Miscellaneous

💻 Noida, 28th August 2025: RateGain partners with Profitroom to aid Middle East and Africa hotels in expanding reach via seamless channel connectivity. RateGain operates in 100+ countries, partnering with 3,200+ customers and 700+ partners. Profitroom offers real-time connectivity to 400+ demand partners, enhancing booking and profitability. This collaboration targets hotel growth, reducing OTA dependency, and improving guest experience. Key figures: RateGain founded in 2004, works with top global hotel chains and airlines, headquartered in India.

📰 Joanna Fantozzi, currently a Senior Editor at Nation’s Restaurant News, has over seven years in the restaurant industry. Informed by degrees from The College of New Jersey and CUNY, her career includes roles at Insider and The Daily Meal. Since 2018, she's been with Informa's Restaurant & Food Group, advancing from Assistant Editor (Oct. 2018) to Senior Editor (Aug. 2021). Her expertise spans restaurant innovations and cultural issues, and she moderates industry events like MUFSO and Restaurants Rise.

📖 Saladplate is a content hub for the Hospitality, Food, and Beverage sector under Informa Markets. It offers insights into industry trends through weekly news, a monthly newsletter, and a bi-monthly e-magazine. Users gain access to over 10,000 brands and products and updates from over 35 international trade events.

🚀 Accelya integrates AI in its Sales Audit tool, detecting over 60% of missed revenue earlier, accelerating recovery to weeks. Launched with FLX AIViator, it's trusted by 70+ airlines, reclaiming over $150 million annually. Continuous monitoring, adaptive algorithms, and hybrid intelligence enhance audit accuracy and efficiency. Operating 24/7, it shortens query resolution by 10% and maintains a 100% recommendation rate. Airlines can customize AI models, leveraging the scalable architecture for real-time intelligence and revenue optimization.

📰 Joanna Fantozzi, a senior editor at Nation’s Restaurant News, boasts over seven years of experience in the restaurant industry. She joined Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group in 2018. Her expertise includes industry news and cultural issues. Joanna has held positions at Insider and The Daily Meal. Her educational background includes a bachelor’s from The College of New Jersey and a master’s from CUNY. Her editorial work is featured in The New York Times, Forbes, and more.

🍴 During the US Foods event last week in Las Vegas, Matt Bruenderman discussed 10 hidden costs in restaurant operations, emphasizing strategic planning, brand clarity, customer data, effective training, technology adoption, and preventive maintenance. He cited TGI Fridays' past mistakes and highlighted potential savings like a 3% labor cost reduction via scheduling platforms. Emphasizing culture's impact on turnover, he advised listening and feedback. Proper packaging and a focused menu can enhance efficiency and customer retention.

🍺 Week after week, 100 bottles sold out within hours. The bottle caps weren't twist-off, requiring manual opening with care. A college-aged customer, confident despite warnings, attempted to open his own, resulting in a soda explosion. Twenty minutes later, he returned drenched, yet thrilled by the chaotic experience, describing it as "sick" with "serious rizz." Despite the mishap, the excitement and novelty seemed to triumph over the mess.

🍽 Restaurants are shifting to direct delivery systems to regain control over customer data and relationships, moving away from third-party platforms. A national poke chain adopted this model to reduce platform costs and gain insights into customer behavior, enhancing their ability to engage directly with patrons. This strategy emphasizes building direct connections without relying on third-party apps that prioritize their own customer loyalty, promoting competing restaurants and limiting direct contact.

🍴 Bret Thorn is the Senior Food & Beverage Editor at Nation’s Restaurant News since 1999. He contributed to The New York Sun from 2005-2008 and was IFEC president in 2005. A Tufts University alum, he studied at Le Cordon Bleu and in China during 1989. Thorn's awards include the 2006 Jesse H. Neal Award. He lives in Brooklyn, having previously worked in Thailand. Thorn also authored entries for the Oxford Encyclopedia in 2012 and 2015.

📑 Ron Ruggless, senior editor at Informa Connect's Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality since 1992, previously worked at the Dallas Times Herald (1982-1991) and edited the Zagat Dining Guide. Based in Dallas-Fort Worth, he moderates industry events worldwide. His expertise covers foodservice mergers, acquisitions, and marketing. Follow Ron on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok @RonRuggless.