Restaurant And Hospitality News – October 27, 2014
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In news this week, the 2015 IT trends are predicted, Wyndham makes a play to garner travelers, Starbucks will pilot its pay ahead option, the first contactless credit card is being developed, and QSR releases the results of its Drive-Thru Performance Study.
2015 Predicted Hospitality And Travel IT Trends
Alan Young, CEO of Puzzle Partners, unveiled his trend predictions for 2015 in Hospitality and Travel technology in this article from Hospitality Net. Trends include universal digital replacing “three screens,” mobile hotel check-in, and searches will provide more information that travelers are looking for when making decisions about accommodations, thanks to Big Data.
Wyndham and Last Minute Travel Partner To Capture Holiday Traveler Market
According to Market Watch, Last Minute Travel and Wyndham Hotels have partnered, adding over 5,500 new hotels in 55 countries to the service. Using the app, travelers now are able to access agent-level prices for over 100,000 hotels around the world from the phone or tablet.
Starbucks to test smartphone 'pay ahead' option in Portland
According to Oregon Live, Starbucks will roll out the pay ahead option on Smartphones first in Portland by the end of this year, followed by a nation-wide introduction in 2015. The pay ahead option is designed to help make peak times more efficient and encourage customers who dislike standing in long lines to get their order.
MasterCard, Zwipe team up for world’s first contactless credit card
Zwipe and MasterCard have partnered to offer the first credit card to use fingerprints to confirm payments. The new card will use a biometric contactless system with an integrated fingerprint sensor, and contains an EMV certified secure element and MasterCard’s contactless application, according to a press release. The biometric authentication replaces PIN entry.
QSR’s Drive-Thru Performance Study
QSR recently published the results of its latest drive-thru performance study, which incorporated 23 brands and broke the survey not only into menu components, but also day-parts to compare service and quality. One noteworthy finding in the survey was the differences in service speed between the dayparts, with breakfast and snack service times being much faster than those of lunch, dinner, and late night.