Fact Sheet: Handheld Ordering
iServe is Zonal’s handheld ordering solution for hospitality staff, helping to save
time, eliminate errors, and provide speedier service by allowing you and your
team to take orders digitally and send them directly through to the kitchen or
bar without needing to re-key the order at a fixed terminal.
Fact Sheet: Mobile Stocks
Seamlessly integrated with Zonal’s EPoS and full inventory management
suite, Zonal’s Mobile Stocks solution will help you streamline your stock
taking process by facilitating stock counting from a mobile device. Eliminate
the need for manual count entries and printed count sheets, making stock
taking easier, quicker, and more accurate.
Fact Sheet: Menu Manager
Build accurately costed menus, better manage nutrition and allergen
information, and streamline your recipe creation processes with Zonal’s easyto-use online menu management tool. Menu Manager takes the hassle out of
managing complex menu changes, with seamless integration to Zonal’s EPoS
and wider suite of technology meaning any changes made are published in
real-time across your business.
Fact Sheet: Integrated Payment
With customers demanding faster service – and in particular a quicker finish
to their meal – payment has become a crucial part of the customer journey.
Zonal’s card payment system (ZCPS) allows you to take payments at the table
and any point-of-sale. It simplifies the payment process, quickly and efficiently
enabling you to turn tables faster, streamline your processes, reduce operating
costs, and maximise your revenue potential.
Fact Sheet: Acquire
Acquire is Zonal’s EPoS integrated purchase-to-pay inventory management
solution, providing you and your team with a comprehensive, accurate, and
real-time view of what’s in stock, what’s on order, and when orders are due for
delivery. It helps reduce wastage associated with over-ordering, and helps you
protect your margins by ensuring your stock is being purchased from the best
supplier at the best price.
The Impact of the Climate Crisis on Your Hospitality Business: Why Carbon Accounting & Climate Action Matters Today
Guest blog by Net Zero Now
The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat but is already having a very real impact on the hospitality industry. That impact is both direct, resulting in increased costs as supply chains are put under increasing pressure and the cost of energy increases, and indirect, driving new attitudes and expectations of customers, employees, and investors.
But with these challenges come opportunities – to improve your bottom line, to establish yourself as a leader in an increasingly eco-conscious market and to increase the value of your business.
Understanding the Impact of Climate Change on Hospitality
The hospitality industry is uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and shifts in global ecosystems directly affect the supply chains that businesses rely on, resulting in higher costs and lower / less reliable availability.. Energy prices are also likely to soar as demand for cooling increases and fossil fuel resources become scarcer.
Indirectly, the climate crisis is changing the attitudes of the people who make your business thrive – your customers, your employees and your investors.
- Consumers are increasingly seeking out businesses that align with their values, particularly when it comes to sustainability – 69% of consumers worldwide have changed the products and services they use due to concern about climate change and 64% of British consumers willing to pay up to 10% more for sustainable foods and drinks (YouGov, 2024).
- Employees, especially younger generations, prefer to work for companies that take meaningful action on climate issues – 60% of Britons agree that climate change is the biggest threat to civilisation, with this sentiment being particularly strong among Gen Z (70%) and Millennials (63%) (YouGov, 2024).
- Investors are placing greater emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, meaning businesses that credibly address their environmental impact will have access to more funding and will receive a premium valuation of their business (IMD, 2023).
Businesses also face increased regulatory pressure. In the UK, larger businesses (£36m+ t’over) are already required to report Scope 1 and 2 emissions under the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) regulations. These requirements are expected to expand in the near future, reducing the threshold to include more businesses and increasing the reporting requirements to include Scope 3 emissions (the emissions from your supply chain, including all the food and drink you buy throughout the year). This is particularly relevant to the hospitality sector which contributes up to 15% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions (Net Zero Now, 2024, and where Scope 3 emissions account for c.70-95% of emissions, the vast majority of which comes from the food served (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Emissions Sources from different types of hospitality business
Source: Net Zero Now Customer analysis; Cool Food 2022
The Challenge and Opportunity of Tackling Scope 3 Emissions
As Figure 1 also shows, as an industry, we have a long way to go to meet the 2030 targets for carbon emissions per meal. Getting anywhere near these targets will take more than removing plastic straws and adding a few LED lightbulbs, hospitality businesses need to understand their full carbon footprint, including Scope 3 emissions, and find ways to minimise their climate impact.
