Automatic

📈 Forte, aiming to simplify restaurant tech, launched its first production release in Spring 2025, with a Summer 2025 update underway. Operators benefit from financially accurate sales and labor data, automated reconciliation, and real-time communication. Early adopters report saving hours weekly, improved compliance, and operational enhancements. Forte plans to expand integrations, automate workflows, and enhance features. The RTN Start-Up Alley 2026 at MURTEC will open applications later in 2025.

📈 In March 2025, 13.14% of U.S. searches triggered Google’s AI Overviews, up from 6.49% in January. This resulted in an 83% drop in click-through rates for these queries. High-trust areas like health and education, along with travel, are most impacted. AI Overviews, primarily in informational searches (88%), reduce website visits and complicate audience behavior analysis. Businesses should focus on comprehensive content, commercial keywords, and diversify their marketing strategies to adapt to this shift.

💻 Knowlton and Goshow emphasize AI integration's importance in hospitality, stressing a unified data architecture to overcome fragmented systems. Deliberate AI implementation is advocated, with patience in adoption and ensuring proper structures. AI is seen as empowering staff by automating mundane tasks, improving strategy, and enhancing guest focus. Emphasizing data ethics, the recurring question is about vendors using client data for model training. The dialogue centers on evolving with AI while maintaining human-centric operations.

💻 RoomRaccoon partners with HiJiffy to automate guest interactions for independent hotels. HiJiffy’s AI centralizes communication in 130+ languages, automating up to 90% of interactions. The integration connects HiJiffy’s AI with RoomRaccoon’s booking engine, enhancing guest experiences and increasing direct bookings. CEO Tiago Araújo highlights the streamlined booking journey. Tymen van Dyl notes it reduces workload while increasing revenue. This aligns with RoomRaccoon’s strategy to expand AI capabilities and improve hotelier efficiency.

💻 Meyer Jabara Hotels, managing 45 hotels across the U.S., harnesses AI to revolutionize guest experiences. AI personalizes ambiance and suggests activities, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty. AI aids in revenue management, forecasting, and accounting by analyzing data. The Beekeeper app ensures staff communication. Future plans include exploring CoPilot for staff training and AR/VR for immersive guest experiences. Cybersecurity, with multi-factor authentication and real-time threat detection, remains essential to protect these innovations, ensuring safety and guest privacy.

🚧 Hospitable launched a fully automated Security Deposit feature that combines deposit collection, guest identity verification, and chargeback protection into a single workflow. This marks the first integration of these services without extra tools. Hosts set deposit amounts; the system automates the rest. Chargebacks are resolved within a day. Hospitable charges a flat 2% per deposit. Founded in 2016, Hospitable automates guest messaging and optimizes rental management.

💸 HITEC 2025 highlighted evolving hotel revenue strategies, focusing on profitability across departments with AI integration. Former Duetto CEO, David Woolenberg, noted the shift from traditional RMS to comprehensive profit platforms. Fragmentation in systems remains a challenge, necessitating smarter AI alerts for $10,000 decisions. Clean data is crucial, especially for diverse operations. Olly Lynch, SVP Global Marketing, emphasized margin-aware tools over mere revenue growth, spotlighting ROI demands amid rising costs and labor constraints.