Zazu app adds features to help hotels deal with reopening

4 Jun 2020

Image: © Jacob Lund/Stock.adobe.com

Irish hospitality start-up Zazu has added new features to its app to help hotels manage breakfast bookings and process contactless payments.

Irish hospitality app Zazu is launching new features aimed at helping hotels, restaurants and bars deal with Covid-19 restrictions when they reopen.

As part of the Government’s roadmap for easing restrictions, cafés and restaurants in Ireland are scheduled to begin reopening from 29 June, while hotels are due to reopen from 20 July. However, distancing measures on these premises are expected to continue to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

The Zazu platform was originally developed to provide reservation tools to restaurants, but is now turning its attention to hotels and other hospitality businesses. It has introduced a new waitlist feature that enables users to receive a WhatsApp message once a table has become free, as well as table management features that allow venues to reserve tables, manage capacity and time spent at tables.

The app also has a contactless payment feature that allows consumers to split bills and pay through their smartphone without a card machine, as well as a delivery and collection feature.

The company said that it hopes its new functions will “help revive” the Irish hotel industry by managing customer distancing during breakfast service, for example.

The company’s CEO, Ivano Cafolla, said: “Our new waitlist function aims to help those on staycations to avoid long queues, particularly during rush hour at breakfast. In addition to this, table management will help hotels better manage capacity, while our 100pc contactless facility will help maintain safe social distancing between staff and those on staycation.”

The future of queuing

We recently took a look at start-ups in Ireland and further afield that are creating ways to help businesses implement physical-distancing guidelines.

This included the Line Line, a booking system aimed at retailers that was developed by a Dublin-based team. The app allows customers to pre-book shopping visits to avoid waiting in line and to help retailers monitor the number of people on their premises.

Another start-up hoping to help leisure and hospitality businesses manage queues is Waterford-based Ordee. The company’s app provides a queuing functionality that aims to prevent customers from waiting outside a venue or queuing up in a crowd, by providing them with notifications of their place in a virtual queue.

Its app lets users see which nearby businesses may have available capacity and also provides payment features for contactless transactions.

Kelly Earley was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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