News Briefs

Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, part of the renowned Nobu Hotels luxury hotel group, has appointed sustainability management and ESG reporting platform FuturePlus to help it track, measure and improve its sustainability performance. It is the first hotel to receive a Travel Sustainable Level 3 rating on Booking.com and other travel sites by using the FuturePlus platform to verify its commitment to sustainability.

Located in the heart of central London’s chic Marylebone area, Nobu Hotel London Portman Square features 249 guest rooms and suites, and world class dining options and is notable for its fusion of Japanese-inspired design and impeccable service.

Working with FuturePlus to identify areas for improvement across five key themes (Climate, Environment, Social, Economic, and Diversity and Inclusion), the hotel has made significant steps towards improving its sustainable operations, including working to eliminate single-use plastics from its rooms, employing water-efficient taps and showers, using 100% renewable electricity throughout the building, reducing food wastage and creating DEI initiatives through the review and enhancement of internal policies.

The FuturePlus platform has also enabled Nobu Hotel London Portman Square to establish the groundwork for further progress, by measuring what the company has achieved so far from a sustainability perspective and putting ambitions, processes and strategies in place for the coming years. It is now beginning to review its supply chain and consider ways to source items, including food and beverage, more sustainably, as well as investigating ways to create a zero-landfill ecosystem within the business.

Thanks to its work with FuturePlus, the hotel has achieved the highest possible Level 3 Travel Sustainable badge, a sustainability initiative from Booking.com that enables travellers to make more sustainable choices when booking accommodation. 

In addition to Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, FuturePlus is also working with other properties in the L&R portfolio, including Strand Palace Hotel, Chewton Glen and Cadogan Gardens, as well as various other UK hotels, including Hoar Cross Hall, Sea Containers, One Hundred Shoreditch, and global properties such as Pulitzer Amsterdam, Lyle Washington DC, and Hotel du Parc Bougival. FuturePlus provides the framework to understand, track and measure sustainability and, with access to expert advisors to help continuously improve the sustainability of their operations. 

Alex Smith, Co-Founder and Partner, FuturePlus, comments: “While Nobu Hotel London Portman Place has been a sustainability conscious hotel since its inception in December 2020, we’re proud to have been chosen to support it on the next phase of its sustainability journey. FuturePlus is helping the business to identify the areas that can be improved both now and in the future, with realistic targets and timelines attached to ensure tangible results on an ongoing basis – taking a strategic, rather than purely tactical, approach. We know we can help the hotel work continuously towards becoming a more sustainable operation in 2024 and beyond, bolstered by its Level 3 Travel Sustainable certification.”

Snezana Charalambous, Executive Housekeeper and Head of ESG, Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, says: “When we started working with FuturePlus, we knew that it had a deep knowledge base we needed to tap into in order to move forwards with our sustainability efforts. By understanding elements like sustainability governance frameworks, we’ve been able to put processes and initiatives in place that we hadn’t previously considered. The FuturePlus team has been extremely supportive in helping us to develop new internal policies and processes across various aspects of sustainability, as well as providing guidance and assurance in reviewing and prioritising our goals when it comes to suppliers and partners. Having the Travel Sustainable Level 3 badge is not only important to us, but also to our sustainability-conscious guests.”

Grant Campbell, General Manager, Nobu Hotel London Portman Square, comments: “In our journey towards a sustainable future, we recognise the critical need for long-term accountability in our ESG efforts. This commitment is not just about meeting standards, but fundamentally transforming our culture to embrace adaptation and continuous learning. We understand that the path to sustainability requires speedy action and a dedication to change. By embracing swift, proactive changes we aim to lead by example in our sustainability journey."

Amadeus announces the acquisition of Voxel, a leading provider of electronic invoice and B2B payment solutions for travel sellers, hotels, and other travel players. This will support Amadeus’ vision to deliver a smooth travel payment experience. It will also complement Amadeus’ payments business, Outpayce, by enhancing its existing travel sellers’ product suite, while expanding in the hospitality segment.

The addition of Voxel solutions to Amadeus’ existing offering means access to a wider range of payments services for travel sellers and a more automated electronic way to manage invoices for tour operators, TMCs, hotel aggregators, and hotels. The acquisition of Voxel will also help Amadeus better serve its corporate customers by further automating the business travel experience, from reservation and payments to expense management. Thanks to this integrated technology, Amadeus will continue to better connect the travel industry and reduce manual processes for a smooth experience.

