Innovation

🏡 Choice Hotels International’s 69th Annual Convention is taking place at Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, focusing on enhancing Comfort and Country Inn & Suites brands. The upgrades include improved breakfast options, driven by consumer research emphasizing the importance of breakfast in guest experience. A build-your-own breakfast option is piloted for Comfort, catering to dietary restrictions. Country Inn & Suites introduces breakfast sandwiches with Pillsbury biscuits. Prototype enhancements announced in March reduce Comfort hotels' footprint by 1% and add 18 rooms to Country Inn & Suites hotels. Comfort boasts 2,100 hotels with 140 in the pipeline and a 96% brand awareness rate. Country Inn & Suites, acquired in 2022, has 430 hotels, signaling growth opportunities.

📈 Cendyn, a company specializing in hospitality software, announced updates to its revenue management products, Guestrev and Grouprev, aimed at increasing revenue and profitability for hoteliers and casinos. The enhancements include pricing recommendations, access to enriched lost business data, and tracking of rate changes. Additionally, Cendyn has strengthened its partnerships with Amadeus and Agilysys to improve data integration and response times to RFPs. The innovations allow for a deeper understanding of demand and intelligent pricing decisions. Kevin Duncan, SVP of product at Cendyn, emphasized the company's commitment to innovation and driving commercial success for its clients.

💸 Salt Lake City, UT, 13 January 2025: Yipy raises $1M in pre-seed funding, led by Great Northern and Ollin Ventures, to scale its Hospitality Standards Management System, enhancing hotel service delivery. This funding supports product development and market expansion. By replacing static documents with a centralized system, Yipy aids hotels like The Ritz-Carlton in consistent service delivery, addressing the gap in operational systems for service standards while maintaining property individuality.

📈 Nestor Stay, a London hospitality group, boosted Gross Booking Value by 62% and direct booking revenue by 168% in 2025, utilizing AI via Apaleo's platform. They expanded by 80 units across five buildings, achieving an 8.7 average guest review score. A three-person team handled 84,000 guest messages annually. Key properties achieved 87% occupancy and direct booking increases to 28%. AI automation improved communication, review handling, and booking management, enhancing operational efficiency and performance.

💰 Revenue Analytics and Jonas Chorum have launched a two-way integration in Atlanta, Georgia, leveraging JonasARC's open API. This enables hotels to automate pricing using real-time data flow between Jonas Chorum PMS and Revenue Analytics’ N2Pricing system. Benefits include automated data sync, AI-driven accurate pricing, faster pricing cycles, and a stronger RevPAR capture. The integration is designed for rapid setup, enhancing operational efficiency and reducing manual tasks for hotels.