Flight Centre Business Travel adds first tech tools

Buying Business Travel | October 17, 2019

Flight Centre Business Travel (FCBT) has released a new online solution for booking and managing work trips that reflects the experience of a leisure booking platform.HelloFCBT has been developed to meet increasing demand from the company’s 2,000 SME-spend clients across the UK. Until now, customers were serviced purely offline via phone and email by local consultants at 20 offices nationwide.According to FCBT, the new digital platform complements its offline service offering, particularly for complex bookings or those clients who prefer to continue arranging travel via their dedicated consultant.

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Explore cutting-edge revenue strategies in the hospitality industry. Adopt the latest hospitality management trends to optimize the revenue stream.

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Ennismore and Shivom LLC Announces Signing a New Mama Shelter in LA

ENNISMORE | September 20, 2023

Ennismore and Shivom LLC to Launch Mama Shelter Downtown LA in 2026, the Second of Its Kind in the City: Ennismore and its partner Shivom LLC are set to open Mama Shelter Downtown LA in 2026, following the success of Mama Shelter LA in 2015. Mama Shelter Downtown LA, housed in the transformed Mart South Building in Downtown LA, will offer 149 keys, including 145 standard rooms and four suites, known for its lively design, exceptional dining, and entertainment. Guests can enjoy three lively F&B outlets, including a ground-floor all-day dining restaurant and café, a rooftop bar and terrace with city views, an on-site fitness center, and a parking garage. Positioned in the heart of Los Angeles' Fashion District, the hotel provides convenient access to over 4,000 retailers, local and national restaurants, iconic venues like the California Market Center, and nearby shopping corridors, enhancing the guest experience in the entertainment capital. Ennismore, a creative hospitality company, and its partner Shivom LLC have announced the forthcoming Mama Shelter Downtown LA. This venture, set to launch in 2026, marks the second establishment of the popular Mama Shelter brand within the city, following the successful debut of Mama Shelter LA in May 2015. The new Mama Shelter, situated within the transformed Mart South Building in Downtown LA, is poised to offer a dynamic and immersive hospitality experience. Boasting 149 keys, including 145 standard rooms and four suites, it will embody Mama Shelter's signature style, combining vivacious design with exceptional dining and entertainment options. Cédric Gobilliard, Head of Central & Southern Europe and COO of Ennismore, commented, "We are thrilled to be opening a second Mama Shelter in LA. Los Angeles is a place to live life to the fullest, carrying so many fundamental values of the Mama brand, including her irreverent, popular, sassy and sexy personality; which fits perfectly with the glamour of LA. We look forward to bringing Mama's spirit to the city again with partner Shivom LLC." [Source – Cision PR Newswrire] Mama Shelter Downtown LA will offer three festive F&B outlets to party and play, including an all-day dining restaurant and café on the ground floor, as well as a rooftop bar and terrace with city views. Guests at the hotel will also have access to and use an on-site fitness centre and parking garage. Mama's exuberant interior decorations, homemade, high-quality menus and year-round happenings have become a staple in every one of the destinations. Guests will find all the design elements that distinguish a Mama Shelter, including graffiti carpets and ceilings, comfortable chairs, cartoon masks and one-of-a-kind decorations that reflect Mama's personality, signature food, and Mama nights to get the party started. As the world's entertainment capital, Los Angeles is an unrivaled cultural center with over 100 museums. Mama Shelter Downtown LA enjoys a prime location within the city's Fashion District, surrounded by more than 4,000 independently owned retailers and a thriving selection of local and national restaurants. Adjacent to the hotel, the California Market Center (CMC) stands as an iconic DTLA landmark, known for hosting premier events and epitomizing the city's rich fashion industry heritage. For those seeking retail therapy, Santee Alley, a shopping corridor, and the Los Angeles Flower District, the largest flower marketplace in the United States, are just a stroll away from Mama Shelter Downtown LA. This strategic positioning ensures that guests have access to an array of attractions and experiences within arm's reach, enriching their stay in this dynamic metropolis.