I know what you’re thinking – “it’s too expensive”, “it’s too complicated”, “we’re too busy” – and until recently, you might have been right. But…
- It’s cost effective: Quite apart from being the right thing to do for your planet, taking positive climate action is the right thing to do for your business. Access to the Net Zero Now Carbon Accounting and Climate Action platform is available from c.£100 per site per year, while the resulting reduction in energy and water use, food waste, staff attrition, etc can save the average site thousands (UK Hospitality estimate the average pub / restaurant could save up to 20% on energy bills through energy efficiency measures alone)
- It’s straightforward: The global guidelines on “carbon accounting” are undeniably complex, but thanks to Coca Cola, Pernod Ricard, Heineken UK, The Sustainable Restaurant Association and many others, business are now able to follow the Net Zero Hospitality Protocol – an industry standard methodology for measuring and reporting emissions that ensures consistency of measurement across the sector as well as clarity on what and how to measure your emissions
- It’s quick & easy: As a Zonal customer, this is where you have a huge advantage. Zonal’s new partnership with Net Zero Now allows you to measure the largest part of your carbon footprint – the food and drink you have bought throughout the year, without lifting a finger. By integrating Zonal technology with Net Zero Now’s carbon accounting platform, we can provide you with accurate, detailed and regular analysis of your carbon emissions through the Net Zero Now platform. Where the data is available, we can even provide this on a site by site basis with no additional work from you.
and , as if all of the above wasn’t enough
- It’s good for your business: The Net Zero Hospitality Protocol includes criteria for Certifying your business, first as “On The Road to Net Zero” and ultimately as a “Net Zero” business, giving you a clear and credible way to communicate to your customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders and access the commercial benefits of taking positive climate action.
Ready to turn the climate challenge into a business opportunity? Discover how Net Zero Now’s integration with Zonal can help you accurately measure, manage, and reduce your carbon footprint. Start your journey towards sustainability today—contact the Zonal team and see how we can support your business in leading the way to a net zero future.
Sources:
- British attitudes towards sustainability in 2024: Key insights from YouGov data
- Climate change: change to consumer behavior 2019 | Statista
- Sustainable carbon credits strategy for the hospitality industry | Deloitte UK
- From data to decarbonisation: A roadmap for hotels to reach net zero | SMS
- Urgent action needed for a Net Zero hospitality sector, says new report
- Top 5 Ways for Hospitality Businesses to Reduce Energy Usage – Unyfi
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Shorefield Holidays reduces inventory management costs and boosts guest experiences with connected tech from Zonal
Introducing Shorefield Holidays
Family-run business
Established 1958
Award-winning holiday park operator
Collection of 9 parks across Dorset & Hampshire
“While we were looking for a new technology solution, we were looking for something that would be more integrated across the board, a cost saving for us as a business, and be able to take us to the next step.”Ryan Swatridge, Group Entertainments Manager, Shorefield Holidays
The business challenge
With a drive to deliver unforgettable experiences for their guests, owners and residents; as well as to join up their technology across their parks to deliver better integration and facilitate cost savings, Shorefield Holidays began the search for a technology partner that could help take them to the next level.
They needed a technology partner that would help them grow and expand, as well as deliver live, day-to-day insight over areas such as stock levels to enable more effective decision-making, something they were lacking at the time. The Shorefield team also wanted to be able to better understand their guests, including spending patterns, so technology that provided easy-to-digest and detailed reporting on how guests were engaging with the business was vital.
The system needed to be hospitality-dedicated, and ultimately make life easier for their guests and staff.
“Technology is a huge part of our business, from the iServes to the app, the loyalty, we massively embraced what Zonal brought to us. We’re just looking at different ways we can bring technology to what we do, we even have robots in our restaurant that will serve you your dinner.”Ryan Swatridge, Group Entertainments Manager, Shorefield Holidays
The solution
With a set of requirements and criteria in mind, the Shorefield team began researching different technology suppliers, as well as what their competitors were doing, and as a result chose to work with Zonal to implement a suite of connected hospitality technology across their parks to meet their business’s objectives.
With Zonal’s industry-leading EPoS at the core of their restaurants, the Shorefield team have since benefitted from real-time, accurate stock monitoring via Zonal’s built-in stock management module, enabling them to reduce costs on external stock counts. Zonal’s handheld EPoS ordering solution for staff, iServe, was also implemented, enabling staff to take orders at the tableside and automatically sending these through for fulfilment helping to improve guest experiences through speedier service and eliminating any room for errors, whilst providing significant time savings for staff by removing the need for orders to be re-keyed.
Alongside Zonal’s EPoS, the Shorefield team also chose to implement our purchase-to-pay inventory management solution, Acquire. With an end-to-end purchasing platform in place, fully integrated with their EPoS, the team have transformed their inventory management, enabling them to manage all of their suppliers and purchasing in one central platform, as well as reducing staff overhead by eliminating the need for their team to spend hours logging delivery notes and invoices.
“The difference is night and day; the money it’s saving us in not running multiple different platforms, and time it’s saving the team, and the fact that it’s just modernised us as a business.”Chris Weymouth, Assistant Complex Manager – Oakdene Forest Park, Shorefield Holidays
To further enhance their guest experience, Shorefield implemented Zonal’s Order & Pay app across their estate of holiday parks. Zonal worked with both the Shorefield operations and marketing teams to develop their app into exactly what they wanted it to be, including delivery to location functionality to enable guests to place orders for delivery to their accommodation – providing guests with convenience and flexibility.
