News Briefs

Real estate investment and hospitality management company Highgate has expanded its long-standing collaboration with SONIFI, naming the company a preferred partner for guest technology solutions across its hotel portfolio.

Under the new partnership, Highgate-managed properties have access to exclusive pricing and support teams for SONIFI’s full suite of solutions, including Wi-Fi, interactive TVs, streaming and free-to-guest programming. 

Highgate selected SONIFI for its proven ability to deploy scalable, high-performance technologies across diverse brands and asset types. As part of the 2025 rollout, SONIFI will upgrade Wi-Fi networks at more than 70 Highgate properties in the U.S., enhancing digital infrastructure for both branded and independent hotels. 

Among the flagship properties benefiting from the partnership is Florida’s TradeWinds Resort, a beachfront destination spanning 40 acres and 1,600 feet of shoreline. There, SONIFI will deliver managed Wi-Fi, linear TV and streaming content powered by an interactive platform that elevates the guest experience and unlocks incremental on-premises revenue opportunities.

“Our partnership with SONIFI is a strategic alignment with a technology leader that shares our commitment to delivering exceptional hospitality experiences,” said Mike Uwe Dickersbach, Chief Information & Digital Officer at Highgate. “Their understanding of the nuanced needs of our diverse portfolio makes them an ideal partner as we continue to innovate and scale.”

“Being named a preferred partner by Highgate reflects our shared vision for excellence in guest experiences,” said Ahmad Ouri, CEO of SONIFI. “We’re proud to support Highgate’s properties with reliable, revenue-driving technology solutions tailored to today’s hospitality demands.”

Pret A Manger has partnered with  FreedomPay to provide a seamless and resilient payment experience for customers worldwide.

This collaboration is already powering Pret in three major markets—the United Kingdom, United States and Hong Kong with further deployments planned in Europe later in 2025.

This partnership provides Pret with a robust and reliable platform to support its continued growth. FreedomPay's  solution ensuring payment acceptance is consistently available and operational, a critical factor for success in the fast-paced quick service restaurant (QSR) industry. The platform's store-and-forward functionality ensures uninterrupted transaction processing even during connectivity disruptions, allowing Pret to maintain business continuity and maximize revenue.

Chris Matthews, Global Retail Technology Director at Pret A Manger said, "At Pret, we are committed to providing a frictionless and enjoyable experience for our customers. Partnering with FreedomPay allows us to leverage their best-in-class technology to ensure secure and reliable payment processing, no matter where our customers are in the world. This partnership is a key ingredient in our recipe for international success, allowing us to focus on what we do best: delivering delicious, freshly made food and organic coffee."

"We are thrilled to partner with Pret A Manger to bring our secure and innovative commerce solutions to their expanding global market," said Chris Kronenthal, President at FreedomPay. "This collaboration reflects our commitment to empowering QSR brands with the technology they need to thrive in today's digital landscape. We look forward to providing Pret with data-driven insights to enhance their operations and customer satisfaction through our integrated Next Level Commerce™ platform."

SpotOn announced the launch of SpotOn Profit Assist, the first AI-powered tool built specifically to help restaurant operators automate profit and loss (P&L) analysis and take greater control of rising costs. With inflation persisting and consumer spending under pressure, independent restaurant operators are being asked to do more with less. SpotOn Profit Assist arrives at a critical moment for restaurants, offering clear, actionable recommendations for operators and accountants to reduce expenses and protect margin — without requiring hours of manual spreadsheet analysis. 

Purpose-built for restaurants, Profit Assist connects with popular accounting platforms like QuickBooks Online, Xero and Restaurant 365 to automatically analyze a restaurant’s P&L, identify spending anomalies, and surface tailored cost-saving opportunities. For multi-unit operators, the tool will benchmark performance across locations. For independents, it will compare financials against similar restaurants, making sure no one’s flying blind.

SpotOn Profit Assist is already saving restaurants an average of 4.3% in total costs — a meaningful lift for operators balancing high food prices, unpredictable labor, and fluctuating demand. With economic uncertainty likely to linger, the ability to make smarter, faster financial decisions can be the difference between staying afloat and thriving.

