Innovation

🍔 Bikky, a data platform for restaurants, partnered with Haven Hot Chicken, a fast-growing Nashville-style chicken brand founded in 2020 with nine locations. Haven leverages Bikky to understand guest behaviors across all outlets, influencing decisions from menu to marketing. Insights from Bikky enabled Haven to retain a strategic menu item and enhance their marketing precision. Haven is poised for ambitious expansion in 2025, with detailed demographic data to inform site selection and maximize ROI. Bikky's clientele includes fast casual brands like Dave's Hot Chicken and Bojangles.

🏨 HotelREZ Hotels and Resorts launches a new B2C platform, Best Loved Hotels, targeting corporate and leisure travellers with curated stays from independent hotels, aparthotels, and hotel groups. The platform, designed to enhance the presence of its partners globally, offers direct booking promotions and a dedicated GDS programme. CEO Mark Lewis emphasizes the reimagined approach to unique, characterful, and heartfelt hospitality experiences for discerning travellers. All HotelREZ distribution customers or consortia affiliate members are featured on the website, presenting a commercial opportunity for hotel partnerships.

📱 SIHOT updated SIHOT.KIOSK for hotels with new features to support upselling and enhance user experience. Now, guests can pay for early check-in depending on availability, and walk-ins can book rooms via SIHOT.WEB. Late check-outs are managed by directing guests to reception if they overstay. SIHOT.GO! pre-check-in users can collect key cards from kiosks. The update includes compliance data collection, QR code recognition for group bookings, and aims to reduce Front Desk and Reservations teams' pressure. Carsten Wernet, CEO of SIHOT, highlights revenue generation and better guest experiences through these enhancements.

🎢 Cheshire-based Inspire Europe reported a 400% growth in its cruise business over the past year. To capitalize, they launched a new website featuring 44 cruise lines, dynamic itinerary searches, and real-time availability. The site, developed with Travel Marketing Systems (TMS), includes amenities, deck plans, ports of call, and regional offers. With the peak booking season near, Inspire aims to streamline their cruise services and has renewed its CLIA membership for 2025.

🔥 Bikky, a data platform for restaurants, partnered with Haven Hot Chicken, a rapidly growing Nashville-style chicken brand founded in 2020 with nine locations as of summer. The partnership enables Haven to analyze customer behavior and make data-driven decisions. Bikky's insights helped Haven retain a lower-selling menu item, the caesar salad, due to its influence on customer frequency. Haven plans to double store count in the next year, with Bikky aiding in expansion success measurement. Bikky also serves brands like Dave’s Hot Chicken and Bojangles.

🏨 Bethesda, Md. hosted a panel at the Hospitality Show in San Antonio where Stayntouch CEO Jacob Messina, Cloudbeds CEO Adam Harris, and others discussed hotel Property Management Systems (PMS). Cloudbeds transforms hotel operations with integrated platforms and AI, aiming to recover margins lost to data fragmentation. Stayntouch offers a cloud-based PMS, reducing IT costs and training time, with an interface that can be learned in just two days. Automation saves up to 69% of employee time, while multi-property management features can reduce new hotel onboarding time by 70%. Stayntouch provides over 1,200 integrations, enhancing hotel operations, revenue, and guest experiences. Cloudbeds, founded in 2012, has won multiple awards and serves properties in over 150 countries.