News Briefs

Square unveiled an integrated spring product release, introducing a bevy of new features across its entire product ecosystem.

For restaurants, some of the new product highlights include the OpenTable and Square for Restaurants integration. This lets restaurants leverage reservations to maximize revenue while delivering more personalized hospitality.

“We’re a tea room in St. Louis that offers afternoon tea service alongside a retail store, and we use Square as our point-of-sale for both our restaurant and retail experience,” said Peter James, Business Operations Manager at London Tea Room in St. Louis, Missouri."...Now, Square’s integration with OpenTable has further upleveled our reporting by making it easy to see our per-cover spend by guests, and allowing us to view the sales from our restaurant revenue stream without needing to filter out the sales from our retail counter.”

Square’s purpose-built vertical products stand on their own, and integrate within its ecosystem, to improve operations and automate key business task.

Square for Restaurants sellers now have:

• New Online Ordering Site Templates to optimize menu layouts for their unique needs, and new Modifier Images to bring photos into menu modifiers (i.e. extra chicken) to show customers their options and drive higher average order values.

• Photo Studio support for food photography to elevate restaurants’ online menus.

• Facebook Food Ordering to let restaurants drive sales through their Facebook and Instagram Business Pages.

• Improvements to Shift Reports to let managers declare cash tips without clocking out, enabling accountability and accurate accounting at any time of day.

• Expanded ability to easily add manual and variable service charges, allowing restaurants to account for bag, delivery, or other service fees.

• For employees and managers using Square Staff:

  • Square Payroll integration with Cash App Taxes: Square Payroll employees can now file taxes for free with automated W2 import into Cash App Taxes. Square Payroll notifies employees that their W2s are ready for digital download; then, employees can login to Cash App Taxes and securely import their W2, and complete and submit their tax forms.

  • The upcoming release of Team Member Badges will let sellers provide their teams with physical NFC badges to authenticate on Square POS hardware, while the new Square Shifts offering gives sellers more options to manage their teams with POS-integrated time tracking, tip-management solutions, scheduling, and payroll prep.

• Square Loyalty is now seamlessly integrated with Apple Pay and Wallet, allowing sellers to offer personalized digital loyalty cards that their buyers can add to Apple Wallet. 
• Gift Cards are now trackable in Square Profile, giving buyers better visibility into their available gift card balances while giving sellers increased redemptions and sales, and Gift Card Marketplaces API allows partners such as Thnks, Giftogram, and Trucentive to instantly list eGift Cards from Square sellers in public directories, giving Square sellers the same reach as bigger brands.

QSR Automations earned recognition for excellence in customer service and support.

At MURTEC, QSR Automations’ VP of Hardware Solutions and Support, Kathi Klein, received fHospitality Technology ’s 2023 Top Women in Technology Lifetime Achievement Award. 

During her more than 30 years in the restaurant technology industry – half of those at QSR Automations–Klein has amassed incomparable knowledge in understanding and troubleshooting kitchen display, front-of-house, and the associated hardware and networking platforms needed to run them. 

But what truly sets Klein apart is her natural ability to nurture relationships and foster talent, which has made her an effective leader in QSR Automations’ Support Services Team. During her long tenure at QSR Automations, Klein has built one of the industry’s strongest and most effective support teams. In fact, under Klein’s guidance, the team has received a 99 percent satisfaction rate from customers in 2021, and last year handled more than 16,000 inbound and outbound calls, which earned them a bronze award for Excellence in Customer Service from the 2022 Stevie Awards. 

This was the third bronze Stevie award for the team, as last fall, Klein accepted two additional bronze awards from the Stevie Women in Business Awards on behalf of QSR Automations–one for excellence in customer service, and the other for growth. QSR Automations was selected for these honors from more than 1,500 nominations from around the world.

“Just as our technology is the heart of a restaurant kitchen, our people are truly the heart of this business,” said Angela Leet, CEO of QSR Automations. “My colleagues are passionate about innovation both in and out of the office, and it’s immensely gratifying to see them recognized for these achievements.”

QSR Automations, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., with offices in the United Kingdom, is a global industry leader in kitchen automation and guest management services.

Up and coming QSR  Salad and Go  is expanding in Texas with three new locations opening in February in the Houston markets of Katy, Richmond and League City.

The Katy store located opened February 1, the Richmond location at  is set to open February 17, and the League City store plans to open its doors on February 22. These new locations will mark the start of rapid brand expansion across the Greater Houston area.

