Lolly announces exclusive partnership with 125 Data & Insights to drive guest satisfaction

-New ‘freemium’ guest feedback tool available only to Lolly customers–

Lolly, the UK-based hospitality technology specialist, has announced a new partnership with customer insight experts 125 Data & Insights, offering its clients exclusive early access to 125’s industry-leading guest feedback and reporting platform.

For the first time, Lolly customers can activate a six-month freemium trial of the 125 solution, enabling them to effortlessly deploy branded surveys, gather real-time customer feedback, and turn insights into measurable improvements. This marks the first exclusive rollout of its kind for 125, previously known as Feed It Back, and further strengthens Lolly’s mission to equip hospitality operators with smart, scalable tools that drive performance.

The solution includes ready-made, high-performing surveys, NPS tracking, topic analysis, and the popular 125 Daily summary of performance, empowering operators to identify trends, respond to customer sentiment, and benchmark their results. With survey completion rates averaging 80%, clients can generate powerful data to guide operations, improve satisfaction, and boost repeat visits.

Harriet Gribble, Product Manager at Lolly, commented, “This is a win-win for our clients. The 125 platform adds immediate value by turning customer feedback into action, and the six-month freemium offer means there’s zero barrier to trying it out. It’s another example of how we’re making smart technology simple, accessible, and impactful.”

The partnership offers dual value to both new and existing customers. New users will be invited to activate the feature during the onboarding journey, while current Lolly clients will be able to access it via a simple sign-up and ready-to-use survey templates.

Luci Cunningham, Sales Director at 125, added, “We’re absolutely thrilled about our new partnership with Lolly. Their dedication to supporting Food & Beverage operations aligns perfectly with our mission to empower businesses through actionable feedback. By combining Lolly’s operational excellence with our data and insights capabilities, we’re confident this collaboration will lead to happier customers and increased repeat visits.”

The exclusive trial goes live in July, with the opportunity to continue using the service after the six months for a low-cost monthly fee. For Lolly clients, this collaboration delivers new opportunities to strengthen guest experiences and make informed business decisions without the complexity.

For more information, please visit our website: www.itslolly.com 

SIHOT consolidates digital guest journey with EasyConnect

Hotel management system simplifies guest communications at each touch point of the hotel’s digital experience

SIHOT, one of the leading hotel management systems, has launched EasyConnect, a fully integrated smart platform to make the digital guest journey seamless.

Addressing the need to simplify the management of digital guest touchpoints, EasyConnect brings together the different products within the guest journey where hoteliers can manage guest communications and track all guest engagement in the PMS. EasyConnect provides an access point to adapt guest communication for multiple channels such as email and SMS, and in future Whatsapp, to keep engagement consistent, yet personalized for guests. 

As part of the development, SIHOT has implemented a number of consumer-ready features and security controls including; simple authentication to assist in deduplicating data by consolidating guest profiles with social logins via Google and Apple; tailored communications with HTML template designs and personalized upsell opportunities; and reservation confirmations integrated into mobile wallets for seamless property access and check in experiences.

Full tracking gives hotels greater visibility of each guest’s engagement at each touchpoint to analyze the guest lifecycle from booking to post-stay feedback. EasyConnect can also manage and administrate multiple properties to ensure brand consistency.

Carsten Wernet, Chief Executive of SIHOT said, “Our goal is to give hoteliers transparency of the digital guest journey - to understand what works for each customer and tailor the experience accordingly. The seamless networking of all SIHOT systems involved in the entire digital guest journey centralizes the management of communications and data. Not only is this improving work flows for hotel staff, but it's offering valuable insights on guest behaviour which can feed back into the overall commercial and operational strategy of the hotel.”

Further developments are on the roadmap including integrations with Whatsapp and additional communications channels, as well as mobile keys in smartphone wallets.

Earlier this year, SIHOT published  “Making it through the digital jungle” – a comprehensive guide to digital transformation to support hoteliers with digital developments to redefine and elevate the guest experience. 

