RoomOrders Appoints Longtime IHG Hotelier to Advisory Board

RoomOrders appointed Jean Baptiste Pigeon to its Advisory Board on Wednesday, leveraging off the seasoned hotelier’s illustrious 32- year career in top management with the global IHG chain.

Baptiste Pigeon, who led IHG properties across Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa has routinely outperformed predecessors at every location, winning leadership and excellence awards for management and topping previous revenues.

 “We are more than pleased to welcome such a domain expert with experience in high-level operations, especially a deep understanding of food and beverage potential to the bottom line in a digitalised world,” said RoomOrders CEO Eugene B. Jones.

“We were looking for someone with proven holistic insight to help communicate the importance of digitalised hotel communities or ecosystems, particularly in the face of the corona crisis,” he added.

“We expect the hospitality digital ordering and payment sector to rocket from a trending sector to a booming sector in summer 2021 and we feel that a strong advisory team will keep us at the top of the industry.”

RoomOrders is cloud self-serve platform that allows guests contactless ordering of food and beverages in hotels, restaurants, bars, and cafes, whether they are in lobbies, poolside deckchairs or rooftops, using their own smart devices.

There is no capital investment, the solution can be up and running in three days and there is no downloading of pesky apps. Just scan a QR code or tap an NFC chip. Simple as that.

“This is the right time for RoomOrders,” said Baptiste Pigeon. “Hotels are going through a lot of stress at the moment and the brand needs to aggressively communicate its enormous value add at this critical time. Hotels and resorts have been shut, suspended or working at extremely low occupancy, so they need a solution that can help them return guests with as little or if possible zero capital investment, and that time is now.”

RoomOrders recently signed Hapimag AG, which operates more than 50 holiday properties all over Europe and the US. The popular hotel start-up is used in leading hospitality brands across the world, from Hilton, Marriott and Accor to Glenneagle, Archer and Rotana, in cities from Boston to Brisbane, Belgrade and Barcelona.

The coronavirus has had a major impact on hospitality providers, with many forced to close completely in nationwide lockdowns.

Many surveys indicate that one of the first things people want to do emerging from weeks or even months of seclusion is to go and dine with friends. Hoteliers have resisted digitalisation fearing it would remove a key ingredient of hospitality - ‘human touch.’ However, low-touch technology is now not only becoming an interesting idea, but a necessity.