Although the hospitality industry is known for being somewhat slow to adopt new technologies, industry-related partnerships bring disruptions to hotel operations. The hotel industry also reaps the benefits from new innovations and better ways of doing business that stems from partnerships. Specifically for technology collaborations, hoteliers can find newer and easier ways to generate business.
Blonder Tongue Laboratories, Inc. and Innovative Systems
Blonder Tongue Labs is a telecommunications, video, and cable technology manufacturer and designer, and Innovative Systems is launching two new platforms for Blonder Tongue’s NXG IP Digital Signal Processing Platform. The NXG supports video service demarcation and turnaround services based on Innovative Systems’ InnoCryption encryption technology. The new products integrate with additional Innovative Systems software. The NXG platforms can be installed in a single visit.
BlueZoo and Google Cloud
BlueZoo is a company that provides accurate ways of measuring building occupancy to reduce insurance costs and promote hotel safety. The partnership between BlueZoo and Google Cloud is implementing a concept similar to telematics to hotel property insurance. The concept will track building occupancy to reduce insurance costs, improve building safety, and change how guests think about buildings. The actual tracking device is the size of a deck of cards and uses WiFi signals from cellphones and privacy-protected sensors to measure lighting usage, foot traffic, areas of congestion, and other risk metrics through Google Cloud’s capabilities. Coupled with BlueZoo’s operations, building owners can mitigate risks while protecting privacy.
FETCH and Zaplox
Pay-and-order hospitality solutions provider FETCH has partnered with mobile guest and key service for hotels, Zaplox. Together, FETCH and Zaplox are promoting a contactless hotel experience. The partnership is a non-exclusive mutual referral program that strengthens and supports each company’s operations. FETCH includes contactless ordering systems that reduce interactions without an app download. And through a mobile guest app that is branded for its specific hotel, Zaplox is a contactless front desk solution that allows guests to check-in, get mobile keys, pay, and check out without having to visit the front desk.
Nomadix and 360 Networks
Nomadix has partnered with 360 Networks, which makes hospitality communications platform ComXchange. Together, the companies are putting Angie in-room voice assistants into hotels through an upgraded phone alternative powered by ComXchange PBX. ComXchange provides a robust phone service that works with hotels in the United States. The partnership comes after Nomadix acquired Angie Hospitality earlier this year and is promoting Angie through 360 Networks’ portfolio of resellers.
OpenTable and UrVenue
Online restaurant reservations platform OpenTable has partnered with UrVenue, a hospitality technology solution that creates a unified contactless booking operation for resort experiences. The partnership supports restaurant, club, attraction, pool, and recreation reservations on a single platform. The solution provides new opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, packaging, and bundling experiences. The partnership also includes an online shopping cart and an interactive 3D venue map for location-based books like seats in specific sections.
Tripadvisor and SiteMinder, Roiback, Derbysoft, and WebHotelier
Tripadvisor announced four partnerships with hotel technology providers to participate in Tripadvisor Plus. The individual companies were previously only able to connect to Tripadvisor Plus through select global distribution system providers. Siteminder is an open hotel commerce platform. Roiback is a direct booking engine and digital marketing service. WebHotelier is a booking engine platform specifically geared toward safety and user experience. And Derbysoft is a digital marketing services company that uses artificial intelligence technology to drive results.
Virdee and Oracle Hospitality Expertise
Digital concierge service Virdee has achieved Oracle Validated Integration. Through the partnership, hotels that are running on the OPERA system can leverage Virdee’s functionality to bypass the front desk, market room upgrades, assign rooms, and verify guest identity. Virdee has to meet a set of qualifications—like a demonstration that the integration performs as it should—to achieve Oracle Validated Integration. With OPERA, Virdee’s identity verification model can connect user profiles with reservation data, collect a payment method for incidentals and current charges, assign a room, deliver a mobile key, and mark the guest as “checked in” on the OPERA platform.
