the time employees spend taking orders from customers which translates to faster drive-through and pick-ups, shorter queues, and greater workforce efficiency, so employees can spend more time on more critical tasks. 

AI voice cloning provides:

• Geographical Comfort – providing voice or accent familiar to a particular region
• Unique brand identity – leveraging personal custom voice to strengthen brand recognition
• A more conversational experience
• Better adoption of AI because it is more humanized
• A more enriched drive-thru experience with a voice strategy that can change at different times of the day, during holidays, etc.
• Local opportunity for "hometown" importance

Waffle House selected Olo to power digital ordering and payment across all of its locations nationwide. Marking the iconic restaurant brand’s first significant investment in digital, Waffle House will leverage Olo's  Order, Pay—including Borderless accounts—and Expo to streamline ordering and simplify payments for both guests and employees at scale.

“Waffle House is focused on providing exceptional hospitality and good food at a great value to our Customers. Providing them with the best possible dine-in experience will always be our priority. Yet, we also recognize our Customers sometimes choose to enjoy our food outside of our four walls. So, we are thrilled to partner with Olo and offer an exceptional, online ordering experience to meet that need. Digital ordering and pay will streamline the ordering process from start to finish for our Customers and Associates,” said Patrick Marshburn, VP of Innovation & Strategy, Waffle House. “Digital innovation across our brand is a big step for Waffle House and, with Olo as a partner, we are excited about leveraging the strategic and financial value of Olo’s reliable platform as we offer digital ordering to our Customers.”

Olo’s flexible platform serves as the ideal foundation for Waffle House to develop its next-level digital offerings. Waffle House is now offering direct online ordering for the first time through Olo Serve, Olo’s white-label web browser interface, and will soon launch its own Serve-based app for download in Q1 2024.

With core ordering and Olo Pay payment processing, Waffle House will not only drive meaningful operational efficiencies across the front- and back-of-house, but also dramatically enhance the guest experience by offering the ability to place their orders online for pick-up to enjoy at-home or on-the-go with their Olo Borderless accounts. With these accounts, Waffle House will simplify the checkout process for guests by eliminating the need to remember a password or manually enter credit card information at every purchase for a frictionless experience.

To date, Waffle House has deployed Olo’s Order and Pay product suites across approximately 1,600 of its 1,950+ locations, and Olo will continue to work closely with the brand to complete deployment at its remaining locations.

A Pure Green juice bar franchise has selected Voicify as its conversational voice AI provider.

Voicify AI Answering uses natural language to field customer questions such as 'What hours are you open?'; 'Do you deliver?'; 'Tell me about your menu.'; and 'May I place an order?'. At customer request, Voicify AI Answering sends an SMS text with a link to the Pure Green menu, store directions, and online ordering platform. The system continually learns and improves based on customer questions.

Pure Green has more than 100 franchise locations in 15 states.  

Voicify AI Answering is available through a monthly fee that it says will quickly pay for itself in crew labor savings and additional customer spend.

• 35% of restaurant operators surveyed say general AI   is driving POS purchasing decisions, according to HT's 2024 POS Software Trends Survey

As consumers have become more comfortable with non-human customer service and Artificial Intelligence solutions in general, they are more open to interacting conversationally by phone with a frontline AI assistant. Voicify AI Answering is optimized to handle natural human speech. This means that customers can speak normally without modifying their speech at all. As needed or at customer request, the AI Answering assistant can connect the caller with human store staff.

Voicify AI Answering will enable Pure Green franchises to harness voice AI to free up store staff to fulfill orders and serve in-store guests without neglecting customers who call the store. 

"We're on a mission to build healthier communities by connecting people with superfoods," said Pure Green Franchise Founder Ross Franklin. "Voicify AI Answering helps us fulfill our mission by making it incredibly easy for our customers to connect with their local Pure Green Franchise superfoods location and our healthy cold-pressed juices and smoothies. The vast majority of caller questions - hours of operation, directions, and so on - can be answered by Voicify AI. It's like having an extension of our team."

Voicify's suite of tools transforms guest experiences across multiple points of service with seamless deployment and can scale to any size restaurant operation. Designed to deploy quickly and integrate directly with existing phone, POS, kiosk and other restaurant technologies,  Voicify sets the standard for conversational AI by learning quickly and delivering intelligent and reliable performance for any situation.

Waramaug Hospitality, a privately held hotel investor and asset manager in the U.S., announced that current partner and principal Ferit Ferhangil will become its Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1. Ferhangil will succeed Leslie Ng, who will assume the position of Co-Vice Chairman and will focus on the company’s acquisitions by leveraging his extensive contacts. In addition to Ng and Ferhangil, the company board will include Evren Unver as Co-Vice Chairman and Paul Nussbaum as Chairman.

The strategic decision reflects the company’s continued commitment to its future growth as a best-in-class hotel investor positioned to capitalize on today’s challenging market conditions. It is also the culmination of a year-long planned transition, which follows two years during which HazelStream Capital and its principals Evren Unver and Ferit Ferhangil became deeply engaged as partners of Waramaug.

Waramaug Hospitality is recognized for its ability to source unique investment opportunities, add value through upgrades to its portfolio hotels, and deliver industry-leading risk-adjusted returns for its capital partners.

“Over the course of the past few years, Paul and I have gotten to know Evren and Ferit well and feel extremely fortunate to have found like-minded partners who share the same global vision, ambitious outlook, and moral compass for all that we do at Waramaug,” said Leslie Ng, Co-Vice Chairman, Waramaug Hospitality. “With his broad-based experience, Ferit is the perfect individual to take our company to the next level; our future is bright with Ferit at the helm.”

“It has been a pleasure for Evren and me to work with the talented and seasoned team at Waramaug for the past two years following our investment into Waramaug in 2021 and into its portfolio hotels since then. I look forward to working with my partners Paul, Leslie, and Evren to further grow Waramaug,” said Ferit Ferhangil, CEO, Waramaug Hospitality. “The Waramaug platform is built on the depth and quality of the relationships we have built with capital partners, lenders, hotel franchisors, management companies, and the brokerage community. Our success is attributable to these relationships and our team's integrity, reliability, expertise, and acumen. I look forward to building upon Paul and Leslie’s decades of leadership and thank them and Evren for their trust in me to lead the next evolution of our business.”

With more than 30 years of experience in commercial real estate, hospitality, and finance, Ferhangil joined Waramaug in 2021 as a partner and principal, following HazelStream Capital’s investment in the company. He has previously been a CEO or board member of several real estate companies, hospitality industry groups, and financial institutions. Ferit has a master’s in business administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.