Sandpiper Hospitality has chosen Impulsify as its exclusive partner in the grab-and-go retail space, committing to several high-profile hotel development projects to kick off the partnership.
“Sandpiper Hospitality has chosen to align on an exclusive basis with Impulsify, a company that is changing the game in grab-n-go markets in hotels and beyond," said Jim Darter, president of Sandpiper Hospitality, in a statement. "We look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship that will allow our hotels to meet the need of our owners and guests in a creative, efficient and curated way."
The new partnership will launch a custom-designed self-service grab-and-go market for the first Wyndham dual-brand offering. The La Quinta/Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham in Pflugerville, Texas, will offer two brands under one roof sharing one highly customized lobby retail outlet, designed by Impulsify, to meet the needs of both short- and long- term guests. In addition, Impulsify’s guest-facing POS is fully integrated with the Opera PMS system for room charge capability at both brands.
Also included within this joint venture is a new extended-stay brand initiative. Sandpiper Hospitality tapped Impulsify to design and develop the full retail program offering for their new conversion-based brand. The program will include limited grocery, heated breakfast and self-service checkout for guests.
“While some owners and management companies are seeking waivers and scaling back grab-and-go inventory and operations, Sandpiper Hospitality looked at the immediate ROI retail offers as well as guest demand for curated, packaged F&B and made the decision to do it right on both design and technology," said Impulsify CEO Janine Williams. "It really has to look and feel a certain way or they’re going to send all your F&B revenue to GrubHub.”
Impulsify uses proprietary retail performance data from more than 15 million hotel retail transactions rung into its POS solutions to recommend product mixes based on type of hotel, guest profiles, geolocation, best sellers and emerging trends. Product performance data from 2021 indicates that healthy options, higher quality indulgent items, and larger portion sizes were the clear expectations of today’s guests.
Before COVID-19, Impulsify primarily sold their front desk POS solution, ImpulsePoint, to automate transactions and inventory, with only 20 percent opting for their self-service kiosk. However, when COVID-19 hit and the labor crisis overwhelmed hospitality, sales of the ShopPoP: Self service kiosk saw a dramatic increase of 235 percent, with 68 percent of hoteliers adding the guest-facing POS option to their grab-and-go markets. A full 92 percent of retail transactions have moved to the kiosk when the option was made available, according to 2021 transactions.
The first retail project of the new partnership launches in February.