For more information contact SIHOT or visit www.sihot.com

Hospitality tech startup Inntelo AI raises over £500,000 in pre-seed round

UK-based hospitality technology company Inntelo AI has raised more than £500,000 in a pre-seed funding round to fuel its commercial growth. It follows impressive early traction, with multiple hotels adopting its AI Concierge platform.

The £506,000 round was led by venture capital fund Haatch and its partner British Business Bank, with participation from Look AI Ventures. The round also included support from several angel investors, including former executives from Trip.com, DocuSign, and others. It follows an earlier £120,000 investment from Antler, the world's most active early-stage investor, at the company's inception.

Inntelo AI has developed an innovative platform for hotels that combines guest and team communication seamlessly, leveraging both conversational and agentic AI to improve the guest experience while delivering real operational efficiencies. The Inntelo AI Concierge automates guest enquiries via WhatsApp or phone and converts them into coordinated tasks, improving team responsiveness across all departments, including housekeeping, maintenance, food and beverage outlets, spas, and any other services the hotel provides.

While all industries are undergoing AI transformation, hotels face unique pressures: growing competition, rising costs, and the need to attract a new generation of workers. At the same time, real estate owners, brands, and operators are re-evaluating their models as AI becomes capable of delivering human-like guest interactions and improving team coordination at scale.

Inntelo’s solution is built with deep domain expertise and aims to benefit all key stakeholders – hotel guests, teams, brands, and owners. The company has already gained traction with both independent and franchised hotels, including Radisson and Wyndham branded properties in the UK, UAE, and across Europe, with more hotels currently being onboarded.

The seed funding will help accelerate the company’s commercial growth, expanding sales and marketing while supporting ongoing customer deployments and integration with property management systems. 

Inntelo AI was co-founded by CEO Asif Alidina (pictured above), who has previously worked for over a decade in hotel housekeeping and facilities management. The hands-on experience of the startup’s leadership team – combined with a newly announced global advisory board of senior operators, technologists, and academics from companies including Accor, Fairmont, and Hilton – ensures the company’s solutions are aligned with real-world hospitality needs. 

Asif Alidina, Co-Founder and CEO of Inntelo AI, said: “Hospitality’s AI transformation must be led from within the industry. Too often, hotels have struggled to adopt new technologies because they were developed without real operational insight. We’re incredibly excited about this new era, where the hospitality sector can not only embrace technology earlier than ever before, but also lead the way for the wider real estate and service industries.

“AI can improve guest experiences and create better working environments for hotel teams. That’s the future we’re building toward, and this round gives us the support to move faster and go further.”

Fred Soneya, Co-Founder and General Partner at Haatch, added: “Inntelo AI has all the hallmarks we look for in a high-potential startup – deep sector knowledge, real operational insight, and a product solving a clear pain point in a large, global market. We’re excited to back Asif and the team as they help hotels unlock the power of AI to transform the guest experience and streamline operations at scale.” 

Angelo Burgarello, Partner at Look AI Ventures, added: “At Look AI Ventures, we invest in transformative AI technologies with the potential to reshape entire industries. Inntelo AI perfectly embodies this vision. What immediately stood out to us was Inntelo’s ability to bridge the gap between guest expectations and hotel staff operations, something most solutions address only partially. The result is a unified, elevated guest journey and highly efficient hotel staff coordination. We were particularly impressed by the team’s deep domain expertise and the capabilities of their product. We’re proud to support the Inntelo team on their mission to redefine hospitality through AI-driven innovation.”

Advantage Travel Partnership announces new strategic payment partnership with Connexpay

Advantage Travel Partnership has today announced a new strategic payment partnership with ConnexPay which will provide services and solutions to Advantage's members and their customer base. This collaboration offers multi-currency options and a service designed to streamline and optimise payment flows across the business travel eco-system.

