NATIONAL REPORT—Whether it’s celebrating an anniversary, receiving an award, earning a certification, debuting a new product or expanding the business, hotel companies and vendors achieve new milestones on a daily basis. Here’s a look at recent accomplishments:
Amerlux Inks Partnership with Vyv to Offer Antimicrobial Lighting
Amerlux, a design-and-manufacture lighting company, has partnered with Vyv, a health tech company whose signature continuous-use, non-UV antimicrobial light technology will be added into Amerlux’s lighting fixtures.
Utilizing a spectrum composed of visible light, Vyv’s proprietary technology works around the clock to fight off microorganisms by inhibiting their growth and ultimately destroying these microbes. It is ideal for high-traffic public areas, such as airports, hospitals, hotels, gyms and schools.
Within 90 days, Amerlux will integrate Vyv’s antimicrobial light technology into a variety of existing and new product lines. The antimicrobial lighting targets microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, yeast and mold, while also meeting international standards for continual and unrestricted use around people, animals and plants.
Venus Twill Sheets Last 4x Longer Than Cotton Sheets
Hospitality businesses and hospitals turn to 100% cotton sheets for their comfort and absorbency, but their lifecycle is only 50 to 60 industrial launderings, resulting in frequent replacement costs. The other alternative, polyester sheets, last longer but fall short when it comes to the feel and softness. Venus Group set out to design and manufacture an alternative sheeting fabric that delivers the comfort of 100% cotton and the strength and durability of polyester.
After two years of R&D and 12 total product variations, the company’s research team landed on patented Performance Twill Sheets, an engineered blend of 100% premium textured polyester and cotton yarns. Guests enjoy exceptional comfort and feel while hotels enjoy cost-efficient sheets that last for up to 200 industrial launderings, the company reports.
Given the current pandemic situation, guests expect clean, fresh and comfortable sheets during their stay, more than ever before. Therefore, sourcing sheets that can last longer with increased washes and still delight your guests is imperative. Learn more about Venus Group’s approach, its Performance Twill Sheets and its independently tested results in this case study.
Youtip Partners With Volara to Bring Digital Tipping to Guestrooms
Hotels with in-room voice assistants powered by Volara can enable their guests to leave a gratuity for hotel staff by simply scanning a QR code on Google’s Hotel Solution or uttering a voice command to Amazon’s Alexa. Through a new integration partnership between Volara and Youtip, a contactless, cashless and “appless” gratuity system for frontline hotel workers, guests now have a contactless way to reward good service without leaving cash or having to download an app. Not only does this solution enable operators to add more money to their employees’ paychecks, but it enhances the hotel’s contactless safety initiative.
Volara can voice-enable digital tipping via Youtip on Amazon Alexa devices. Guests simply say things like: “Alexa, leave a tip for the housekeeper.” In addition to leaving a tip, guests will have the opportunity to quickly rate service and leave feedback for the hotel staff.
Datamars Textile ID is Paving the Way for New Generation of Reading Systems
Datamars marks another milestone in textile identification for the industrial laundry sector with its development of the first AI-based technology to unlock the full potential of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems.
The company, for the first time in textile identification for the industrial laundry sector, has applied machine learning techniques to the RFID technology. Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that provides systems the ability to learn and improve automatically through experience and without being explicitly programmed. It examines the provided “training” datasets to find common patterns and build a model to make decisions.
Using machine-learning algorithms and a specifically developed neural network, the system exploits the information extracted from the data of all the RFID tag readings to classify each tag. In this way, instead of working to avoid stray reads, the system is able to recognize and discard them. In addition, “good” tags are correctly associated to the proper item/textile, even if they are in bulk and in motion.
Introducing The Quiet Guardian Swing Door Lock
To reduce the noise of banging guestroom doors, frequent traveler Scott Thomas has created The Quiet Guardian, a swing bar door lock with silicone, shock-absorbing bumpers that eliminates noise and damage.
According to the Kickstarter campaign for the product, The Quiet Guardian is patent pending in 16 countries including the U.S. and will decrease the number of discarded electronic locks by increasing their useful life expectancy. The Quiet Guardian is assembled in the U.S. by clients of STRIVE (Self-sufficiency, Tolerance, Responsibility, Independence, Values and Equality), a structured skill development day habilitation program offered by the Children’s Aid and Family Services agency for adults ages 21 and older with intellectual and developmental disabilities.