Access Hospitality reassures hospitality operators that technology can help manage the opening restrictions stipulated by Government.

Following the Prime Minister’s announcement that hospitality venues can open from 4^th July, subject to meeting various safety measures, Access Hospitality has reassured operators that technology is already available to manage some of those controls placed upon them. In addition to existing assistance, the leading sector technology provider will host a webinar on 1^st July to demonstrate the depth of support available through technology.

Henry Seddon, Managing Director of Access Hospitality commented “The relief that hospitality venues would be able to reopen was quickly followed by concern about the mitigation measures that operators are being asked to implement to keep staff and customers safe. But some of those concerns can be answered by the technology already available to manage aspects such as accommodating only seated custom, taking bookings, order and pay at table and, yes, even the request to collect guest details for test and trace purposes should someone fall ill later.

“Our reservation platform, Access Collins, already supports social distancing requirements by managing table layout, enquiries and pre-bookings and the LiveWait function ensures that numbers inside a venue are controlled, messaging guests when their table is ready rather than having to queue. Access Collins Livewait is an example of a new feature that has been further developed in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, and will be used by Yummy Pubs, amongst others, upon reopening.” 

Tim Foster of Yummy Pubs explained “Access Collins LiveWait is a brilliant way to manage the situation as we can take a customers’ name and they can go for a walk and receive a notification when a table becomes free. Without this technology I’m not sure how we’d manage the business in the challenging period ahead!”

“Rather than manually taking contact details onsite” added Seddon, “Access Collins has further developed its existing guest list facility to record not only the contact details of the lead booker, but key information of everyone else in the party. This will provide an immediate solution to the request to capture as much information as possible and retain for 21 days in accordance with Government data protection guidance. Within this technology operators can hold guest data securely, and easily run as a report based on certain sittings, should it be necessary to connect with NHS Test and Trace later.”

The Government advice on keeping customers and visitors safe highlighted a range of other guidelines to minimise the risk of transmission, with technology already providing solutions for many of these. The responsibility for considerations such as reconfiguring tables, controlling queues effectively, taking advance bookings, pre-order, order and pay at table and scheduling shift patterns appropriately can all be managed by technology to help protect customers and staff.

“Owners and GM’s should not feel disheartened by the new social distancing and other measures they are being asked to take” concluded Henry “as technology can do much of the heavy lifting for them and allow them to concentrate on the many other aspects of the business that needs their attention. To demonstrate how much technology support is available to operate safely and efficiently we have arranged a webinar on the Access Collins features which answer the social distancing and reopening criteria and everyone is welcome to join us for this at 2pm on Wednesday 1^st July by registering at https://pages.theaccessgroup.com/Reopening-Webinar.

For further information about Access Collins and other technology solutions to navigate the post Covid-19 landscape, please contact Access Hospitality on 0845 340 4542 or hospitality@theaccessgroup.com.

Webinar on Wednesday 1^st July to Demonstrate the Benefits.