We live in the age of optimization. Every moment is measured, every experience algorithmically curated for maximum engagement. The digital world promised us connection but has so far delivered isolation. It promised efficiency but delivered exhaustion. It gave us convenience but quietly took something human away.
This impacts hospitality. Our industry thrives on creating meaningful moments that feel human rather than processed, but they’re not a given. Hoteliers need support from technology that empowers rather than consumes – and that’s what we’re building at Mews.
In the wake of our Series D funding round, I want to talk less about the numbers and more about what they can help us achieve. Because in this age of optimization, hospitality can be the catalyst that rewires how we experience our world.
Screens vs the real world
Technology has a huge role in shaping how we experience the world. Fascinating new research shows that how we experience media fundamentally shapes what we remember.
People retain less information when reading on screens compared to paper. We skim more, comprehend less deeply, and remember fewer details. The same effect extends to experiences. Virtual experiences – a YouTube video, a TikTok meme, photos of a meal – create weaker memories than physical presence does.
Physical experiences engage more of our senses. They create richer contextual cues for memory formation and require a different quality of attention. When you’re physically present, your brain encodes sensory details and emotional context more deeply.
Unfortunately, most digital experiences have been designed to exploit our neurological shortcuts, to help us waste time and get lost in the synaptic joy of context-switching. This is great for improving performance metrics, but not so great for lasting memory formation or human connection.
The impact of screen bleed
Because we’ve trained ourselves in digital environments that reward rapid consumption, we now bring those expectations into the physical world. We rush through museums. We get restless in restaurants. We experience travel as content to capture rather than moments to inhabit.
This isn’t a moral failing; it’s conditioning. And it creates an opportunity.
Hospitality can be the place where different rhythms are relearned. Where time moves at the speed of conversation, not notifications. Where attention settles and memories form deeply enough to last.
How do we get there? By building technology that supports this outcome rather than resist it.
Technology as liberation
This is where the Series D matters. It allows us to go all in on a new generation of hospitality technology.
Most of today’s systems were built to extract. Time, data, incremental margin. They are optimized for monitoring and control, often with the effect (intentional or otherwise) of automating people out of the equation rather than freeing human capacity and ability.
The real promise of hospitality technology is liberation. It should carry the cognitive load, the administrative burden and the coordination complexity so humans don’t have to. It should remove the wrong friction – disconnected systems, manual data entry, constant screen attention – so people can focus on what only people can do.
How Mews empowers human connections
What are some of the concrete areas we’re investing in?
First, fewer screens in moments that matter. We are deliberately designing workflows that minimize staff screen time during guest-facing interactions – from mobile-first tools that work in the background, to automation that removes the need to “check the system” mid-conversation. The goal is simple: more eye contact, less interface.
Second, systems that anticipate rather than interrupt. By unifying guest data, payments, availability and operations in real time, Mews reduces the need for context switching. Staff don’t need to hunt for information or ask guests to wait while they look something up. The system already knows, and quietly supports better judgment.
Third, automation that gives time back rather than taking agency away. Tasks like payment handling, room assignment, upgrades and reporting happen automatically so staff gain time – and autonomy – to notice what’s actually happening in front of them. That’s where real hospitality lives.
This empowerment means more space for genuine human connection. For people to be in the moment – both staff and guests – and to live experiences that will last.
The rise of the operating system
Hospitality doesn’t need more isolated tools that make users feel like they are context switching. It needs a connected operating system. One that allows the entire hotel ecosystem – operations, payments, distribution, data, staff workflows – to work together without constant human gatekeeping and without the distraction of another screen notification.
When systems talk to each other, people don’t have to translate between them. When data flows cleanly, staff don’t have to live behind screens. That leaves more space for intentional, meaningful, personal hospitality.
This is why we’re intentionally moving beyond the idea of a property management system. PMSs were designed to manage rooms. An operating system orchestrates experiences for staff and guests alike.
Our Series D funding accelerates this shift in three ways:
- Deepening the platform layer, so core functions like payments, identity, pricing, distribution and guest profiles operate as shared infrastructure rather than disconnected modules. This removes friction across the entire guest journey, not just at check-in. Core to this is investing in agentic AI, and there’s more on our vision here.
- Expanding the ecosystem, so hoteliers can plug into best-in-class tools without adding operational complexity. A connected ecosystem reduces cognitive load for staff while increasing flexibility for owners. Recent acquisitions include Flexkeeping (housekeeping and collaboration), Atomize (revenue management) and Quotelo (event management).
- Investing in intelligence that enhances and supports human judgment rather than replacing it. Real-time insights surface what matters now, without requiring constant monitoring or dashboard fatigue.
The result is a system that’s present when needed and invisible when not. Technology that recedes so hospitality can come forward.
Hospitality that lasts
We’re designing with experience in mind.
Instead of maximizing engagement, we create conditions for presence. Instead of standardizing service, we empower in-the-moment judgment. Instead of pursuing what’s most efficient, we pursue what makes people feel more human.
Hospitality can lead this shift. It creates the spaces where people reconnect with each other and experience surprise and delight.
That’s the ambition behind this funding round. Not growth for its own sake, but the chance to build systems that help an industry address some of the most pressing issues of our time – disconnection and the erosion of attention.
We're building a platform for a tech-enabled, pro-human future. One that doesn’t just manage property, but orchestrates hospitality in a way that makes thought, care and excellence sustainable at scale. After all, our company vision is to make the world a more hospitable place. And this vision is already well underway.
.webp)
