Marriott International extends IRIS F&B partnership

Chain renews its 10-year mobile dining vendor agreement with supplier

Marriott International & IRIS extend exclusive 10-year F&B mobile dining partnership

The leading provider of digital ordering and e-compendium solutions renews its 10-year mobile dining vendor agreement with Marriott, with deployments in thousands of outlets across all brands globally

IRIS, hospitality F&B and guest experience platform provider has announced the renewal of its 10-year, exclusive digital F&B ordering agreement with Marriott International. The announcement comes as IRIS deploys mobile dining in thousands of outlets across Marriotts hotels.

Under this renewed agreement, Marriott will continue to utilise IRIS’ mobile dining and digital guest directory solution across their global portfolio of hotels.

Since first partnering with Marriott International 10 years ago, the group has seen a double digit increase in the volume of guest mobile orders and revenue, and this looks set to rise further in line with the growth in guest demand for digital experiences.

IRIS’ mobile dining solution, which is part of the Marriott Bonvoy native app and Marriott eco-systems, was initially deployed to enable Marriott to maximise and streamline the performance of their in-room F&B sales. 

It’s now also available across-property (for delivery and pick-ups) including pool decks, lobby areas, meetings and events, bars, restaurants, bistros and for local catering orders, while the e-compendium provides guests with instant access to hotel and local area information at their fingertips.

The deal also sees IRIS (also available via QR codes and web links) operating across Marriott’s portfolio of 30 luxury, premium, and select service brands.

Jami Meier, director of outlets of Kansas City Marriott Downtown, who deployed IRIS earlier this year, said: “With over 970 bedrooms across 2 towers, the hotel has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies with mobile dining, reducing customer wait times by over 30 minutes.

"The ease of use and popularity of the app has contributed significantly to the 87% year-on-year increase in order volumes and 94% increase in F&B revenue.

"This trend underscores the seamless nature of digital ordering and the enthusiastic adoption by hotel guests.

"We’re delighted with the efficiency of the app and how seamlessly it enables us to manage and process a large volume of room service and corporate orders.”

Graham Rushin, VP sales and marketing of IRIS, added: “The rise in guest demand for mobile ordering and self-service options is unquestionable and only looks set to continue. 

"Indeed, average checks from digital orders are on average 20-30% higher compared to traditional orders.

“We’re delighted to extend our partnership with Marriott as the only approved vendor for digital F&B ordering and work closely with the Digital Guest Services team to scale up mobile dining and digital guest directories for their brands and properties," he said.

“We pride ourselves on investing and developing robust solutions that equip operators with the tools they need to increase guest spend in line with the growing mobile-first trend, streamline operations and enrich the guest service.”

In the last 12 months IRIS has invested in the research and development of a host of new features for its F&B online ordering solution. 

These include a new search and filter function for allergens, split bill feature to make group bill settlements easier and a call wait staff function to enable operators to provide swifter waiter service to those guests that request it. 

Each one enables hospitality operators to realise their operational and revenue potential at a time when inflation and recruitment continue to present challenges.

The new agreement will also include IRIS’ latest feature - digital staff ordering - which enables waitstaff to use IRIS on any device to take orders from customers.