Decius Valmorbida, President, Travel, Amadeus, comments: “The acquisition of Voxel brings a complementary portfolio of solutions to enrich Amadeus’ end-to-end offering, leveraging smart technology in order to benefit the wider travel eco-system and industry. Payments are present at every stage of the travel experience. To make the experience of travel better, it’s crucial we ensure smooth, integrated and even invisible payments. We now have a combined team of experts who are passionate about payments, and a breadth of customers who will now be able to leverage the power of Voxel and Amadeus together. This is yet another example of how Amadeus makes travel work better for everyone, everywhere.”

Àngel Garrido, CEO, Voxel, adds: “Amadeus is truly at the heart of the travel industry, and we couldn’t be more excited to now be part of the team. Amadeus is global in nature, with travel and technology experts working towards a better door-to-door and connected journey. These attributes, combined with Amadeus’ deep roots in travel, have resulted in a unique opportunity for Voxel and Amadeus to grow faster, and further embed innovative and automated technology; improving not only the processes for travel sellers but also travel providers. The combination of our technology, teams, strong cultural fit, and our connections will no doubt bring us one step closer to smoother travel payments.”

David Doctor, CEO, Outpayce, says: “Since the inception of Outpayce, Amadeus’ payments business, the focus has been to strengthen the current end-to-end offering as well as develop an integrated payment ecosystem to which travel companies can connect and access the latest fintech innovations. The acquisition of Voxel allows us to do both. I’m very proud to mark another milestone in our journey to deliver frictionless travel payments. I look forward to working closely with the Voxel team.”

Voxel is an e-invoicing and B2B electronic payments specialist. Voxel’s Bavel Platform orchestrates an end-to-end electronic payment process. 50,000+ hotels, 1,000+ tour operators and travel companies, and 3,000+ restaurants and franchises, across 100 countries, currently benefit from the platform. The platform is made up of Bavel Pay, Bavel Billing, and Bavel Procurement, and handles more than 100 million transactions per year.

Voxel, a privately-owned company, was founded in 1998, and is headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. The acquisition, which is now closed, sees over 200 Voxel employees join Amadeus.

MTech Mobility, a provider of managed mobility and IT service solutions, unveiled its Solution as a Service (SaaS) program today at MURTEC 2024. The company also announced that its Infinity Series mPOS solution, a key component of the SaaS offering, has been named a finalist in the esteemed Ring of Fire Competition, highlighting innovative technologies in the hospitality industry.

The MTech Solution as a Service program is designed to allow enterprises to incorporate the latest technological advancements into their operations effortlessly. By offering a comprehensive package that includes hardware, software, accessories, and IT services for a fixed monthly fee, the program aims to eliminate the need for substantial upfront investments, ensuring a predictable budgeting model for hospitality organizations.

Tony Fernandez, CEO of MTech, emphasized the changing landscape of enterprise technology needs. "As technology continues to evolve at an unprecedented rate, enterprises require solutions that not only keep pace but also offer flexibility and cost predictability,” Fernandez stated. "Our Solution as a Service program is specifically designed to meet these needs, providing a comprehensive, cost-effective solution for hospitality organizations worldwide."

MTech distinguishes itself as a full-service solution provider with a global footprint extending across more than 50 countries and managing over 1.2 million devices. The company’s robust network of over 20 vendor partnerships grants access to the latest devices and complete IT lifecycle support.

Attendees of MURTEC 2024 are invited to visit MTech at booth 201, shared with Samsung, to discover more about the transformative potential of Solution as a Service program for technology procurement and management in organizations.

Olo Inc. announced an expanded partnership with Qu to offer Olo Pay card-present payment processing via Point-Of-Sale (POS).. In addition to Olo Pay, Qu will integrate with the Olo Engage product suite to empower restaurant brands with Hospitality at Scale solutions that inform data-driven decision making and elevate the guest experience.

Both Pay and Engage integrations will be instrumental in supporting the industry’s increasing adoption of digital. By integrating with Qu POS, Olo Pay will allow brands to streamline the on-premises payment process by unifying payments management and reducing challenges when it comes to reconciliation, voiding, and refunding. Similar to Olo’s card-present payment processing capabilities offered via kiosk, guests will have the same flexible payment experience Olo Pay offers in non-card present transactions, including the ability to pay with mobile wallets.

• 85% say integrations with other systems is driving POS purchasing decisions, according to HT's 2024 POS Software Trends Survey

The Olo Pay card-present integration with Qu POS will be live later this year.

“According to data from Circana, 84% of restaurant transactions are not yet digital. Olo’s integration with Qu brings the industry one step closer to reaching 100% digital, equipping our restaurant brands with the flexible tools to increase orders, streamline operations, and make every guest feel like a regular,” said Noah Glass, Founder & CEO of Olo. “Olo’s open platform and Olo Connect network of over 300 integrated technology providers prove that working together is the best way to accelerate the industry’s digital transformation: a philosophy Qu shares. The industrial logic of the partnership between Olo and Qu is clear, and we’re proud to offer this new level of flexibility through our Olo Pay and Engage integration.”