Founded in 2017, ConnexPay offers an all-in-one payment platform for businesses, connecting incoming customer sales and outgoing supplier payments, thereby enhancing transparency and reconciliation. With global solutions for travel related companies, ConnexPay offers Virtual Card (VCN) issuing across six continents to pay with Visa, MasterCard or the UATP card. It has been reported that businesses switching to ConnexPay have experienced up to a 10% uplift in card rebates through the brand's proprietary Intelligent PayOuts.

Travel agents often struggle with the gap between customer payments and the suppliers they need to pay, creating cash flow stress and reconciliation headaches. Through their platform, ConnexPay simplifies workflows, improves working capital, reduces risk for card acceptance, simplifies reconciliation, and offers competitive rates for card acceptance and issuance. This new partnership strengthens Advantage’s proposition and provides members with further support within its One-Stop Business Hub.

Andrea Caulfield-Smith, Managing Director Global Business Travel of The Advantage Travel Partnership, stated: “We are delighted to welcome ConnexPay onboard to offer strategic payment solutions to our members. Payment is a critical part of our members’ businesses, so we want to enable them to streamline this process and see this as a significant step in providing support. By partnering with ConnexPay, members will be able to improve their cash flow, changing the way online sellers do business, while also reducing any risks due to operating on one platform, thus reinforcing our commitment to innovation. We look forward to seeing how this partnership enhances the payment experience across the business travel ecosystem and supports greater transparency, control, and efficiency for all stakeholders involved.”

Ben Peters, CEO at ConnexPay added: “Travel agents are facing fierce competition and rapid industry changes. Through our partnership with Advantage, their members can now eliminate long-standing cash flow gaps by converting customer transactions into real-time supplier payments. We're excited to support both leisure and business travel Advantage Travel Partnership members in transforming their payment processes and accelerating business growth.”

Lolly expands team to support continued growth

- Investing in talent to drive innovation into 2025 -

Lolly, the leading provider of innovative hospitality technology solutions, is delighted to welcome a new wave of team members as the company continues its expansion. Following a year of significant growth, Lolly is strengthening its workforce to enhance its capabilities and maintain its position at the forefront of the industry. With further recruitment planned in the coming months, 2025 is set to be another exciting year for the business as Lolly continues to drive technological advancements in hospitality.

Dylan Rowsell has joined as a Marketing Assistant, where he will be responsible for creating copy for articles and press releases, as well as designing bespoke graphical content for Lolly’s website, social media channels, and email marketing campaigns. He also manages audience segmentation within Mailchimp, conducts competitor analysis, and implements SEO strategies to drive engagement and generate high-quality leads. Dylan began his marketing career as a Digital Marketing Apprentice, working in fulfilment, storage, logistics, and eCommerce warehousing before joining Lolly.

He comments: “I am proud to be part of such a talented and driven team. Lolly’s commitment to innovation makes it an exciting place to work.”

Matthew Bennett has taken on the position of Junior App Developer. His role involves adding new features to Lolly’s apps, fixing bugs, and researching new technologies to enhance their functionality. Originally starting his career as an IT Technician, Matthew transitioned into web development and later into app development, focusing on .NET. After moving from South Africa to the UK, he joined Lolly to further his expertise in app development.

He adds: “I’m excited to be part of Lolly and to contribute to developing cutting-edge solutions for the hospitality sector.”

Ben Stewart joins as an Operations Specialist, responsible for configuring payment and EPoS hardware for engineers to deploy on-site. He has also taken on the role of in-house CAD designer, creating bespoke 3D-printed brackets, components, and mounts to enhance user experience. Ben previously worked in a large-scale enterprise computing logistics company, where he specialised in building, dismantling, and configuring servers and computers.

He comments: “I’m thrilled to apply my skills in both operations and design to help improve customer experiences at Lolly.”

Peter Colson has been appointed Robot Sales Manager. He is responsible for creating sales opportunities and supporting account managers in selling robotics solutions to customers across hospitality, logistics, warehousing, retail, and healthcare. Peter has an extensive background in technical sales, particularly in industrial automation, barcode identification systems, and conveying and automation systems.

