News Briefs

SpotOn has been named the Preferred Technology Partner of the Texas Restaurant Association (TRA), the state's leading advocate for the restaurant industry. The two organizations celebrated the partnership with a gathering at the annual Texas Restaurant Show in Houston, the annual restaurant and foodservice show. This collaboration between SpotOn and TRA aims to empower Texas restaurant operators with the technology needed to boost profit, streamline operations, and manage staff in a fast-paced, dynamic industry.

As the restaurant industry rapidly evolves, technology has become essential for restaurants to adapt and grow. SpotOn offers a comprehensive suite of tools and services designed specifically for the unique needs of the hospitality sector. By partnering with TRA, SpotOn aims to deliver transformative solutions that will enable the nearly 55,000 restaurants of Texas to drive sustainable growth.

"As a native Texan, I’m incredibly proud that The Texas Restaurant Association has recognized SpotOn as their Preferred Technology Partner," said Bryan Solar, Chief Product Officer of SpotOn, TRA Board Member, and Austin Resident. "The TRA's commitment to supporting and future-proofing the Texas restaurant industry aligns closely with SpotOn's mission to provide restaurants with the innovative technology necessary to run smarter, more delightful, and more efficient operations. SpotOn does all this while saving restaurants valuable time, money, and mindspace. Together, we will empower Texas restaurants to thrive for years to come in an increasingly competitive landscape."

SpotOn's restaurant management system combines point-of-sale (POS) systems, commission-free and fee-free online ordering and reservations, labor management software, and more. SpotOn technology helps restaurants streamline daily operations, reduce overhead costs, and enables their team to focus on what matters most – providing exceptional guest experiences. In addition to its technology suite, SpotOn offers a range of customer engagement and marketing tools to help restaurants increase customer loyalty and drive repeat business. From digital loyalty programs and targeted email campaigns to online ordering and gift cards, SpotOn provides the tools and expertise to help restaurants adapt and thrive in today's digital-first world.

"SpotOn's commitment to innovation, exceptional customer service, and their deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by the restaurant industry made them the ideal partner," said Emily Williams Knight, President and CEO of The Texas Restaurant Association. "We look forward to working together to equip Texas restaurants with the tools they need to succeed."

SpotOn's partnership with TRA reflects a shared mission in supporting Texas restaurants and promoting the industry's growth. Together, they aim to empower restaurants with the resources, expertise, and technology solutions necessary to overcome challenges and drive success in an ever-changing market.

SpotOn is investing in programming and activations to inspire Texas restaurant owners and operators to run their businesses with flexible technology, actionable data and personalized service. 

Shiji, a global hospitality technology innovator, has partnered with IPORT, an award-winning manufacturer known for enhancing the usability of iPads and iPhones, to introduce an all-in-one software solution for hotel restaurants. This collaboration will provide hoteliers with a seamless combination of a tablet and payment device to maximize their F&B operations.

The integrated iOS and payment device solution simplifies guest service for hotel restaurant servers, providing them with an effortless tool to cater to their guests' needs. As a certified Apple partner, Shiji and IPORT guarantee exceptional performance and reliability. Hoteliers can choose from multiple device options, including iPad Pro, iPad Mini, and iPhone, ensuring flexibility and compatibility with their operations.

“IPORT products are built around modularity and flexibility that empower our hospitality customers to do more with the iOS platform. We are thrilled to partner with a leading iPad and iPhone cloud PMS and POS platform provider like Shiji,” said Chris Lawson, Head of Partnerships, IPORT. “We look forward to innovating with Shiji in disrupting legacy, monolithic providers who have limited the industry from harnessing the power of iOS and mobility. The future is bright, and the possibilities are endless with IPORT, iOS, and Shiji.”

"The partnership with IPORT is a significant milestone for Shiji in our commitment to provide innovative technology solutions for the hospitality industry," said Ryan King, Senior Vice President of Shiji in the Americas. "By combining our expertise with IPORT’s hardware solutions, we empower hoteliers to streamline restaurant operations and deliver exceptional guest experiences. This collaboration represents another step forward in our dedication to driving success in the Americas, and globally."

