kevin king
The Outlook for Hospitality, Part 2: How Vendors Are Pivoting to Meet New Industry Demands
Fran Worrall | November 16, 2020
By Fran Worrall In the fall issue of Hospitality Upgrade, we began our four-part series on the outlook for the hospitality industry by asking vendors the following question: What are your thoughts on the future of hotels and the industry in general? Overwhelmingly, respondents were optimistic. Despite the seriousness of the pandemic and its devastating impact on hotels around the globe, most vendors agreed that the industry is resilient and will recover. Some said it would come back even stronger than before. Not surprisingly, most believe that technology will play a key role in the process. In Part 2 of our series, we asked the foll...
The Outlook for Hospitality: Silver Linings in the Midst of Crisis
Fran Worrall | November 2, 2020
Vendors Address The Future of The Industry, Part 1 By Fran Worrall During the past seven months, the hospitality industry has faced the worst crisis in recent history. As COVID-19 has spread around the globe, hotels have been forced to lay off employees, curtail services and in some cases close. At some point, however, the world will regain its equilibrium. Consumers will be eager to travel again. And businesses will want to hold group meetings and conferences. What will the hotel landscape look like? Can anything positive come out of this crisis? We talked with a number of vendors for this multi-part series on the outlook for ho...
Shiji Group and MCR Announce Agreement on the $46 Million Purchase of StayNTouch
Shiji Group | August 31, 2020
Shiji Group announces it's definitive agreement to sell StayNTouch for $46 Million to MCR, the fifth-largest hotel owner-operator in the United States. Shiji Group, a global hospitality technology provider, today announces it has reached a definitive agreement to sell StayNTouch to MCR, the fifth-largest hotel owner-operator in the United States, for the purchase price of $46 Million, including potential earnouts. The much anticipated announcement follows months of negotiations between the two parties after the U.S Administration, in March of 2020, ordered Shiji to divest of StayNTouch, a leading cloud hotel property management system ...
Shiji Group’s Decade of Transformation and Growth
Shiji | February 10, 2020
By Kevin King In the past ten years, Shiji Group has undergone a period of significant growth and expansion, transitioning from a China-based network system supply company, to a truly global conglomerate pushing the boundaries of hospitality technology. Shiji began as the brainchild of Li Zhongchu. Like many innovative tech brands, Li founded Shiji in his Beijing apartment in 1998, impressing his initial customers with his dedication to service and the letter quality of his new fax machine. Almost immediately, Shiji began to expand rapidly, quickly becoming the leading hotel tech provider in China. By 2014, we captured almost 70% of...
The Key to Hotel Operations Technology Lies in Single Guest Profiles
Kevin King | August 14, 2018
By Kevin King At the recent, CHAT 2018 (China Hotel and Tourism Forum) in Shanghai, Kevin King, COO of Shiji, was invited to deliver a keynote speech on "Hotel Operation Technology". As one of the largest hospitality conferences in China, CHAT aims to explore new ideas for hospitality industry future development with trade professionals. The conference, hosted by Horwath HTL and the China Tourist Hotel Association, was held at the W Shanghai. As the leader of hospitality total solution, Shiji was invited to participate in the forum to discuss the development of the hospitality and tourism industry. The conference attracted mor...
