SARAH HAWILO

CEO and co-founder Servme servmeco.com

Unique selling point

Servme is a guest experience platform that offers reservation and waitlist management, guest CRM, reporting, guest payment and re-engagement. The platform captures guest spending, patterns and preferences by integrating with the point of sale, telephones, property management systems and popular booking channels, such as the company’s website, Trip Advisor, Google and other sites. Indeed, servme powers over 2,500 F&B operators, restaurant brands and hotels across Middle East, Europe, SEA, India and Africa.

Trends in tech

In the post-covid-19 world, we have seen a tremendous surge in digital adoption in the hospitality industry, specifically in terms of CRM and reservations. F&B operators, owners and hoteliers have placed great emphasis on streamlining operations and understanding guest preferences to deliver exceptional dine-in experiences, increasing guest visits and returns. We help F&B operators succeed in the new era by empowering them with a guest experience platform that is integrated with all the systems to capture guest data from all touch points and help staff operate in a smarter and more effective manner.

Latest tech

The average rate of last-minute cancelations and no-shows is intensifying, affecting restaurants’ bottom line. Indeed, the restaurant industry’s average rate of no-shows worldwide is around 20 percent. However, we have seen the average rate reach 38 percent in the Middle East, which is a tremendous loss for a restaurant that counts on table turnover. Servme has released pre-payment features allowing restaurants to charge guests in advance and guarantee payment within 24-48 hours. Restaurants can select partial/full deposit or take an authorization on the guest’s card.