F&B Technology – Vendors Weigh In By Fran Worrall, March 2023

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March 07, 2023

F&B | Digital Dashboards

Fran Worrall

As the hospitality industry moves beyond the pandemic, vendors are launching groundbreaking technology solutions, particularly in the food and beverage space. HU talked with a few of them about new F&B and related products as well as future plans. We also asked what their customers are interested in when it comes to food and beverage technology.

Craig Pattenden, Head of Marketing, CRAVE

“Crave's in-room tablets have always been used for perusing menus and ordering in-room dining, but over the past year there’s been a shift toward in-room dining compared to pre- pandemic days. There’s high engagement with our tablets, with approximately 90 percent of guests using them, and we’ve seen in-room dining orders increase by more than 20 percent where tablets are placed. Guests today are more comfortable ordering meals digitally, so this is an area of focus for us. Hotels can change menu pricing based on demand and seasonality, and discount codes can now be used on our system, for example, with vacation club members.”

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Jamie McBride, Head of Sales & Marketing, FOR-SIGHT

“Our CRM integrates with a number of F&B products, and there’s no doubt that using food and beverage transaction data and dining reservation data in the CRM strategy can help hotels create highly personalized guest experiences. The insights into consumer behavior and preferences allows properties to tailor services and promotions, which increases the likelihood that guests will return for future stays and dining experiences. Moreover, analyzing F&B transaction data helps hotels identify opportunities to upsell and cross-sell. This data can also be used to create promotions that incentivize customers to book a room or additional services, which drives direct bookings and reduces OTA commissions.”

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Martin Chevalley, CEO and Cofounder, INNSPIRE

“Innspire recently launched the ‘F&B Anywhere’ feature, which allows hotel guests to place food and beverage orders from virtually anywhere on property using their mobile devices. As part of the ordering process, guests see a pin (similar to Google Maps) drop on their location, and they either confirm that location or select another one. Properties typically keep tabs open throughout the day. Guests simply tip through the app and either bill orders to their room or pay with a credit card.

Today’s hoteliers are looking for ways to reactivate food and beverage outlets and options and streamline operations. Premium properties are starting to offer full-scale room service again; others are trialing slimmed-down versions of F&B; for example, where guests order through an app but pick up the orders themselves. In the future, personalization and even hyper-personalization will be key. The thing to remember is that personalized service doesn’t have to be intrusive. It’s a matter of allowing standard data to be monitored, and artificial intelligence will help.”

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Chris Adams, Vice President of Strategy, Food and Beverage, ORACLE

“In 2022, Oracle launched two F&B solutions for restaurants in the United States. The Oracle Food and Beverage Payment Cloud Service is an end-to-end payment processing solution that accepts the latest in contactless payment options, including debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. It is available out of the box with Simphony, which simplifies reconciliation and may help customers meet security obligations. The Oracle MICROS Simphony Mobile Order and Pay solution is a handheld point-of-sale and payment system that allows servers to place orders within seconds and accept multiple forms of payment, including contactless and mobile wallets, or switch to guest pay mode to allow patrons to swipe, dip or tap their preferred payment card.

Guests want choice, convenience and control. Yet enabling consumer flexibility creates less predictability for brands and directly translates into operational challenges at a time when operators are facing supply chain delays, staffing shortages and rising food costs. These challenges can only be overcome through technology. Mobile order and pay, online ordering, point-of-sale, end-to-end payment processing and restaurant analytics not only helps restaurants optimize business performance but also allows them to meet changing consumer demands and deliver exceptional guest service.”

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Dan Bell, SVP Shiji Americas, SHIJI GROUP

“We continue to enhance our open API portal endpoints to develop seamless two-way integration with third-party best-of-breed inventory management solutions. We’re also optimizing back-end architecture to enable faster deployments and quicker ongoing maintenance. We’ve applied hotel distribution logic to our Table Management Solution Online Reservation tool, allowing for allotment improvement supporting subtypes and targeted markets. And we continue to improve cross-product integration between Shiji products for an improved experience in all aspects of the guest journey.

Our customers increasingly ask for technology that focuses on the guest experience. Hotels are eager to offer a seamless expansion of their restaurants and F&B outlets while still operating in a challenging labor market. Our goal is to help them maximize technology to increase revenue and optimize operations.”