UK: The Malmaison and Hotel du Vin brands, owned by Frasers Hospitality, have partnered with food waste app Too Good to Go and guest experience platform Vouch Concierge.
Following a successful trial at a number of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin sites across the UK, the Too Good To Go app will enrol 36 hotels on its platform, covering the full portfolio of the two brands.
Too Good To Go lets customers buy surplus food and drink from restaurants, grocery stores, pubs, cafes and producers to prevent waste.
Customers can download the Too Good To Go app and search for their nearby Malmaison and Hotel du Vin hotels to see the unsold food on offer. At launch, ‘Magic Bags’ will include a range of breakfast items with plans to expand this to spare food left over from buffets, meetings and events.
Scott Harper, COO at Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, said: “We are thrilled to be extending and broadening our partnership with Too Good To Go across our full portfolio of boutique hotels in the UK. It was so rewarding to see the results of our trial over summer, which saw 843 ‘Magic Bags’ and the equivalent of 2.11 tonnes of Co2e saved. We’re excited about the potential that having the full breadth of our hotels on board will bring.”
Paschalis Loucaides, UK managing director at Too Good To Go, said: “It’s great to be extending and formalising our partnership with Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, following a successful trial run together. Surplus food in the hospitality sector is to be expected, but this partnership means foods such as fruits, yoghurts and hot breakfast items can be distributed elsewhere and eaten and enjoyed, instead of thrown away unnecessarily. With Malmaison and Hotel du Vin’s national footprint, it’s exciting to think about how much food we are going to save in the months and years to come!”
The two hotel brands have also partnered with Vouch Concierge – a Singaporean-based technology start up that’s expanding across Europe.
Vouch Concierge allows guests to check-in, make room requests, order food and beverage, and get instant answers to FAQs by scanning a QR code on their mobile phone. Vouch aims to have at least 30 per cent of revenue coming from Europe and is setting a target of having a strong presence in at least three European countries by the end of 2022.
Founder and CEO Joseph Ling said: “In Singapore we have covered 25 per cent of all rooms under international groups such as Frasers Hospitality, Hyatt Hotels, Pan Pacific Hotels Group and the InterContinental Hotels Group. There is a genuine need for a solution that helps hotels improve manpower efficiency and the pandemic has accelerated this need. Our plan this year is to expand aggressively into new markets that will benefit most from a productivity platform like ours, namely Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and the United Kingdom.”
Seed funding of USD $1.1 million led by Forge Ventures will be used for expansion and product development of Vouch Concierge. Tiang Lim Foo, co-founder and partner at Forge Ventures, said: “We are really excited to partner with Joseph and his team, to build the foundation of a digital future for the hospitality industry. I believe that the world has changed structurally in meaningful ways, and I am confident that the innovations Vouch brings to the market will help its customers adapt and thrive in the new world.”