He adds: “Lolly is at the forefront of innovation, and I’m eager to help drive the adoption of robotics within key industries.”

Peter Moore, CEO of Lolly, said: “It’s fantastic to welcome our new team members as we continue to grow and evolve. Their expertise and enthusiasm will be instrumental in shaping the future of Lolly. We’re starting 2025 strong, with even more recruitment planned in the coming months as we expand our capabilities and strengthen our offering to customers.”

For more information, please visit: www.itslolly.com 

Visito unveils AI phone call agent for hotels

• Visito has launched Visito Voice, an AI assistant that handles guest phone calls with real-time, natural interactions – eliminating hold times and resolving over 50% of incoming calls.

• Available 24/7 in 50+ languages, the AI phone call agent integrates with top property management systems and seamlessly hands off calls to staff when needed.

• With Visito Voice, hotels can reduce support costs and free up staff for high-value interactions, while maintaining a personal touch through intelligent AI-driven automation.

Visito, a leading conversational AI platform for independent hotels, today announced the launch of Visito Voice, an AI-powered voice assistant designed to handle incoming guest phone calls with natural, real-time interactions.

Visito Voice enables hotels to automate phone-based guest support, resolving over 50% of incoming calls while ensuring a seamless hand-off to staff when needed. Available 24/7 in more than 50 languages, the AI assistant eliminates hold times, understands conversational speech, and integrates directly with leading property management systems.

Pormer Sarram, Co-founder and CEO of Visito, said: “Phone calls remain a major part of guest communication, but they’re also one of the most time-consuming. Hotels today need a smarter way to handle high call volumes without losing the personal touch. With Visito Voice, guests can get instant answers from a human-like agent, or be transferred to human staff when needed. That frees up teams to focus on more complex and urgent interactions.”

Built on the same infrastructure as Visito’s messaging platform, Visito Voice ensures a unified experience across voice and text. Calls can instantly transition to WhatsApp, allowing guests to continue conversations over text or complete a booking via the website.

Meanwhile, hotel staff receive call summaries and insights into guest preferences, enabling them to manage phone interactions with the same tools they use for text-based support.

Visito automates up to 97% of guest interactions across various channels, helping hoteliers minimise support costs, increase direct bookings, and enhance the overall guest experience.

Peter Moore - Founder & CEO of Lolly - One man and his hospitality robot(s)

A passion for creating technology firsts in hospitality; always with an eye to the future…

At the beginning of the year, Peter Moore (the CEO at Lolly who is forever looking to the future…) said: “Whether overtly or covertly, the use of AI will be enormous in the year ahead across every sector.”

And within the hospitality industry in which his company specialises, Peter advised: “Those more forward-thinking providers will continue to embrace AI and ML (machine learning), in order to create greater levels of personalisation and to improve the customer experience.”

That could include facially-recognising a customer as they walk through the door, or enabling them to pay-by-face for a slicker, more professional experience.

Spearheading his award-winning company, they have launched both industry and world firsts. From hospitality robots to FacePay and Bitcoin payments. Peter comments:

“I have a passion for technology and putting it in the reach of ordinary, everyday users. At Lolly, we have an exciting roadmap for the next five years. We’re constantly creating hospitality solutions to create real business efficiencies.

“We know first-hand just what a torrid few years it has been for the sector - from the pandemic to staffing issues, and now the rising cost of living. Hospitality providers have to remain relevant and one step ahead of their competitors to stay in business.”

For more information on Lolly, please visit: https://www.itslolly.com/

Lolly Announces Charity Partnership with Braintree Area Foodbank for 2024

Hospitality specialist supports local charity as demand increases for its service

Lolly, the hospitality software house, is proud to announce a 12-month charity partnership with Braintree Area Foodbank. This collaboration will focus on providing vital support to the foodbank, by way of food and monetary donations internally and volunteering, with Lolly matching financial donations each month with a minimum of £250.

