COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.—During last year’s regional meeting in Dallas, Red Roof Chief Information Officer Ted Hutchins said the company was heading toward a major technology upgrade. That upgrade has come to fruition as of this weekend’s national conference, held here at The Broadmoor.
Red Roof is collaborating with HotelKey on an advanced enterprise hospitality platform that further enhances Red Roof’s cloud-based technology across its more than 675 properties nationwide. In addition to the flagship Red Roof Inn brand, the partnership also encompasses the company’s Red Roof Plus, Red Collection and HomeTowne Studios & Suites brands.
The goal of the platform is to increase efficiency, optimize operations and enhance guest experience through property management, central reservations, inventory management and loyalty integration, among other products.
“The impact of this state-of-the-art system for both our franchisees and guests underscores our commitment to delivering the best experience and value in the lodging industry,” said George Limbert, Red Roof’s president. “HotelKey’s technology builds upon our legacy programs providing the most effective solutions to help franchisees streamline operations and ultimately benefit our guests.”
This partnership will allow franchisees to more effectively manage their properties from any device: desktop, tablet or mobile. To bolster information exchange, HotelKey enhances integration with third-party online travel agencies. The software also integrates hotel operations, including the front desk, accounts receivable, housekeeping and maintenance, point of sale and inventory management.
The roll-out of the platform will begin in 2023 with pilot properties starting to use the system in July or August. All properties are expected to be on the new platform in 2024.
“We will be rolling this out in a blended environment, with some hotels using [current system] RediStay and some on HotelKey,” Hutchins said. “The brand will create connectivity points to keep all necessary data in synch during the transition period.”
The HotelKey platform replaces Red Roof’s current in-house technology system and will be paid for by franchise fees, the same as the current system, according to Hutchins: “We anticipate little or no additional cost to franchisees.”
Fareed Ahmad, co-founder and CEO of HotelKey, said his company is purpose built for enterprise chains.
“Our platform is not only full of enterprise-grade features and functionality, it also enables our enterprise clients to build and compose new proprietary guest experiences using our core platform APIs,” he said. “We’re very excited to welcome 675 Red Roof properties to experience our platform and enable the Red Roof brand to build new experiences using our core platform. Moreover, the partnership will also allow us to build a hospitality-native loyalty system, which will become a standard offering for our current and future clients.”
Hutchins said Red Roof employees will be able to pick up the new platform quickly and easily.
“A major benefit of HotelKey’s platform is its user-friendly, self-guided training technology,” he said. “This is a game changer for front-desk managers and will simplify onboarding and ongoing training.”