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Hospitality Trends

Ask Parker the Polar Bear! Quark Expeditions' new AI-driven partner portal makes every travel advisor a polar expert

prnewswire | August 29, 2023

Quark Expeditions, the global leader in polar adventures, announces the launch of a new Partner Portal for travel advisors and their firms—including an industry-first AI platform that will make every advisor a polar expert. "Our Partner Portal for travel advisors offers unmatched, industry-leading innovation and efficiency," said Wendy Batchelor, Vice President of Marketing for Quark Expeditions. "Anchored by the best team and the deepest experience in our sector, our blend of one-stop digital resources and lightning-fast AI tools will fuel sales success for our polar expedition partners—and this is only phase one; look for more exciting developments soon!" From customizable promotional and marketing materials, to the latest polar news and incentives plus Quark Expeditions' learn-from-anywhere PolarPRO training platform, the Partner Portal provides both inspiration and education—along with Parker the Polar Bear, the industry's first real-time, AI-driven virtual polar resource! "Our new AI-enabled virtual assistant leverages secure, cutting-edge language models trained by our own technology team using extensive in-house knowledge repositories," said Rajesh Thiagarajan, Director of Digital Products with Quark Expeditions' global development team. "Parker, together with the full suite of digital resources on the Partner Portal, will reduce time demands for advisors through fast and accurate answers to every polar client's questions." To learn more about the Partner Portal and its AI capabilities, travel advisors can contact the Quark Expeditions sales team—or click here to register and launch their polar expedition sales journey today! About Quark Expeditions The global leader in polar adventures for more than 30 years. The most passionate and seasoned team in the industry, taking explorers to the ends of the earth. Going where few ever dream, and walking where few ever will. Delivering extraordinary experiences and enriching lives through travel, Quark Expeditions is a Travelopia specialist company.

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Hospitality Trends

NuZee Subsidiary Dripkit Coffee Partners with The Junto Hotel for Ohio State-Themed In-Room Coffee Solution

prnewswire | August 22, 2023

Dripkit Coffee, a leading single-serve pour over solution for a variety of roasters and wholly owned subsidiary of NuZee Inc. (Nasdaq: NUZE), is teaming up with new Columbus, Ohio hotel, The Junto, to launch an in-room coffee solution honoring Ohio State's 1926 homecoming queen, Maudine, the Holstein cow. In 1727, Benjamin Franklin — you may have heard of him — founded a "club for mutual improvement," which he styled The Junto. Ben's club brought together people from diverse backgrounds to discuss issues and ideas of the time. The Junto hotel is a modern-day embodiment of this idea. With an emphasis on public gathering spaces, the hotel gives visitors, locals, entrepreneurs, and artists alike a place to come together, exchange ideas, and inspire one another. In designing the packets for this collaboration, The Junto and Dripkit teams drew inspiration from the hotel's breakfast and coffee shop, Maudine's. In 1926, when Rosalind Morrison won the distinction of Ohio State University Homecoming Queen and learned that she had received more votes than there were students at the school, she passed her crown to the runner-up, Maudine Ormsby. An esteemed member of the university's dairy herd, known for her award-winning milk production, Maudine was officially declared Queen. The black and white cow print Dripkits featuring a small yellow crown can be found in all 198 rooms of the hotel for guests that need a pick-me-up before heading down to Maudine's for breakfast, visiting the hotel's two restaurants or walkup food window, meeting in the multiple event spaces, or hitting one of the many amenities including a gym, patio, working spaces, and "Gear Garage," where hotel guests can borrow bicycles, kayaks, paddleboards, instant cameras, backpacks, and GoPro video cameras. Founded in 2017 by Ilana Kruger, Dripkit offers single serve pour over coffee formats on a large scale to combine convenience and quality. Dripkits produce a 10oz cup of coffee using 17g of roasted and ground coffee without the prep or cleanup of a traditional pour over. The just-add-water format enables hotel guests and visitors to brew the perfect cup of coffee in two minutes and enjoy freshly roasted specialty coffee on-the-go, sans equipment, and without the mess. The Junto joins an esteemed line of Dripkit hospitality partners, which include Kayak and Autocamp. Dripkit Coffee is a business division of the NuZee (NASDAQ: NUZE) brand portfolio. To learn more, please visit https://dripkit.coffee. About The Junto The Junto is an independent hotel developed by Columbus-based Rockbridge, under the company's Makeready division. This is Makeready's first Columbus hotel, following hotels in Savannah, Charleston, Nashville, Denver and Dallas. The company is planning a second hotel in the Merchant Building underway next to the North Market. About Dripkit Dripkit offers a large-size single serve pour over format that delivers what it believes to be a barista-quality coffee experience to coffee drinkers in the United States. The brand has combined its focus on convenience and quality, as well as a goal of using first-rate, ethically sourced coffee beans, to become a leader in the single serve coffee category. About NuZee Coffee NuZee, Inc., (NASDAQ: NUZE), is a leading co-packing company for single serve coffee formats that partners with companies of all sizes to help them develop within the single serve and private label coffee category. Providing innovative and eco-conscious solutions with the flexibility and capacity for both small roasters and large global brands, NuZee is revolutionizing the way single serve coffee is enjoyed in the United States. Through the brand's unique process, NuZee fulfills every aspect of co-packing needs, from roasting and blending, to packing and packaging. NuZee has production facilities in the United States and Korea.

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