News Briefs

Hospitality technology provider SONIFI has announced the release of a new authentication and management platform (AMP) for its managed Wi-Fi and HSIA services.

SONIFI has been a rapidly growing provider of managed Wi-Fi services to branded and independent hotels, resorts, and other properties, quadrupling its HSIA customer base in less than five years.

As part of its continued commitment to guest internet solutions, SONIFI developed AMP to advance network management capabilities, including:

• Advanced network monitoring for prompt issue identification and response
• Dynamic real-time visualization of network topology for IT professionals to more easily and holistically view complex network infrastructures
• Advanced configurations for multi-zone and multi-site roaming for seamless connectivity for guests

“We made it simple for hoteliers to access essential functionality to operate managed Wi-Fi experiences, such as device authentication, splash page customizations, and network monitoring,” said Paul Johnson, Senior Vice President of Internet Services at SONIFI, “but AMP is really laying the groundwork for better guest Wi-Fi experiences in hotels.”

The enterprise-grade cloud solution is powered by AWS for maximum reliability and scalability. SONIFI’s breadth of media system PMS integrations will extend to AMP’s PMS connectivity so properties don’t have to manage multiple integrations for Wi-Fi and interactive TV features.

“Additional features are continually being added to AMP as we invest in greater automations, service reliability, and revenue drivers for our customers,” said Johnson. “We know the critical role Wi-Fi plays in guest satisfaction in hospitality. It’s a service SONIFI is committed to being the best at, and we’re especially proud of our engineering and development teams for continuing to push for better, more efficient, and more effective ways we can serve our customers.”

SONIFI began releasing its AMP solution to existing managed Wi-Fi customers this summer. AMP and SONIFI’s suite of guest technology solutions will be featured next week at HITEC in Toronto June 27–29, and at The Hospitality Show in Las Vegas June 28–29.

For electric vehicle owners in British Columbia, Tim Hortons is now fueling road trips in more ways than one.  The company has announced the expansion of its electric vehicle charging station pilot launched earlier this year in Oakville, Ontario, by unveiling six new charging stations at restaurants throughout  British Columbia.

Tim Hortons announced the pilot in February in an effort to study the technology, its usage and opportunities.

"We have been thrilled with the results of the pilot so far.  Usage of the charging station in Oakville has surpassed our expectations and we received many calls with requests to expand the pilot," said Paulo Ferreira, Senior Director, International Strategic Restaurant Design and Building Standards, Tim Hortons. "With more than 3,300 eligible restaurants across the country, we continue to look for opportunities to expand the pilot and contribute to the EV infrastructure."

The BC expansion, supported by the Province of BC's Community Charging Infrastructure Fund and Koben Systems Inc. (KSI), placed charging stations strategically in Nanaimo, Langford, North Vancouver, Burnaby, Abbotsford and Coquitlam to create paths within the province, allowing guests to travel from restaurant to restaurant strictly on electric power.

Tim Hortons offers charging stations as a courtesy to guests at six locations.  As of March 31st, 2013, Tim Hortons had 4,288 system-wide restaurants, including 3,453 in Canada, 808 in the United States and 27 in the Gulf Cooperation Council. 

Wade Allen has joined Costa Vida, Fresh Mexican Grill, as EVP of Strategic Growth, he shared on LinkedIn.

The industry innovator is a frequent contributor to Hospitality Technology. At MURTEC 2023, he was one of three digital transformers to take the stage to share how digital channels and experiences are evolving.  Allen, Justin Falciola, Chief Insights & Technology Officer, Papa Johns; and Vadim Parizher, VP of Technology, Taco Bell  talked about everything from robotics to labor challenges to what the future might hold.

"COVID gave us the opportunity to press the envelope with drones, robots in front and back of house, and delivering food, and ghost kitchens, etc. I think all these things have a place. We decided to either fail fast or succeed quickly. We found that the horizon was a lot longer than we anticipated for many technologies. So we went back to see what was really driving profitability, sales, guest experience and team member experience. We’re getting everything to work perfectly so we can move forward with confidence," Allen said during the session. 
 

