Restaurant And Hospitality IT News For VARs — May 23, 2014
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In the news, articles look at the IoT as a possible future of payment, as well as a bitcoin-compatible booking engine for hotels, and a new Square ordering app.
So Long, Checkout? Hello, Internet Of Things!
This article from Retailsolutionsonline.com examines the future of payment processing. A seamless way of paying, it will be an extension of the Internet of Things (IoT), linking actual objects to corresponding online information and data. Instead of using a checkout, a series of sensors will gain access to certain shopper information upon a consumer’s entrance into a shop and link to their stored payment information.
Partnership Allows Hotel Guests To Pay With Bitcoins
A bitcoin-compatible booking engine, allowing small hotels to international chains to accept Bitcoin quickly and easily as a form of payment, is now available. When a customer chooses the option to pay in bitcoins, BitPay processes the transaction and settles with the hotel the next business day and offers the hotel the option of depositing currency, bitcoins, or a percentage split between the two.
Square Announces “Order”
Venture Beat reported that Square has pulled its Wallet and rolled out a new payment app, called Order, which allows users to order and pay for food for pick up (there’s currently no delivery option). Square is launching the service in San Francisco and New York, with plans to expand to additional U.S. cities over time.
InstaGram Ads Getting Instant Recall
AdWeek reported that the relatively new Instagram ads, limited to a select group of 15 brands, are already having positive effects, according to exclusive data provided by them to AdWeek. Internal performance figures on ad partners Taco Bell, Ben & Jerry’s and Hollister provide a peek under the hood of how this platform will fare when it goes wide in late spring. Ad platforms will be expanded soon, thanks to Instagram’s $40 million megadeal with Omnicom.
Restaurant and Hospitality IT Talking Points
The EMV Migration Forum announced at its March meeting U.S. that they expect EMV chip adoption to see exponential growth in the next year from today’s estimated 17 to 20 million EMV chip cards and millions of EMV-capable terminals and ATMs, some of which already accept EMV chip cards. Hospitality Technology reported that the Forum also provided updates regarding the significant progress in conquering technical challenges relating to EMV debit implementation, resulting in an industry stakeholder-supported debit technical solution framework.
According to the 2013 Bright Local Consumer Review Survey, reviews are an important signal which potential customers use when deciding which local business to patronize. Hotels can — and should — leverage guest reviews to help with search engine optimization, as Hospitality Technology explains. Hotels can take the first step towards enhancing SEO by pushing customers proactively to create fresh, positive reviews wherever possible, including on Google+, Yelp and TripAdvisor.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Hospitality Tech Center.