January 10, 2020
Siegel Sez
If you are a tech enthusiast like I am, or just like following where technology is going, make sure you put CES in Las Vegas on your bucket list. If you want to experience the event in a very unique way, then reach out to Bob Gilbert at HSMAI and get onboard with a limited group of 15 that gets a very personalized tour of CES. It was great that once again
Hospitality Upgrade was invited to join this group of executives from hotel companies like Accor, Hilton, Preferred Hotels, Red Roof and Choice Hotels. Liz Vogan from Hospitality Upgrade will follow up her very popular video from last year with this year’s version, which will be even better as the group shares experiences from the week with some creative looks at the technology we saw. There is nothing like CES when it comes to technology available today but more importantly what is almost here.
As you can see from the picture above with Bob Gilbert and myself the world of robotics continues to advance. That is the two of us with Chloe, LG’s entrant in the robotics world. You want to see a short video of the next generation of personal assistants by Samsung?
Click here.
CES 2020 opened with Ed Bastian the CEO of Delta Airlines talking about how the company is using technology to improve your travel experience from your home to your destination by using the Delta App. I think I can safely say that testing its new Parallel Reality at the Detroit hub is going to be carefully watched by the travel industry. Imagine standing next to somebody, looking at a screen that lists all the upcoming departures and you and the person next to you both see something different on the board. That is a taste of what Parallel Reality will be. Yes, the list of technology you will see in our upcoming video is wild. The next Uber ride you request could be by electric helicopters, mattresses you or your guests sleep on will not only adjust to ensure sleep with comfort but will adjust temperature depending on what your body is doing. Your phone will look the same as it does today except it will now fold and become a tablet. The list of things coming goes on.
I strongly suggest you make sure you see this very unique video. And make sure you get the Hospitality Upgrade e-newsletter by registering at
www.hospitalityupgrade.com/subscribe. You can also check out
last year’s CES video there. Last year we ended our video with Google. This year we began our ride with Google. If you want to see how it started, then
click here. It was a wild time at CES, and we thank HSMAI for inviting us to join them and Google, TravelClick and IDeaS for supporting the event with some great nighttime activities at Park MGM and the Waldorf Astoria Las Vegas. It was great to be part of the 170,000 people in Las Vegas for CES which is by far the city’s busiest week of the year. What a thrill.
Along with the latest happenings in technology, Doug Rice in his Definitely Doug column shares with you the waste of food which is truly unbelievable and how technology can help to control this waste. I will see you at the end with this week’s attempt at you-know-what.
Welcome to 2020, the best is yet to come!
Rich
Rich@hospitalityupgrade.com
Definitely Doug
Don’t Throw Out Those Scrambled Eggs!
Approximately one-third of all the food produced in the world is wasted, costing about $1 trillion per year.
ReFED, a nonprofit focused on food waste, reports that the US restaurant industry alone generates
11.4 million tons of food waste a year, costing more than $25 billion. ReFED further estimates that every dollar invested in waste reduction can generate about $8 in cost savings.
Food waste is also a major contributor to climate change; National Geographic reports that the energy that goes into the worldwide production and distribution of wasted food
generates more greenhouse gases than any entire country, save only the US and China.
Whether for economic reasons, environmental ones, or both, there is a compelling case to reduce food waste, and new technologies are emerging to help restaurants do just that. It’s a big industry with lots of approaches, and I can only skim the surface here, but will highlight a few methods and companies I found interesting as I researched this week’s article.
There are two major categories of technology products for reducing food waste and its impact. One category focuses on preventing waste in the first place, typically by measuring discarded food and applying analytics to help chefs understand what is being wasted and why, and perhaps offering some suggestions for reducing it. This is important because waste can occur in the kitchen (spoilage, excessive trimming, overproduction of commonly used items, mispreparation), on the buffet line, or because diners don’t eat everything on their plates.
The waste prevention technologies I looked have been cited by customers (using multiple products from different vendors) for reducing food waste by about 50%, with some as high as 70%; food cost savings can range from 2% to 8% depending on the type of restaurant. These savings don’t happen overnight, but rather over a period of several months as the technology begins to provide actionable insights and chefs make changes based on them.