With the addition of the Engage integration, restaurant brands leveraging Qu’s POS will be empowered to aggregate both digital and in-store interactions made possible by the Olo Pay integration, as well as, all online guest interactions into a single guest data profile to better understand their guests, provide hyper-personalized interactions, and deliver personalized hospitality.

“This partnership is rooted in our joint desire to further digital innovation industry-wide, ensuring brands get more out of this best-in-class in-store and digital solution,” said Amir Hudda, CEO of Qu. “Enabling card-present digital transactions at the POS will not only streamline the payment process, but it will also allow brands to collect more data than ever, down to the ingredient level, that can be used to further personalize each guest experience through Olo Engage.”

PAR Technology Corporation announced two transactions that expand its cloud-based unified commerce software offerings into convenience stores and fuel retailers, as well as international markets. 

Both transactions adhere to PAR’s disciplined M&A strategy of acquiring best-in-class products with marquee customer bases, ample cross-selling opportunities, and significant addressable markets. Further, both deals are highly financially accretive and supercharge PAR’s path to sustainable profitability.

• TASK, an Australia-based global foodservice transaction platform, offers international unified commerce solutions, including interactive customer engagement and seamless integration, tailored for major brands worldwide. This has made TASK’s transaction management platform the platform of choice for some of the world’s most successful and recognized foodservice brands including, Starbucks, and Guzman Y Gomez while its loyalty customer engagement platform is used by McDonald’s in 65 markets. With the addition of TASK, PAR will be able to serve the top enterprise foodservice brands across the globe with a unified commerce approach from front-of-house to back-of-house.
• Stuzo, a digital engagement software provider to Convenience and Fuel Retailers (C-Stores), including its Open Commerce  Platform, empowers C-Stores to gain more share of the customer wallet and drive customer lifetime value. This acquisition strengthens PAR’s business strategy to expand its available market by addressing an expanding foodservice market with a ‘best of breed’ platform that is highly profitable. With Stuzo, PAR is now a leader in technology for convenience and fuel retailers with over 25,000 sites and substantial opportunities for innovation in the C-Store industry.  

PAR has entered into an agreement to acquire TASK Group for cash and PAR common stock at an implied value of approximately $206 million assuming an all-cash transaction, and has completed its acquisition of Stuzo Holdings, LLC for approximately $190 million paid in cash and stock. The closing of the TASK acquisition is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2024, subject to TASK shareholder approval, Australian court approval, certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Interplay Learning, a provider of online and VR training for the essential skilled trades announced that  Sonesta International Hotels Corporation (Sonesta), a globally renowned hotel company with 1,200+ hotel properties worldwide, selected Interplay to increase engineer training adoption and advance safety initiatives for 500 impacted employees. Since implementing Interplay’s innovative training solution in the latter half of 2023, Sonesta has already observed a 50% increase in training adoption over the previous year.

Focused on a safety-first approach, Sonesta prioritized launching quarterly core safety courses and emphasized OSHA compliance within its training programs. Intending to modernize training delivery and increase engagement for maintenance engineers, the hotel group made huge strides in these critical areas, enabling Sonesta to provide innovative simulation training that engineers want to use, stay at the forefront of industry best practices, develop careers, and deliver exceptional experiences to guests.

“Our main focus was getting our engineers engaged and into the training so we could build core safety skills and level-set foundational competencies,” said Kate Stiteler, Director of Training at Sonesta. “Interplay has been a great partner in delivering training that fits the growing and changing needs of the hotel business at scale, and the impressive doubling of our training adoption rates within just six months is a testament to its effectiveness.”

“Our partnership with Interplay has been transformative for our training programs, and we are excited about the possibilities it opens up for the future as we explore learning paths customized to distinct job roles and property types,” said Steve Jurczyk, Director of National Engineering & Facilities Operations, Sonesta. “While safety is a primary focus, we now offer skill-specific courses for our hotel engineers.  We’d love to expand our training to include VR to enhance the learning experience and also help attract new talent into our maintenance and engineering departments.”

“Sonesta is redefining hospitality standards by focusing on innovation in its maintenance and engineer training,” said Doug Donovan, CEO and founder of Interplay Learning. “The significant increase in training adoption rates is a testament to their forward-thinking training strategy, and we take pride in our role in supporting Sonesta as they lead the charge in upskilling their workforce.”