• WATCH: Digital Transformers Take the Stage at MURTEC

Allen is also a member of Restaurant Technology Network's Board of Governors.  Check out more people on the move in the hospitality industry in HT.

Sojern, a digital marketing platform for the travel industry, announces the latest version of its Sojern Travel Marketing Platform with enhanced Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered audiences. Sojern has leveraged its long-standing AI capabilities to provide expanded support for more than 10,000 travel marketers annually. Customers include hotels and resorts of all sizes, destinations, attractions and airlines.

“Our customers needed to respond swiftly to the rapidly evolving digital marketing landscape, so during the pandemic, we expanded our automation and AI capabilities. It all begins with data, specifically the Sojern Traveler Ecosystem™, which powers our platform with billions of travel intent signals from thousands of travel brands in every corner of the globe,” said Kurt Weinsheimer, Chief Solutions Officer at Sojern. “While AI is making headlines now, we’ve been harnessing its capabilities for years and are excited to announce these new updates. We have competitors that are just now building AI functionality, and I can tell you firsthand that it takes several years to develop and refine the sophisticated AI models that power our platform. Our 15 years of experience and deep technological expertise gives us a significant advantage in delivering results with AI-powered audiences in the latest iteration of our Platform.”

Sojern’s AI-powered audiences offer travel marketers a strategic advantage in optimizing their marketing investments. By leveraging AI technology, marketers can make informed decisions on resource allocation, effectively targeting the right customer segments for maximum return on investment and business impact. Through automated audience segmentation and optimization, brands engage with relevant audiences in real time, achieving greater precision, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. In response to increasing demand for personalized experience, and 71% expressing their expectation of personalization from companies, Sojern’s data-driven approach enables brands to deliver highly tailored campaigns at scale while adhering to data privacy regulations. The result is a more strategic and impactful marketing strategy that drives new traveler acquisition, boosts direct bookings, and maximizes guest loyalty.

Here are the three key enhancements to Sojern’s AI-powered audiences, built to address travel marketers’ objectives, on the Sojern Travel Marketing Platform:

1. Integration of 1st Party Offline Data: By integrating customers’ offline data - including unified access to historical booking data across various distribution channels - Sojern empowers marketers to gain greater visibility and develop more robust audiences. Combining offline data with AI-powered audiences provides deeper insights into consumer behavior and preferences, facilitating the creation of highly targeted and personalized campaigns. The platform also enriches and scores offline customer data, helping marketers identify and prioritize conversion-ready customers. Overall, this integration empowers travel marketers to build a holistic and data-driven marketing solution, leading to improved engagement and better business outcomes.
2. Enhanced Support for Reactivation: Sojern’s Platform enables marketers a distinctive capability to leverage AI-powered audiences to reactivate prior guests and loyalty members. This capability allows advertisers to identify and engage with previous customers who are currently in the market, driving loyalty throughout the customer journey. By combining reactivation with AI-powered prospecting and retargeting, Sojern’s full funnel strategy ensures increased return on investment and heightened customer satisfaction.
3. Expanded Audience Activation: Sojern’s AI-powered audiences can now be activated with more control and flexibility in activation through the Traveler Audiences To-Go offering. Advertisers can activate these audiences across multiple advertising platforms of their choice, such as DV360, Xandr, Meta and YouTube, broadening their reach and providing greater convenience and flexibility.

Another significant benefit of Sojern’s AI-powered audiences is the integration with extensive data partnerships. By enriching retargeting, reactivation and prospecting audiences with data from Sojern’s Traveler Ecosystem, advertisers gain a broader view of customers beyond their owned channels or walled garden media platforms. The use of durable identifiers illuminates blind spots in a privacy-compliant manner, enhancing audience quality and enabling real-time identification of consumers in-market. As a result, AI-powered audiences effectively reach the right audience at the right time with the right message.

“At Sojern, we’ve always believed in AI’s potential to enhance the travel experience. The latest iteration of our Platform benefits both our travel marketing customers and their end consumers,” Weinsheimer added.

