NEW YORK, NY – Attendees looking for practical technology solutions at HX: The Hotel Experience Powered by AAHOA got an earful at the fifth annual HX TECHpitch earlier this month.
The five finalists were:
• Modio – guestroom acoustic control (www.modio.audio/);
• Plum – in-room wine by the glass (www.hotels.plum.wine)
• Enerqi – wireless device charger (www.enerqi.co)
• Relay – cellular walky talkies (relaygo.com/hospitality) ; and
• Ballbox – locker style kiosk (getballbox.com)
An all-women judging panel ultimately gave the top prize to Plum, a new product designed to solve the current shortcomings of wine by the glass in hotel rooms. Adam Hoydysh (pictured), vice president of Hotel Sales, Plum, made his case at the HX Stage on day one of HX: The Hotel Experience.
“If you look historically at how wine by the glass has been served in the hotel room, there have been two methods,” Hoydysh said. “One is a service-oriented method—room service, introduced in 1936 by the Waldorf Astoria. It’s a 45-minute wait for a lukewarm glass of red wine wrapped in plastic. It’s not a particularly luxurious experience.”
According to Hoydysh, the old ways don’t match today’s on-demand culture. Even the mini bar, introduced in 1973, has been “dying a slow death due to billing, labor, and spoilage issues.”
Plum overcomes the mini bar and room service shortcomings by engaging customers in meaningful ways: Hoydysh explains: “The virtual tasting room comes to life and introduces you to the wine, provides you the education with high definition audio and video that tells the story, the characteristics, the fruitiness, the acidities, and all the wine information is available at the touch of the button, including the vintage and the varietal…and the wine is available on demand, perfectly fresh, chilled, and at a fair price.”
In a highly competitive field, Hoydysh believes judges responded to Plum’s ability to deliver a great guest experience that taps into the “surprise and delight” factor. “It also delivers a very clear ROI,” he says. “Ownership is hyper fixated on expense. They want to know; How much is the amenity going to cost? When do I get my amenity back? How much am I going to make over the life of the device? And how can I leverage the amenity to reduce expenses?”
Plum drives that incremental revenue stream, as well as increasing gross operating profit per available room, by reducing expenses. “Plum is uniquely positioned to deliver a great guest experience,” adds Hoydysh, “and at the same time deliver that ROI for ownership, which at the end of the day is the deciding factor as to whether an amenity goes in or out of the room.”
Judges for the fifth annual TECHpitch competition are: Chanel Evans Grant, co-owner, TLC Hospitality Group, LLC; Deanna Ting, senior platforms editor, Digiday; Nicole Peck, executive vice president, BizBash; Heather Carnes (pictured), director of Marketing, AAHOA; and Nishant (Neal) Patel, AAHOA secretary (2019-20).
Last year’s TECHpitch winner was BEEKEEPER, a team communication platform that empowers employee connection, facilitates workplace engagement, and increases productivity through unified communications. Beekeeper streamlines operations and enables mobile collaboration with HR tools such as secure messaging and shift management.
In addition to earning the coveted award, the winner of this year’s TECHpitch received a complimentary Tech Kiosk at the 2020 HX: The Hotel Experience Powered by AAHOA, scheduled for Nov. 8-9, 2020.