Innovation

🎧 Josh Wyatt, CEO of Avant Gardner, discussed the world's most innovative events and entertainment complex on April 18, 2025. Behind-the-scenes insights were shared, highlighting creativity and experiential design. Resources and music for the show were credited to Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound. The podcast episode was intended to inspire action and benefit businesses within the hospitality industry.

🏡 Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts, founded in 1981 and managed by PT Grahawita Santika, specializes in transforming hotels into Santika Hotels chains for international business and leisure travelers. D-EDGE, a SaaS company, provides e-commerce solutions to over 17,000 hotels in 150+ countries and is backed by a team of 500 experts across 25 countries. It is an Accor subsidiary, a hospitality leader with 5,700 properties and 10,000 F&B venues in 110 countries.

🏨 OpenAI's Operator, in research preview and available to Pro users in the US, is an AI-powered digital agent that books hotel rooms without APIs. It navigates websites to perform tasks such as booking hotels, offering a potential shift in revenue management strategies. Hoteliers are advised to make their websites AI-friendly to maintain direct bookings and brand loyalty. Ligula Hospitality Group uses Atomize RMS to automate rates across 41 properties. Mews offers a platform with dynamic pricing integrations, guest profile tools, and design automation for AI readiness.

🍕 In response to rising tariffs, inflation, and economic uncertainty, restaurant operators focus on controlling costs while maintaining guest experience. Toby W. Malbec, VP of Global Restaurant Technology at Church's Texas Chicken, emphasizes the importance of inventory management, recommending tight integration with menus, detailed sales tracking, and historical modeling. Skip Kimpel, President & CEO of Magicgate, suggests using IoT sensors for stock monitoring, POS integration, and AI-driven alerts to optimize inventory. Operators are advised to consider ingredient substitutions to mitigate the impact of price hikes.

🥗 Saladplate, part of Informa Markets, serves as the official content and engagement hub for the Hospitality, Food and Beverage industry. It offers weekly news updates, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-monthly e-magazine. The platform features a supplier directory with over 10,000 brands, companies, and products, alongside access to over 35 international trade events.

💾 PAR Technology Corp. launched its PAR POS Spring Release to enhance restaurant operations with contactless payment options, like Pay via SMS and QR code with PAR® Pay. The release features Geofencing Integration for kitchen prep timing, tailored pricing on item modifiers, and improved tax support for regions like Ontario, Canada, and third-party delivery services. A new Data Feed reduces item sync times to near-instant. PAR POS was featured in HT's "POS Software in 2025: Key Trends and Features on the Horizon.

💾 PAR Technology Corp. introduced its PAR POS Spring Release, enhancing core performance and adding features like guest convenience, in-store resilience, and platform extensibility. New functionalities include Pay via SMS, QR code payments with PAR® Pay, loyalty account in-store payments, and open order additions. The update offers Geofencing for ETA on Kitchen Chits, customizable item modifier pricing, expanded tax support (including Ontario's quantity-based taxes and marketplace facilitator taxes from DoorDash and Uber Eats), and an improved real-time Data Feed for faster item availability updates. These upgrades aim to improve transaction speeds, table turnover, kitchen efficiency, and profitability while ensuring accurate tax reporting and seamless system integration.

💾 AI-powered revenue management tools are revolutionizing the hospitality industry, enabling hotels to maximize profits and reduce operational workload. Key AI benefits in revenue management include optimized pricing strategies, faster and more accurate decision-making, increased efficiency, and personalized guest engagement. AI uses real-time data to adjust pricing 24/7, with systems like Cloudbeds and Duetto leading the example. Chatbots handle reservations and inquiries, boosting engagement and conversion rates. Upsell platforms suggest additional services at optimal times, increasing average spend per guest. AI also aids in forecasting demand trends, allowing hotels to plan for pricing, staffing, and inventory adjustments. Hotels utilizing AI report higher RevPAR, improved ADR, and increased profitability. Those not adopting AI risk falling behind in competition. RevOptimum offers expertise in implementing AI-driven revenue strategies for hotels.

📡 Cloudbeds launched Cloudbeds Labs, an AI-focused innovation hub, to transform hospitality operations. Its two AI solutions, Signals and Engage, aim to improve revenue and marketing optimization, and manage phone interactions, respectively. Signals forecasts demand with over 96% accuracy up to 180 days in advance and can outperform competitors by 15% or more. Engage, an AI voice concierge, operates in five languages and offers voice-driven bookings and upselling. Both products are designed to boost direct bookings, increase operational efficiency, and reduce labor costs.

🏨 Personalization in hospitality is now expected, with travelers desiring control over their experience and add-ons for convenience and comfort. Hotels are adopting a retailer mindset—offering dynamic upsell opportunities, transparent pricing, and personalized experiences—to drive direct bookings. A Quantum Metric survey reveals 32% of consumers remain loyal to brands for perks and discounts, while 89% would reconsider loyalty if perks were removed. Hotels are advised to leverage guest data, offer diverse upsell opportunities, and promote off-peak travel to meet the needs of cost-sensitive travelers and build brand loyalty.