Coronavirus: Criton and Hungrrr partner to create contactless food ordering tech for hotels

New service is being offered for free to hotel partners in the Criton app

Hospitality sector technology specialist Criton has built a contactless food ordering system in partnership with restaurant software experts Hungrrr.

The service, designed to offer a safe service during the COVID-19 pandemic has been added to Criton’s hotel guest app.

The new service is free for hoteliers to use and allows guests to self-order and pay for food and drinks, whether in the hotel restaurant or in-room, via their own phone.

Criton said as lockdown restrictions ease, the solution will help hoteliers drive food and beverage revenues while maintaining physical distancing and ensuring the health of guests.

Julie Grieve, founder and chief executive of Criton, said: “Our partnership with Hungrrr is the perfect solution for hotels re-assessing their F&B services ready for when they can welcome guests once again.

“Digitising the guest journey has never been more important and it is heartening to see the commitment by the sector as a whole to embrace new ways of working.

“All hoteliers will need to instil confidence and the additional capabilities of the app now mean that they can also offer their guests a simple, contactless way to order and pay from a restaurant or bar menu while maintaining physical distancing.

“The solution can be used for room service, restaurant ordering and takeaway, both by in-house guests and casual diners.

“It is the perfect complement to the existing features of our guest app and I am particularly pleased that the partnership with Hungrrr effectively allows hotels to minimise spend as they reopen.”

Scott Campbell, commercial director of Hungrrr, added:  “We are very proud that our platform has been chosen by Criton to assist hoteliers as they reopen their hotels.

“The system has been developed over several years and it is hard to imagine a piece of software more perfectly designed than our platform to assist businesses in this current challenging environment.

“We are absolutely thrilled to be working with Criton in partnership on this project. We greatly admire their technology and their team. We very much look forward to a long and mutually beneficial business relationship.”

Criton said its partnership with Hungrrr is the latest move to help the hospitality sector digitise its guest interactions and reduce the number of physical touchpoints.

In May, the firm announced that its platform would be completely free until 2021.