Terry Donnelly Joins HCN to Spearhead Revenue Growth Via Game-Changing Tablet Platform

CHICAGO – Hotel Communication Network (HCN) is on a quest to radically transform the way hoteliers think about in-room tablets. This year the company will introduce new, no-cost guest services for its Navigator 2.0 tablets, such as digital magazines, music streaming, AI-based itinerary planning, merchandising, ecommerce, and much more. Terry Donnelly has recently joined the company to serve as Chief Revenue Officer and begin driving an immediate return on investment for owners and operators.

HCN will emerge in 2025 as a completely new company, Donnelly said. The vision of its founders is extraordinary, and it is the main reason I accepted this newly created position. HCN will be the first technology company to take tablets from a capital expense to a revenue driver by eliminating the cost of ownership and attracting brand partners and advertisers. The upside is astonishing. While other tablet providers focus on selling hardware, HCN is growing our hotel partners’ businesses by serving all guests’ needs with one easy-to-use device that drives immediate revenue growth.

HCN’s AI-powered in-room tablets provide an unprecedented opportunity to market to guests during the entire time of their stay in the room – in fact, it’s the only way to truly reach 100% of guests. The average person spends 3.5 hours a day in the room awake; that is the ideal time to send value-added service messaging to guests.

The tablet platform we will be unveiling in June comes with an immediate ROI for the hotel, mainly because the only cost to the hotel is the time it takes to manage the platform, Donnelly said. With our brand and advertising partners covering the hard costs and operating costs of the platform, the value to the hotel and the guest is immeasurable. Short of taking full control of the guest’s own phone, there is no other technology that offers as much potential for guest engagement and the control of marketing messaging.

Bringing Branding + Marketing to Tablets

Prior to joining HCN, Donnelly managed a global AI platform for the consumer packaged goods and retail sectors in the European Union and North America. He worked in music, sports, and entertainment marketing with Coca Cola, creating programs for Intercontinental Hotels, MGM, Six Flags, and Chili’s Restaurants. He also created two leading beverage companies, Hill Street and Averi Infusions, that focused on disrupting major categories by serving consumer needs and demands for healthier alternatives to alcohol. Prior to his beverage ventures, he was Chief Marketing Officer of MDC Partners (now Stagwell NASD: STGW), a global marketing services company responsible for brands such as Budweiser, Coca Cola, Diageo, Bacardi, BMW, Infiniti, Target, Samsung, Google, and others. Donnelly also served as Co-Founder of Adcentricity, a leading digital out-of-home and mobile-media platform serving ads to mobile devices and digital signs across North America and the United Kingdom. He began his career in talent, mergers and acquisitions, and organizational design for the marketing services sector with one of Canada’s leading consulting companies.

Terry’s unique skill set and experience in advertising, technology, and digital marketing will enable him to lead the revenue success for not just HCN, but for all of our global customers. In this new role, Terry will ensure the profitable growth of revenues from all sources. The programmatic advertising and ecommerce revenue platform that Terry designed – turning tablets from a cost center to a profit center – will transform the way hoteliers drive revenues in the future. Kevin Bidner, HCN President and CEO

An Unprecedented Guest Experience

HCN is in the process of creating compelling opportunities via Navigator 2.0 designed to improve guest communication with the hotel, connectedness to the city, and features an AI concierge for every guest. Unlike mobile apps that only get 10% adoption at best and QR codes that get less than 15% adoption, HCN tablets are a game changer because they are pre-configured and get 85% of the guests using them. The tablet is able to control the room technologies (thermostat, access control, blinds, TV, alarm, wake up services, and the booking of all hotel amenities) to provide a central point of engagement for guests.

Responding to guests’ demands with one easy-to-use device solves all of their needs and drives immediate revenue growth, Donnelly said. By giving them one sophisticated tool, the guest is better served, the hotel has fewer touchpoints to worry about, and the guestroom becomes less complicated and more enjoyable.

Today, HCN is emerging as the global technology leader to enhance every aspect of the guest’s journey, and I am thrilled to be a part of it, he added. From AI platforms that will transform how guests interact, customized itinerary planning, and bespoke meal delivery services, to optimizing every aspect of a guest’s needs for comfort, personalization, and loyalty, the tablet is the most powerful vehicle to deliver against all of these opportunities from one single interface. AI will soon be impacting every aspect of our business, and HCN will be at the forefront of it all.

About The Hotel Communication Network, Inc. (HCN)

Founded in 2008, with headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, The Hotel Communication Network has built on years of research and development to provide an innovative high-value guest amenity that keeps each guest connected to their hotel, city and each other. For more information, visit www.hcn-inc.com.