The tablet and payment device solution seamlessly integrates with multiple payment gateways, allowing hoteliers to choose the system that best suits their needs. By simplifying the payment process, it reduces operational complexities, minimizes errors, and saves valuable time and resources for hoteliers.

Steak n Shake will offer PopID Check In and PopPay on its self-ordering kiosks in select locations in the Orlando market, with plans to expand to more than 300 corporate locations. PopID Check In is an opt-in service that enables consumers to scan their face to automatically sign into their loyalty reward account and see their past orders, making the ordering process as convenient as possible. When a guest checks in with PopID, they also have the option to use PopPay to automatically complete their payment.

• 57% of respondents say enabling new payment options is a  top business driver impacting POS upgrade decisions, according to HT’s2 2023 POS Software Trends Report.

“Our partnership with PopID is a key part of our effort to provide guests with a fast and seamless ordering experience," said Keith Correia, Chief Information Officer. "When using PopID Check In, a guest does not need to use their phone or take out their wallet as part of the ordering process. They will automatically be checked in for loyalty rewards, and they can choose to make an automated payment with PopPay. A guest can even see their past orders and quickly reorder their favorite menu items. Ordering at Steak n Shake has never been easier or more convenient.”

In addition to enhancing the guest experience and improving order throughput, PopPay helps to reduce fraud and offers lower payment processing fees.

Yum! Brands  Inc. announced  the latest step in its strategy to enhance the digital experiences of customers by selecting Treasure Data  as its Customer Data Platform provider to help drive customer acquisition, growth and retention.

Many QSRs have unknown diners in their customer base, and being able to personalize marketing to them is important in order to increase brand loyalty and frequency. Treasure Data’s advanced AI and machine learning capabilities can provide rich, actionable insights that deliver engaging, personalized content to customers. The Treasure Data Customer Data Cloud is designed to unify all first-, second- and third-party data, creating a single view of a customer across multiple brands. The data unification and enrichment are designed to help discover unknown audiences and will assist in achieving a centralized view of customer data across the Yum! Brands concepts.

“This is the latest advancement in our strategy to drive toward enhanced digital experiences and deliver exceptional value to our customers, as the Company remains focused on our vision to have 100% of sales powered by digital,” said Cameron Davies, Chief Data Officer, Yum! Brands. “Treasure Data’s state-of-the-art CDP solution brings unparalleled capabilities to unify, manage and activate customer data across our four brands and third-party platforms, empowering our ability to gain deep insights into customer behavior and preferences. This CDP solution will enhance both our understanding and engagement with Yum!’s customers, ultimately driving more personalized and unique interactions. We are excited to leverage our global scale to continue to make progress in the CDP space and unlock additional value while working with a company that shares our commitment to customer data safety, security and privacy.”

Powered by its global scale, Yum! Brands is investing in technologies that enable easy experiences for customers, easy operations for restaurant teams and easy insights to drive outsized growth. The Company’s strategy is to build in-house, acquire or partner on technologies that provide a strategic advantage. While Yum! is focused on owning the majority of its tech solutions, it does partner with select third-party tech providers like Treasure Data. This latest move will result in AI-powered predictions that enable the Company to engage with customers across its brands’ loyalty programs and personalize campaigns and experiences just for them, ensuring they receive the right offers at the right time.

Infor^® announced its successful partnership with The Mayo Hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Specifically, cloud-based Infor HMS and Infor SCS Sales and Event Management solutions were selected to help the property adapt to meet today’s and tomorrow’s hospitality challenges and support the brand as it grows. By partnering with Infor, The Mayo Hotel, an iconic historic hotel located in the heart of Downtown Tulsa featuring 102 rooms, will have access to modern technology tools to help deliver a great guest experience every time.

“We’re approaching our 100-year anniversary, and while we’ve made it a point to always keep the charm from when we first opened, we take a different approach with our business processes by adopting modern, forward-looking technology. As our guests’ tastes and needs evolve, so do we. Technology is at the forefront of the way we live today, so we’ve invested in new solutions and systems that will directly impact day-to-day tasks for employees and the overall guest experience,” said Macy Snyder-Amatucci, owner of The Mayo Hotel. “Partnering with Infor has been seamless. It was clear from our initially training that we would be able to reduce onboarding burden and costs, increase revenue across the property and, ultimately, improve guest satisfaction by reducing administrative burdens from our teams and allowing them to focus on more value-add tasks.”