These suburbs were strategically selected as ideal markets for Salad and Go as some of the fastest growing communities in the region. Conveniently located in some of Houston's most popular suburbs, the new locations will provide fresh, high-quality meals with quick and easy convenience at an affordable price.

As Salad and Go continues growing its national presence with a strong focus on Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada, the brand's expansive growth has it on a positive trajectory to provide fresh and affordable food to communities in more than 125 locations by the end of 2023. Houston is the next step in the brand's expansion across Texas with plans to open additional stores in the market throughout the new year.

Salad and Go's chef-curated menu provides guests with food for any time of the day by offering a variety of delicious and healthy items including salads, wraps, breakfast burritos and soup as well as beverages including hand-crafted lemonades, teas and cold brew coffees.

Salad and Go ensures each meal contains fresh, quality ingredients while keeping prices low by vertically integrating operations and distribution, and sourcing ingredients directly from high-quality local farmers and suppliers whenever possible. The brand's mission to make fresh, nutritious food convenient and affordable for ALL extends beyond its stores and is demonstrated in the work the brand does to donate 4,000 meals every week to those in need, as well as in partnerships with nonprofits to support and fundraise for various worthy causes.

Thynk, a global provider of advanced technology solutions for data-driven hotel sales and operations management, announced details on its latest successful round of investment, resulting in $13 million received in Series A funding. The injection of capital combined with Thynk’s impressive revenue growth will further fuel the company’s accelerated R&D efforts as well as its ongoing global expansion, with teams and customers already present in European, American and Middle East hospitality markets.  

Led by Singular, the $13 million equity investment also featured contributions from a New-York based fund managed by Itai Tsiddon, and Belgian investment firm CNP (Groupe Frère). With Thynk continuing to experience rapid growth and success in meeting hotel industry operational needs, returning investors such as Fly Ventures also took part in the latest funding round.

The increased access to capital is further bolstered by Thynk’s revenue performance. Key to Thynk’s successful performance is the adoption of its process automation, data-driven, and customer centric verticalized platform by major hotel companies/groups, including Postillion (Netherlands), Rotana (UAE), Groupe Lucien Barrière (France), Design Hotels (Germany), and Mint House (USA).

“Our rapid success lies in our ability to empower the hospitality industry with a core solution that triggers business agility and performance, by streamlining sales, operations, and finance processes both on property and at an enterprise level,” said Pascal Petit, CEO of Thynk. “Everything we invest in serves our ultimate mission of enabling hoteliers to do more with less, to adapt faster to market changes, and to focus on what leads to higher profit margins. Using this newest source of funding, our global team is determined to accelerate our ambitious strategies which include further enriching our data-driven and customer-centric revenue operating solution, solidifying our international presence and empowering more hotel brands, operators, and asset managers around the world with tools proven to boost both efficiency and revenue.”

Nils Scheers, COO and co-founder, added, “The hospitality industry is now almost back to pre-pandemic performance levels across all segments. The fluctuating market has been accompanied by an increase in competition, resulting in more hospitality providers embracing technology to keep pace with the optimization of operations on property, in centralized sales teams and the corporate/enterprise level. Customers who have partnered with Thynk are discovering a more robust, adaptive and profitable business model focused on leveraging relationships and data across hotel locations. With centralized access to real-time revenue and guest analytics, hoteliers finally have an effective and fully automated means of tapping into high-value data that can enhance the performance of group, event, corporate and agency-based business and much more. Thynk can achieve all this while preserving a hotel’s unique tone of voice and the type of guest experience they seek to offer.”

Raffi Kamber, Founder and General Partner at Singular commented, “Since its launch, Thynk has proven to be a powerful asset for industry professionals as well as a disruptive force that focuses its R&D efforts on technologies that the hotel industry crucially needs but was previously lacking. As a verticalized CRM solution in tune with the desire of hoteliers to eliminate operational silos standing in the way of addressing higher guest expectations, Thynk is undoubtedly leading the way to hotel operations that are more agile and capable of making informed decisions that maximize guest satisfaction rates, despite changing market conditions.”

“Investor confidence in Thynk clearly demonstrates the tremendous potential that the company possesses while validating the impressive results that Thynk has already achieved for businesses across the global hospitality industry,” said Itai Tsiddon, a New York based founder who’s previously led financing rounds in five software businesses to have crossed $100m in yearly revenue. “With hoteliers yearning to modernize their operations and get back to driving increased demand for their various service offerings, Thynk with its comprehensive abilities and flexible vertical solution is sure to be a critical platform that will provide industry professionals with the competitive edge they seek.”