The second category seeks to reduce the cost and environmental impact of disposing of food waste. Recycling and composting are common and useful techniques but may not be feasible depending on factors such as local regulations on food donations or the cost of transporting waste to the nearest composting facility. Composting also means storing food waste on premise between pickups, which can create messes and odors and attract vermin.
The companies I mention this week are all reasonably established and starting to get traction in the hotel industry. I’m covering them this week less because they are disruptive innovators (although some of them are) and more because they aren’t on the radar of most technologists in the industry – and they should be!
Leanpath is an example of a prevention technology. Kitchens make a quick entry into a terminal when discarding food, and the weight, date, and time are captured. This works best with institutional food and buffet lines, rather than made-to-order restaurants where some of the waste comes from uneaten food on diners’ plates. Analytics help to identify what items are wasted the most. The software focuses on highlighting the cost and environmental impact; it can then set goals to reduce waste of specific items over time, making it easy for chefs and management to track progress and communicate with line staff.
Leanpath may suggest techniques for reducing waste. For example, the software may detect that a on average, a full pan of scrambled eggs is discarded every day at the end of the breakfast buffet, and may recommend techniques such as closing one buffet line earlier (if there are two), using a half-depth pan when replenishing towards the end of the buffet, or developing a new item that can reuse the leftover eggs at a later meal. One customer discovered they wasted a lot of orange peel (oranges aren’t cheap!) and decided to repurpose it into a custom marmalade. Leanpath emphasized the aspect their approach that focuses on engagement of front-line kitchen staff, largely by communicating the environmental impact of each item wasted, and by setting and monitoring achievable goals.
Winnow Solutions offers a similar product, but also recently launched a new one, called Winnow Vision, that goes further by automating the capture of waste using cameras, and then applying artificial intelligence to identify and weigh everything that is discarded. This can be used not only in the food prep area, but also for plates of unfinished food returned from the dining room; these types of solutions may be better for full-service dine-in restaurants as they can more easily capture waste of food that occurs because diners don’t like it or portions are too large. Accor Hotels implemented Winnow Solutions in 19 hotels in the United Arab Emirates in 2016 and reported a reduction of 69% in food waste worth $1.3 million, and 800,000 meals saved.
I
previously covered
Kitro, which is a younger company with a similar solution, also worth a look.
Organic food waste that is disposed of in landfills is costly, messy, and produces methane as it decomposes anaerobically.
BioHiTech and
Power Knot offer products that address food waste disposal using similar if slightly different technologies. Both have significant and growing presence in hotels and/or cruise lines. These products are biodigesters that can be put right in the kitchen to dispose of organic waste cleanly and greenly. Biodigesters are essentially metal “stomachs” that digest organic waste aerobically, producing only carbon dioxide and gray water as by-products; the gray water can be safely and legally flushed down the drain. In the digester, the food is mixed with microorganisms and enzymes, water, and air. The largest models can handle 1200 pounds of food waste daily. Biodigesters can save significant costs as well as the mess of traditional disposal. Savings are greatest in locations that require trucking to a compost facility that may be some distance away.
The economics of food waste technology will vary depending on factors such as the cost of organic waste disposal and the profile of the restaurant or catering operation. The technologies are not cheap, but between food cost savings, disposal costs, and in some cases labor savings, paybacks in the range of 12 to 24 months should be feasible in many cases.