All the functionality is backed up by Zonal’s robust suite of reporting. With Zonal’s integrated tech in place, the Shorefield team are able to drill down into more detail than ever, including a granular view of GP margins for every recipe item, helping them to expose any inefficiencies or fluctuations, and react accordingly.
- Industry-leading EPoS for holiday parks, complete with a robust stock management solution and real-time data capture
- Handheld ordering devices for staff to speed up service times and reduce room for error
- A fully-integrated purchase-to-pay solution, enabling the Shorefield team to centralise purchasing and supplier management, reducing costs and saving staff time
- A branded, feature-rich customer app, fully-integrated with their EPoS, to give guests more control over their dining experience during their stay, complete with deliver to location functionality to enable delivery straight to their cabins
- Robust, detailed reporting across their entire technology ecosystem, providing the necessary insight to help the Shorefield team to make more effective decisions
“You can see on the sales and profitability reports the GP margins for every recipe item, which means you can really expose any small problems you’re having with the fluctuation of figures. It gives you the ability to push that GP as much as you can.”Chris Weymouth, Assistant Complex Manager – Oakdene Forest Park, Shorefield Holidays
Results
Featured solutions
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Fixing people's hospitality bugbears
What are consumers' top frustrations in hospitality, and how can hospitality operators address them? Find out in this exclusive consumer research report in partnership with CGA by NIQ
Our previous GO Technology research revealed that hospitality still plays an important role in people’s social lives despite cost pressures, but with 49% of consumers saying they’d become less loyal to a brand after a few bad experiences, it’s incredibly important for hospitality businesses to deliver frictionless experiences that meet guests’ expectations, without any frustration during the journey.
This exclusive research of 5,000 hospitality consumers reveals the biggest frustrations guests encounter when engaging with venues, both in-venue and pre-visit, how these frustrations differ between demographics, and what actions they are likely to take following a frustrating experience.
What's in the report?
- Top 5 biggest bugbears
- Frustrations by stage in the customer journey
- How do these frustrations differ between demographics?
- Where and when consumers vent their frustrations about their hospitality experiences
Discover more useful content
blog
What makes people loyal to hospitality and how venues can maintain their loyalty
Discover the top reasons consumers choose to go out, the role hospitality plays in local communities, and what hospitality businesses can do to build and maintain customer loyalty in this blog – based on the findings from our recent ‘GO Technology: The value of hospitality’ research!
insight
Explore our virtual venues through the eyes of your customers
Visit our virtual pub, restaurant and hotel to discover how Zonal’s ecosystem of hospitality technology works behind the scenes to provide you with the intelligence and insights you need to improve customer experiences, boost loyalty, and drive revenue.
tools
Hospitality Tech Assessment: Improving the guest experience & driving loyalty
Answer a few short questions to identify how well your tech helps you to deliver incredible guest experiences that keep your customers coming back time and time again. At the end you’ll get personalised guidance which explains how you can leverage your customer data to offer personalised customer experiences.
Subscribe to get the latest news, product announcements and industry updates
Making the business case to Finance for hospitality technology
Learn more about how specialist hospitality technology can benefit wider stakeholders in your business, such as finance
As an operator working day-in, day-out with your front- and back-of-house teams, you may already be acutely aware of the tangible benefits your technology can offer to your business. However, it can be difficult to “sell” those benefits across for stakeholders within the business that may not be direct users of the technology on a daily basis.
In this guide, we explore how hospitality technology can also meet the needs of your finance team, how the operational improvements it brings can have a positive impact on the wider business, as well as how it can help to deliver more accurate, data-driven insights that facilitate better decision-making to drive the business forward.
Download this guide to discover:
- The benefits of hospitality technology to your wider business
- What key areas will your Finance team consider when implementing new hospitality tech?
- How specialist hospitality technology can meet your head of Finance’s priorities
- How to address any concerns they may have around integration and implementation
Discover more useful resources
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Guide: Transform your hotel's back-of-house operations with hospitality tech
Discover how a suite of connected hospitality technology can help build an efficient back-of-house operation in your hotel
With cutting costs and maximising margins front-of-mind for many hoteliers, ensuring you have the right technology in place to collect, capture and report on operational data from your bar & restaurant is integral to making better, more informed decisions.
Discover how specialist hospitality technology can transform your hotel’s back-of-house F&B operations, from automated and streamlined processes that result in frictionless experiences for guests, to real-time, reliable data collected at every touchpoint within the restaurant that increases reporting accuracy for stock management and business performance to help you cut costs and boost profits.
Download this guide to discover:
- The benefits of specialist hospitality technology in hotels
- How centralised product management improves control
- How stock & ordering technology can help you manage costs and reduce waste
- The role of accurate data in improving back-of-house operations
Discover more resources for hoteliers
tools
Hospitality Tech Assessment: Improving the guest experience & driving loyalty
Answer a few short questions to identify how well your tech helps you to deliver incredible guest experiences that keep your customers coming back time and time again. At the end you’ll get personalised guidance which explains how you can leverage your customer data to offer personalised customer experiences.
