A Look Back at 2020 and Season's Greetings

It has been a long and hard year for everyone involved in hospitality and I have been absolutely amazed at the remarkable resilience, creativity, and ingenuity everyone in the industry has shown to survive. 

To all our clients, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your custom this year. From the decision to move our team to fully remote in early March, to full Lockdown and then the rush in demand for contactless guest technology, this year has been challenging (that’s an understatement!).

The team here at Criton have worked tirelessly to support the industry, to do everything we could for our customers facing hard times to ensure they would be at the forefront of guest-facing technology which allows them to offer enhanced safety for their guests and their teams.

In return, our customers have rewarded us with record downloads and guest engagement, as well as excitement about changing up how they interact with their guests and continual feedback on how they would like to see Criton continue to develop.

As an industry, we have made great steps forward in embedding digital into our guest journey and experience to really deliver guest choice. Just as you could not imagine queueing to check-in for a flight, soon the day will arrive when guests will not expect to queue to check-in to their hotel. 

Over the next few years, efficiency will continue to be key and Criton is here to help our operators redefine the guest journey, not just merely recreate the current processes.  We want to help break down the barriers to how guests enjoy your hospitality and free up your team to do what you employ them to, provide amazing service to your guests and help you derive the benefits technology should deliver to your bottom line.

I am very proud that during such a turbulent year our team have continued to develop the product which will see us launch direct integrations with Opera, Guestline and Maestro in January and the all important ability to capture payment details during check-in, and charge the card on check out (or damages post stay) which gives you the security you need to deliver a fully contactless guest journey.

Most importantly at Criton we want to ensure that the apps we deliver for your hotels are engaging for guests, because that allows us to help you drive incremental revenue and therefore garner ROI from your technology stack.

As we fast approach the festive season, I would like to wish you, your team and your families, a very Merry and safe Christmas, Happy New Year and a prosperous 2021, welcoming many guests through your doors! 

Julie Grieve, Founder & CEO, Criton