The Braintree Area Foodbank has been a cornerstone of support in the region, ensuring no individual or family goes hungry. As well as being a support network for the recipients, they connect them with resources and support agencies that can offer them more long-term support for their situation.  As the cost of living continues to rise, the foodbank is facing unprecedented demand, serving nearly triple the number of individuals this year alone— compared to just a few years ago.

“This partnership comes at a crucial time. We’ve seen a significant drop in food and financial donations, creating a bigger resource gap,” said Henry Hopkins, charity manager at Braintree Area Foodbank. “Last year, we spent £85,000 purchasing food, and this year we estimate that number will reach £120,000. Partnerships like this with Lolly are crucial for keeping our services running and raising awareness of the challenges many people face.

“Lolly's partnership will provide vital contributions. Additionally, the collaboration will work to elevate the visibility of food poverty, a critical yet often misunderstood issue. There's a common attitude that poverty exists ‘elsewhere,’ but it’s happening here, in our communities.”

Peter Moore, CEO at Lolly, said: “We are honoured to be working alongside Braintree Area Foodbank, a charity making a real difference in our community.

“This partnership will help provide essential resources and support to those in need, we are deeply passionate about food poverty and helping to spread awareness of the foodbank’s services and debunking misconceptions about who the foodbank serves. Through partnerships like this, the foodbank can continue to inform, support and uplift our community.”

For more information about Braintree Area Foodbank and how to get involved, please visit: https://braintreearea.foodbank.org.uk/

'The Key to Intelligent Integration and Control in Hotels'

In the fast evolving hotel design industry, the implementation of automation systems has brought a revolution in the way we interact with spaces and services. The quest for efficient intelligent integration and control has led to the emergence of the KNX standard as a fundamental element in this domain. This article delves deeper into how Zennio, a leading provider of automation solutions, exploits the power of the KNX standard to enable seamless communication between different systems and devices within a hotel building. By offering a centralized and integrated control system known as the Guest Room Management System (GRMS), Zennio transforms the way hotels manage and control their operations.

The KNX standard serves as a communication protocol that seamlessly connects various elements within a hotel, including lighting, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning), access control, energy management, and more. Zennio's expertise focuses on managing and integrating these diverse systems into a single, centrally controlled GRMS. By doing so, they empower hotels to adopt a great approach to managing and controlling their operations, eliminating the need for separate control interfaces for each system. This consolidation simplifies the overall management process and enhances efficiency.

One of the standout advantages of the KNX standard is its exceptional ability to achieve interoperability between different systems. In practical terms, this means that devices from various manufacturers can intercommunicate and work seamlessly together, irrespective of their individual specifications. This level of interoperability provides hotel owners and operators with the freedom to select devices and systems that best suit their unique needs, without being locked into a specific vendor or technology. And Zennio ensures compatibility, promoting flexibility and choice for hotels.

Flexibility and adaptability are further reinforced by the KNX standard's scalability. Zennio's automation solution is specifically designed to accommodate expansion and adaptation over time. As hotels evolve and their needs change, new devices and functionalities can be easily added to the existing system. This scalability ensures that the automation system can grow alongside the establishment, catering to the evolving requirements of the hotel. Owners and operators can customize and tailor the functionality of the system to match the specific needs of each project, allowing for optimal performance and efficiency.

By connecting all systems and devices in a hotel to a centralized management and control platform, Zennio empowers owners and operators with complete control over every aspect of room or área automation within the building. Through a user-friendly interface, authorized personnel can easily monitor and manage these systems, ensuring optimal guest experiences, operational efficiency, and sustainability. The ability to have a comprehensive view and control of the entire hotel automation system enhances decision-making and improves overall operational performance.

In addition to centralized control, Zennio's automation system leverages sensors and actuators to collect real-time data and automatically adjust environmental parameters such as lighting and temperature. This intelligent control capability optimizes guest comfort and energy efficiency, further enhancing the overall guest experience. For example, the system can detect occupancy in a room and adjust the lighting and temperature accordingly, creating a personalized and comfortable environment for guests. This level of automation reduces the need for manual intervention, streamlines operations, and improves resource management.

