The Modern Hotelier #182: Reducing Inefficiency by Connecting Hotel Tech Stacks | with Jason Jenkins
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Steve Carran: Welcome to a special episode of The Modern Hotelier. We are at the Dallara IndyCar Factory in Indianapolis, Indiana. We are joined by Jason Jenkins, Vice President and Managing Director of Americas. How are you doing, Jason?
Jason Jenkins: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, guys.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. So Jason, I know this isn't your first HITEC. How many HITECs have you been to? 
Jason Jenkins: This is my fifth. So I don't have the 20 that a lot have, but you know, I'm starting to put some years on the belt.
David M.: Alright, so take us through a specific problem that you're addressing today and you're helping hotels with?
Jason Jenkins: Yeah, absolutely. So what we're really focused on is reducing inefficiencies for the hotel users. So we all know there's very complex technology stacks. What our product does is allows you to connect all of those technologies. So F&B, PMS, spa, golf, and this really enhances the operations, reduces a lot of friction and really allows for a better guest journey. And that's where we're really focused on solving with our solution. 
Steve Carran: That's great. So some hot topics this year are AI data automation. How is HRS utilizing any of those things? To deliver to hotels to increase their experience? 
Jason Jenkins: Yeah, so we've actually developed our own AI platform. Oh, it's designed to automate workflows, uh, improve upselling. And what's really great about us designing our own is the hotel gets to keep their data they also don't need their party integrations. They don't have any black box, and so the data's really secure. And so it's really, really been doing well, enhancing all the workflows, improving operations, and because it's ours, they have a lot of security behind it. And so that's a big topic when you talk about AI and, and the hotel gets to reduce a lot of those questions by utilizing our ai.
David M.: Great. And so one of the things, you know, obviously I am one of those guys who's been like 24 HITECs and every year the tech stack gets bigger and bigger. And every year gets more and more difficult to integrate everything. So talk about integration and how you're easy to work with it. 
Jason Jenkins: Yeah, so you're right, there's a systems are still very fragmented, right? Um, and so our product integrates with a lot of the major, uh, hospitality softwares, Oracle Symphony Opera, but we also built it on an open ai.
So, you know, you can, you can basically plug it into any custom solution you want. Uh, and this again, reduces that friction with all the different systems. Reduces training time, uh, allows you to reduce the amount of systems you need to use. So we believe this is one way that we can really help the hoteliers, uh, improve their technology stack over time.
So what is HRS promoting at HITEC and what's next for you l Yeah, so we're pro, this year we're promoting our Tingo staff order. So this is a product that, uh, really enhances the f and b operations. It's designed to allow the staff and any f and b outlet to be able to place. And, uh, check out customers anywhere on property.
So whether they're a resort. They're managing cabanas, they're managing poolside, they don't have an internet connection. They can go to LTE,  and it's really reduces the amount of airs 'cause they have it right on their handheld and it increases their table turnover. So we really believe this is a great opportunity, great product, and then we're working on scaling that globally, really getting this product out to the masses and enhancing it with some of the selfs service options, like really targeted upselling. So it reduces that friction again with the staff. Right. And so it's just. Automatically making these offers to the guests and we see an increasing revenue for 'em as well.
David M.: Hey, well we really wanna thank you for taking the time to sit down with us. Have a great HITEC, but more importantly, have a great night.
Jason Jenkins: Ah, you guys are great. Thanks for having us.
David M.: Yeah, thank you.
Steve Carran: Thanks, Jason.