Mews, a provider of hospitality technology and cloud-based property management systems (PMS), announced the acquisition of Hotello, the Montreal-headquartered cloud PMS solution for hotel properties. The acquisition further strengthens the growth strategy for Mews in North America, and more specifically the Canadian market and the company’s commitment to delivering technology that simplifies and automates operations for modern hoteliers and their guests. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. 

“The PMS category continues to experience remarkable innovation and growth,” said Richard Valtr, founder of Mews. “Hotello has everything we’re looking for in an acquisition: great people, great customers and a passion for hotel technology. This partnership also represents a further investment in the North American markets where we continue seeing strong adoption of cloud and autonomous technologies, and hospitality brands looking for solutions that will serve them long into the future. I’m delighted to bring Hotello into the Mews family,” he said.

Founded in 2001, the PMS Hotello is focused on delivering exceptional user experience and unlimited integrations. Its technology stack is focused on seamless communication between systems, people and environments to make user and customer experiences simple, efficient and exceptional. Hotello has approximately 500+ customers in Canada and the United States and a team with deep experience in technology enablement for hotel operations. 

“When I first met with Mews I could tell our vision for the future of hospitality were aligned,” said Anaïs Berzi, CEO. “This is an incredibly exciting moment for the team, our customers, and the future of hospitality. We had a number of offers but Mews has a proven track record of pushing the boundaries of innovation in this space and have successfully integrated other teams and products like Hotello. We’re really looking forward to what the future holds.” 

The Hotello acquisition comes on the heels of Mews having strong growth and momentum throughout 2022. Before Hotello joining Mews, Mews had surpassed 400,000 beds in operation across 3,500 customers with US$2.8 billion processed via Mews Payments, and the Mews Hospitality Cloud boasts more than 70,000 active monthly users. This is only set to grow with the addition of Hotello.  

The acquisition was helmed by Mews Ventures, the company’s venture and investment arm. Mews Ventures was launched to accelerate the technological transformation of the hospitality industry. The Hotello acquisition represents the 6th acquisition for Mews Ventures, with previous acquired companies including Planet Winner (2019), Base7Booking (2020), Hotel Perfect (2021), Cenium (2022) and Bizzon (2022). 

The NYU School of Professional Studies (NYU SPS) Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality and Growth Advisors International Network (GAIN), a leading travel and hospitality innovation and growth advisory firm, are delighted to announce a multi-year strategic collaboration with the NYU SPS Tisch Center of Hospitality and its Innovation Hub (HI Hub) Incubator Program. This international collaboration will extend to NYU's campuses in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi, with GAIN serving as an official advisory sponsor for both the NYU Tisch Center of Hospitality and the HI HUB Incubator.

Under the terms of this agreement, GAIN will deliver C-suite level, travel and hospitality-focused professional advisory services to the winner of the NYU SPS HI Hub Incubator Pitch Competition, in which NYU affiliated hospitality startups have the opportunity to develop their businesses and compete for cash prizes. Additionally, GAIN will establish a yearly internship program for eligible students from the NYU SPS Tisch Center of Hospitality.

This industry collaboration additionally presents an exciting opportunity for NYU SPS students, and their related startups, to connect with GAIN's global network of travel technology leaders through various events and ongoing mentorship programs. Furthermore, GAIN and NYU SPS will jointly develop a Master Class, combining the expertise of both organizations to deliver a specialized and impactful educational experience for NYU SPS travel and hospitality students.

Dr. Richie Karaburun, MBA, DPS, clinical assistant professor and director of the HI Hub program Incubator Program, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership: "This collaboration enables the NYU Tisch Center Incubator Program and its members to leverage the extensive industry experience and focused advisory services offered by GAIN's global network of travel and hospitality experts. It also gives NYU SPS Tisch Center Hospitality students access to valuable mentoring and networking opportunities, and real-world industry feedback delivering growth and impact."

Michael Cohen, managing partner, GAIN, shared: "We are thrilled to embark on this strategic collaboration with the NYU SPS Tisch Center of Hospitality and their Hospitality Innovation Hub incubator. This alignment exemplifies the impact and value GAIN delivers and acknowledges NYU SPS's commitment to innovation and excellence. We look forward to working with such a prestigious global academic institution to be catalysts for the development of innovative solutions in the global travel and hospitality industries by providing direct access to industry expertise and resources.”