"It’s like having a financial advisor built into my POS,” said Khara Mangiduyos of Kalei's Kitchenette. “I don’t have to wait until the end of the month—I get real-time insights that help me make smarter decisions every single day."

As part of SpotOn’s commitment to bringing AI across its product ecosystem, Profit Assist helps restaurants:

• Access a full, AI-analyzed P&L by integrating with their accounting software
• Uncover hidden cost-saving opportunities by looking at anomalies month over month and providing clear, specific recommendations
• Take greater control of margins and make confident, data-driven decisions
• Forecast labor and revenue more accurately with predictive insights

“Restaurants are and always have been a tight margin business, so understanding and actively managing costs is an industry wide need,” said Bryan Solar, Chief Product Officer at SpotOn. “Finding the free time to analyze each cost in a mountain of data is a real challenge. Profit Assist pulls together the numbers that matter — not just the dollars coming in, but the dollars going out — and turns them into clear, actionable insights so they can make smarter decisions with confidence.”

Profit Assist follows SpotOn Marketing Assist that creates and sends personalized campaigns based on real-time guest data. With Marketing Assist and Profit Assist, SpotOn is helping restaurants take control of what they can, so they can focus on what matters: serving great food, delivering great hospitality, and building resilient businesses.

Operators can learn more and join the Profit Assist waitlist at spoton.com/profit-assist-waitlist. 

Hotel Communication Network (HCN), a provider of AI-powered in-room guest engagement solutions, announces the acquisition of Crave Interactive, a UK-based innovator specializing in digital guest experiences for luxury hotels. This strategic move positions HCN as a dominant force in the global hospitality technology sector, expanding its reach across the four- and five-star hotel markets. The deal closed today for an undisclosed amount.

Crave Interactive, established in 2009, has built a reputation for delivering high-quality in-room tablets and AI-driven guest services, catering to an elite clientele that includes MGM Resorts, Fairmont, and Hyatt. Their platform facilitates seamless guest interactions, from room service orders to spa bookings, enhancing the overall guest experience.

HCN's acquisition of Crave Interactive is a calculated step towards integrating complementary technologies and expertise and expanding HCN’s growing ad network, which allows hoteliers to acquire the substantial capabilities of this powerful guest engagement platform at greatly reduced rates through HCN’s newly introduced ad-subsidized model. HCN is combining can’t-miss proactive digital signage with global brand advertising that pleases guests and creates new sources of revenue for hotels.

HCN and Crave tablets are set to transform the hotel experience globally with a true AI breakthrough. A multilingual human-looking AI Concierge is introduced to each guest via the tablet, becoming their personal assistant, a helping hand with hotel communication, a city navigator, and an itinerary builder.  With ad revenues supporting this innovation, the technology is now within reach of every hotel globally. HCN offers hotels a new level of personalization and service for every guest on a mass scale.

“This acquisition is more than a merger of technologies; it's a fusion of visions aimed at redefining the guest experience," said Kevin Bidner, CEO of HCN. "By combining our strengths, we will deliver unparalleled value to hoteliers and guests alike."

HCN views this acquisition as a significant consolidation in the hospitality tech space. The combined company will have operations and installations in 25 countries with both tablet and mobile applications. With this acquisition, HCN has created a truly global solution for an industry seeking to modernize their in-room services and guest experience strategies.

Mews has announced a major usage milestone for its AI-powered Smart Tips feature, which now garners over 5 million views weekly from hospitality teams worldwide. Integrated directly into Mews’ property management system (PMS), AI Smart Tips centralizes and summarizes each guest’s key data—such as reservation history, preferences, and staff notes—making it instantly accessible across all guest touchpoints. The goal is to streamline personalization at scale by eliminating the need to toggle between disparate systems or manually hunt for insights.

Hotels like Boardwalk Boutique Hotel Aruba and Auberge St Pol in Belgium report that Smart Tips has transformed their approach to guest engagement by enabling teams to offer tailored touches (like leaving bananas for a guest who previously showed a preference for them). The tool also aligns well with evolving workflows, as it lives inside high-traffic areas of the PMS like guest profiles and reservation calendars. The result: more efficient teams and consistently elevated guest experiences.