Moreover, the owner can use de GRMS data to improve his operation. They are now able to read their efficiency attending the “Make up room” demands from guests, knowing when the guests make their request and when this request is attended by the cleaning service. Or they can know if average guest temperture setpoint in the rooms is lower or higher than expected, so the hotel can reduce the energy waste in the engine room lowering the consumption.

In conclusion, the Zennio hospitality solution, built on the foundation of the KNX standard, emerges as the key to achieving efficient intelligent integration and control in hotels. The interoperability and flexibility afforded by the KNX standard enable the seamless integration of diverse devices and systems into a centralized platform. Zennio's focus on intelligent control and adaptability empowers owners and operators to create customized, efficient, and secure environments that attend to the unique requirements of each hotel. By embracing the power of automation and intelligent integration, hotels can elevate the guest experience, drive operational efficiency, and contribute to a sustainable future.

To experience our solutions, please visit stand 1820 at the Independent Hotel Show!

The Lowry Hotel raises the standard with Sage Intacct and Percipient

Manchester’s Iconic Lowry Hotel blends seamless service with seamless reporting following digital transformation

Percipient today announced that the iconic, Manchester-based Lowry Hotel, has deployed Sage Intacct. As part of a digital transformation, Sage Intacct will support superior reporting, intelligence and management insights, instilling agility from which to launch new services, and scale to support business growth.

Having identified a need for a new platform, The Lowry selected Sage Intacct following a review of the market and a subsequent shortlist, which included Xero and Oracle. The decision was based on its flexibility and ability to integrate with existing systems, while Percipient’s extensive experience in the hospitality industry made it a natural fit when choosing a partner for the project.

The perpetual intelligence within Sage Intacct means that The Lowry Hotel can behave more agilely because department heads can access the latest insights and make decisions accordingly. For example, Sage Intacct integrates with ProcureWizard to provide an overview of suppliers and spending so that relationships can be strengthened, economies of scale exploited, and discounts negotiated where relevant.

This intelligence also means that The Lowry Hotel has a live P&L, so you can click on it at any point to see where the business is at. While the idea of a continuous close seems a far-off concept, this capability brings the idea much closer to fruition. This level of automation has massively expedited the team’s quest to move to a completely paperless department, reducing the amount of paper used by around 70%.

Louise Longden-Scott, Financial Director at The Lowry Hotel, comments. “Not only did Sage Intacct meet all of our functionality requirements, but it was incredibly easy to use, intuitive and crucially, out of the box. Its multi-tenant cloud architecture, APIs for easy integration with third-party systems, and scale meant that it felt like a platform which would support us well into the future, and flex to accommodate new initiatives and innovations we might want to explore.”

“As well as being so easy to use, we’re saving so much time through its ability to just process everything in the click of a button. Everything is integrated, and the Accounts Payable (AP) offers more automation, which expedites the processing of Purchase Orders (POs) and payments, which equates to around 20% in time saved. More than that, the risk of inaccuracies as a result of manual error is all but removed, and the way in which we communicate with our suppliers is far slicker. Month-end is quicker, and there is further potential to improve. The intelligence within it is just a game changer. The team can ask questions or seek more insight into a particular invoice or transaction, and Sage Intacct generates the relevant data analysis in seconds.”

“Percipient has extensive experience in the hospitality industry and a great deal here in Manchester. This experience, combined with first-hand and in-depth knowledge of the system, made for a smooth and fast deployment, but they continue to provide great support now that we’re live. They are so responsive, and in the event of us having to e-mail a query they quickly give us confidence that they’ll resolve it, and we’re looking forward to a continued partnership as we navigate our next chapter.”

“Sage Intacct represents a robust, scalable platform from which to manage our financials, providing the business with access to in-depth management information in a timely and user-friendly manner. The ability to make faster, more informed decisions is crucial in capitalising on new opportunities and mitigating risk, and with Sage Intacct at our helm, we’re confident that we’re in the best shape to deliver against the high standards which our brand is synonymous with.”