Infor HMS hospitality management system will allow teams at The Mayo Hotel to manage everything from the front office and reservations to accounting and sales within a single application. This will create a unified view of business performance, so managers have greater visibility into how their decisions impact other departments, and vice versa. With a centralized, unified look at guest and business performance, The Mayo Hotel can track guest preferences, simplify reservations, book itineraries and provide guests with consistent quality and services. In addition, modules for event management provide complete financial reporting, revenue forecasting and performance analysis, food and beverage costing, labor scheduling, and full customer relationship management (CRM) and custom correspondence capability.

“Infor understands the complexity of the hospitality industry and the importance not only of managing guest expectations and satisfaction but also the importance of events and catering to the overall business,” said Joe Vargas, Infor Hospitality senior vice president and general manager. “Infor is deep in hospitality and our solutions have the capability to cover all aspects of the business — from sales to operations. Thousands of hospitality customers across the globe leverage Infor’s powerful cloud solutions to strengthen communication throughout different teams and departments to optimize guest and patron experiences for the future. We are excited to partner with an innovation brand like The Mayo Hotel on its digital journey.”

The CHSB Index 2023 was released during the eCornell keynote Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry: How Data Is Making an Impact webinar on June 7, 2023. The hotel industry’s largest and longstanding annual data collection of energy, water, and carbon performance, CHSB is the primary reference tool for hoteliers to benchmark their performance, and for various stakeholders including governments and business travelers seeking to calculate the environmental impact of a hotel stay. It incorporates the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) and Hotel Water Measurement Initiative (HWMI) methodologies to provide standardized, industry-backed data to end users.

CHSB 2023 is the first post-pandemic performance benchmark. Participants in the latest index include major hotel brands, operators, and owners, covering a total of 646 geographies (64 countries, 84 regions, 410 metro areas, and 88 climate zones).

Linda Canina, the Dr. Michael Dang Director of the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University’s Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration added, “We are pleased to offer the updated CHSB Index free of charge, furthering the Center for Hospitality Research’s mission to increase the volume of high-quality research to support the hospitality industry, with CHSB allowing hoteliers to understand the range of energy, water, and carbon performance globally.”

Of the countries within the latest index, hotels in Norway had the lowest carbon intensity (13.5 kg carbon emissions per square meter) whereas those in Hong Kong, China had the highest (214.5 kg CO2e/m2). Countries with the lowest carbon intensity did not necessarily result in the lowest hotel energy intensity. Hotels in Austria for example had the lowest energy intensity (134.5 kilowatt hours per square meter). Limited-service hotels continue to outperform full-service hotels in intensities, and the latest trends may point toward a faster rate of their decarbonization.

Globally, lower occupancies due to the tail-end of COVID led to a significant increase in water usage intensity – a 20.2 percent increase in water per occupied room in 2021 as compared to 2019. Much water was used for hygiene and sanitary purposes during COVID disregarding of the occupancy.

Eric Ricaurte, CEO of Greenview and the co-author of the CHSB Index said, “In this ninth annual CHSB Index, we are excited to see increasing support from the hospitality industry, from less than 5,000 participants in 2014 to over 25,000 in 2023, enabling widespread use and analysis of the data thanks to over 30 companies that have supported the initiative. This month we celebrate the 10^th year anniversary of CHSB’s start, and I would also like to give special thanks to the participants who have supported the initiative since its inception: Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Marriott International, The Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Going forward we are also excited to evolve CHSB into a broader industry platform for data providers and data recipients to collectively work toward efficiency and decarbonization.”

The CHSB Index is available to download free of charge from the Cornell University eCommons library at https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/113258. CHSB data feeds the Greenview Hotel Footprinting Tool at www.hotelfootprints.org where users can estimate the carbon footprint of a hotel stay and meeting anywhere in the world.

Participation is open and welcome for CHSB 2024. Companies can find more details on the initiative at www.greenview.sg/chsb-index.