Leveraging data-driven digital advertising, Sojern has consistently adapted to meet the changing marketing needs of travel brands. Today, Sojern has evolved into a robust platform business. To discover more about the benefits of AI-powered Audiences for your travel marketing campaigns, get in touch.

Actabl, an integrated suite of business intelligence, labor management and hotel operations management software, marks one year since launch and sets the stage for future innovation. The company unites four renowned software solutions — ProfitSword, Hotel Effectiveness, Alice and Transcendent — to streamline operations, enhance profitability and empower the people who power the hospitality industry. Today, Actabl serves more than 12,000 properties.

While the Actabl brand is new, its award-winning solutions are well-established. In assembling its software suite, Actabl’s core focus has been providing unmatched, forward-looking executive visibility and enhancing customers’ day-to-day operations to unlock opportunities for growth and success. With more than 1,000 years of collective industry experience, the team at Actabl prioritizes resources and investments to deliver customers the support, stability, and security required to thrive in today’s climate. 

"I am proud of the work our team is doing to better serve our customers and am excited about the future," said Steven Moore, CEO of Actabl. "We are constantly striving to drive hotel profitability, efficiency, and associate engagement by focusing on equipping the people who are serving the guests with innovative solutions."

Bridging Technologies

Understanding that together the solutions provide immense value to customers, Actabl is delivering advances to build the most comprehensive, unified platform in the industry. The organization is introducing Actabl Authentication, a unified interface with a single sign-on that allows customers to easily navigate between Actabl products within the platforms. The products are also rolling out a unified desktop user interface for a more seamless experience across all Actabl products. 

Honoring its commitment to provide a seamless comprehensive data solution for hoteliers, Actabl now offers over 270 integrations. Adding 36 new integrations since its 2022 launch, the team applies customer recommendations to focus on integrations with external companies/products that will make life easier for its customers.

Innovating to Empower Hoteliers 

Actabl believes that hotels can be more profitable, and hoteliers are more fulfilled, when they operate seamlessly using modern technology. Motivated by this belief, the company is building innovative tools and features to improve customers’ operations and enterprise. 

Actabl developed ShiftSwap in response to the ongoing coverage crisis of increased labor demand, limited labor pools, and fluctuating staff availability, making it nearly impossible for managers to maintain proper staffing levels. ShiftSwap enables hotel team members to maximize operations, easily swap shifts and better forecast labor. This innovation is part of its larger suite of labor management software solutions designed to help hotels optimize costs, leverage contract labor, streamline operations, and improve guest satisfaction.

To offer even greater value to customers, Actabl has integrated ProfitSword with Hotel Effectiveness and ALICE with Transcendent, to create enhanced labor forecasting and a unified operations platform, respectively. These internal integrations bring disparate data to one normalized system, facilitating strategic operations and decisions by above and on-property managers based on up-to-date data.

“Our ongoing efforts to integrate and enhance our products and technologies are guided by our focus on effectiveness and outcomes for hoteliers, managers and their staff,” said Anu Sharma, senior vice president of technology and delivery. “We’re adding more visibility and strategic direction for above-property leaders and arming on-property managers with actionable insights that allow them to exceed their goals — all while providing a seamless experience with single login and the same look and feel across all of Actabl.”

In honor of its one-year anniversary, Actabl launched a new website at Actabl.com for prospects and customers to learn more about its suite of solutions. The Actabl team will host a Product and Customer Experience Lounge at HITEC  in Toronto, where they launched the company last year. The lounge will offer office hours with the customer experience team and highlight continuous improvement to its core products and service support for its customers, as well as innovations across the Actabl suite. In addition, the team is proudly a supporter and contributor to the AHLA as a title sponsor of the AHLA on the Road series, and will concurrently have a leadership presence as part of the future innovations in hospitality technology panel as well as a booth at the inaugural Hospitality Show in Las Vegas. Attendees of both shows can book time with the team: Book time at HITEC; Book time at Hospitality Show.