Why It Matters

1. Real-Time, Contextual AI Without Disrupting Workflow
What makes Mews’ Smart Tips notable is not just its AI capabilities but how and where they’re embedded. By situating this functionality within high-use interfaces—guest profiles and calendars—it ensures low-friction adoption. Hotel IT leaders know that even the most advanced tools can fail if they interrupt daily routines. This is a clear case of AI enhancing existing workflows, not replacing them.

2. Personalization Without the Complexity
The hospitality industry has long struggled to scale personalization. Traditional CRMs and PMSs often require deep configuration or manual input to deliver meaningful guest insights. Smart Tips automates the aggregation, synthesis, and presentation of relevant data, giving hotel staff an “at-a-glance” view of the guest, complete with practical context.

For IT leaders, this is an example of AI being operationalized rather than experimental. It doesn’t rely on speculative generative capabilities or novel interfaces—just intelligent summarization embedded in the right place at the right time.

3. Democratizing Guest Intelligence Across Departments
Mews' approach bridges a major gap in hotel tech: making guest insights accessible to non-desk staff. When housekeeping or maintenance can reference the same guest profile insights as front desk staff, it facilitates cross-departmental consistency in service delivery. This aligns with broader IT goals around data unification and interoperability.

4. A Scalable Loyalty Engine in Disguise
Guest recognition is often treated as a luxury capability reserved for high-end brands with large loyalty programs. But Mews is positioning Smart Tips as a loyalty enabler for independent and boutique hotels, which traditionally lack the tools to operationalize returning-guest intelligence. This represents a democratization of guest relationship tech, an important strategic priority as loyalty becomes less points-based and more experience-driven.

5. A Quiet AI Win in a Noisy Market
While the hospitality AI conversation often focuses on chatbots, revenue management, or marketing automation, Smart Tips stands out for its quiet practicality. It doesn’t promise to revolutionize operations overnight but instead offers incremental improvements that add up—from quicker check-ins to deeper guest satisfaction.

SalesAndCatering.com, a leader in sales and catering software solutions for the hospitality industry, is excited to announce its partnership with Champion Hotels. Champion Hotels, the largest privately-owned hotel operator in the United States, has selected STS Cloud as its group sales and event management platform, and already successfully onboarded 21 of its properties.

Based in Oklahoma, Champion Hotels operates a diverse portfolio of over 150 properties ranging from luxury full-service hotels to limited-service accommodations. By adopting STS Cloud, the company aims to optimize group sales processes, streamline event management, and enable real-time collaboration across its locations.

The STS platform provides end-to-end functionality for event management, spanning lead generation, booking, planning, event execution workflows, reporting, and analytics. It modernizes the event management business by replacing cumbersome manual processes with a comprehensive, easy-to-use system, empowering clients to efficiently manage and grow their event operations.

"STS Cloud stood out as the right choice for our growing portfolio because of its intuitive design, comprehensive reporting, and real-time accessibility across departments,” said Mike Farney, Area Director of Sales, Champion Hotels Management & Development. “We’re confident this platform will not only streamline our group sales and catering operations, but also support better communication and faster decision-making across all 21 properties.” 

The cloud-based STS Cloud platform facilitates seamless lead tracking, booking management, and reporting capabilities. Designed for the modern hospitality industry, it allows sales and event teams to work from any location or device, ensuring maximum flexibility and productivity. 

Ryan Hamilton, Co-Founder of SalesAndCatering.com, added, “We’re thrilled to welcome Champion Hotels to the STS Cloud family. Champion’s commitment to excellence in hospitality aligns perfectly with our mission to deliver smart, powerful tools that drive group sales success. This partnership showcases the strength of STS Cloud in supporting multi-property operators with modern, scalable technology.” 

SalesAndCatering.com continues to lead the way in providing robust, affordable solutions for hotel groups, management companies, and independent operators, ensuring they can efficiently manage group sales and events in a competitive and dynamic industry.