Douglas Rice
Email:
douglas.rice@hosptech.net
Twitter: @dougrice
LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/ricedouglas/
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
- Cendyn names Donna Goudie Chief Operating Officer
Cendyn, a leading innovator in CRM, sales and revenue strategy for the hospitality industry, announced today the appointment of Donna Goudie as Chief Operating Officer at Cendyn.
www.cendyn.com
RESERVATIONS & DISTRIBUTION
- SiteMinder Earns Best Channel Manager and Top 3 Most Customer-centric Award
- Cloud5 Communications Contact Center Partners with G6 Hospitality for High-Conversion Hotel Voice Reservations
- Pegasus Named the Best CRS for 2020 by Hotel Tech Report
- VTrips Sees 600% Growth in Booking.com Since Partnering with NextPax
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For more information on Reservations & Distribution for 1/10/2020
REVENUE MANAGEMENT
- IDeaS Named Best Revenue Management Software and People's Choice Winner in 2020 HotelTechAwards
Based on hotelier reviews rating ease of use, ROI, implementation and support, IDeaS maintains its leading position on Hotel Tech Report.
ideas.com
GUEST FACING TECHNOLOGY
- Volara Named ‘Best Voice Activated Tech Product’ of 2020 by HotelTechReport
- Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort Selects INTELITY as Part of $100 Million Expansion Project
- Google Assistant's Interpreter Mode Helps International Hotel Guests Translate Across 29 Languages
- Ambassador Hotel Wichita Maximizes Guest Connectivity and Convenience Using BeyondTV with Voice Control and Enhanced Wi-Fi by Hotel Internet Services
- Viceroy Hotels & Resorts Goes ‘All In’ with Volara
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For more information on Guest Facing Technology for 1/10/2020
SALES & CATERING, GROUPS & MEETINGS
- New Mobile App from OpenWater Helps Manage Annual Meetings, Conferences and Events with Ease
Application and review software platform releases application designed for scientific organizations, professional societies and trade associations.
www.programbook.com
COMMUNICATIONS & INFRASTRUCTURE
- Verdant ZX Thermostat Recognized Globally for Cutting-Edge Design
Verdant has entered the New Year with yet another top honor. In December 2019, the provider of state-of-the-art energy management solutions for commercial buildings was awarded the GOOD DESIGN® 2019 award in the Building Products category for its Verdant ZX thermostat.
www.verdant.co
PAYMENT PROCESSING
- Shift4 Payments Announces Certification with Ingenico Telium TETRA Terminals
Shift4 Payments announced they have completed certification with Ingenico's Telium TETRA line of payment terminals. This initiative will enable Shift4 customers and partners across all industries to implement the next generation of payment acceptance devices.
shift4.com
OPERATIONS
- ALICE Wins Multiple HotelTechAwards in 2020
For the third year in a row, ALICE is named the #1 Concierge Software by Hotel Tech Report.
www.aliceplatform.com
SECURITY
- Historic Hotel Karel de Stoute Selects VingCard Essence by ASSA ABLOY Global Solutions with Mobile Access to Blend Security and Convenience with Traditional Luxury
Luxury Dutch boutique hotel implements VingCard Essence door locks with Mobile Access, FLEXIPASS and VingCard C100 E-cylinder locks to ensure a safe, yet seamless stay for modern travelers.
www.assaabloyglobalsolutions.com
MARKET REPORTS
- U.S. Hotel Profit Bounces Back After Downward Blip
A negative profit turn for U.S. hotels in October gave way to robust growth in November, as GOPPAR climbed 6.1% year-over-year, the second-highest increase of 2019, according to data from HotStats.
www.hotstats.com
- HVS Global Hotel Industry Outlook - Ushering in a New Decade
The Global Hotel Industry Outlook report provides expert insights into regional performance for Asia, Canada, Europe, India, Mexico, Middle East, and the United States
hvs.com
PIQUED OUR INTEREST
- The Four Biggest Travel Trends for 2020
- Here Are the Top Tech Trends of 2020, According to Top Experts
- Hotel Developers are Pushing This Lego-like Construction Trend
- The World's Biggest Hotel Chains Are Turning Their Attention to Food Waste
- Hotels Tackling Food Waste as Step Toward Sustainability
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For more information on Piqued Our Interest for 1/10/2020
You-Know-What
And now for you-know-what.…
Resolutions as we all know them...
2016: I will get my weight down below 160 pounds.
2017: I will follow my new diet religiously until I get below 180 pounds.
2018: I will develop a realistic attitude about my weight.
2019: I will work out every day.
2020: I will drive past the gym at least once a week and eat fewer cookies.