“With Mews, we run much more efficiently. I set rates in one go and save lots of time on reporting, too. Assessing individual property performance and the portfolio overall is much easier.”
About Crown Group of Hotels
Crown Group of Hotels is a collection of six hotels, all in London’s Zone 1. From the leafy Georgian streets of Bloomsbury to the glass and steel of Liverpool Street at the edge of the City’s financial centre, the group’s properties are defined above all by their location.
The group spans three- and four-star properties giving business travellers, tourists and students unbeatable value without pricey frills. Zahra Kassamali, Director of Crown Group of Hotels, oversees all technology across the portfolio. After switching to Mews a couple of years ago, she manages the group’s day-to-day operations from a single platform.
Rolling out six hotels, one by one
Challenge
Moving six properties onto a new PMS is a daunting task. The risk of disruption to operations, configuration errors and gaps in staff training is a real concern for any group considering a switch.
Solution
Crown Group of Hotels took a deliberate, sequenced approach: one hotel at a time. The management team completed Mews University training first, building a solid foundation before the onsite team at the first property followed. Once that hotel was live and stable, they moved on to the next. By the third property, the process was almost routine. And Mews made replication straightforward: once the first hotel’s configuration was exactly right, it was copied across and adjusted for the specifics of each subsequent property – different room types, pricing structures, amenities. What could have been a disruptive six-month project became a manageable rollout over the summer.
Result
- All properties onboarded without disrupting day-to-day operations
- Structured rollout kept training manageable for teams
- Setup replication significantly reduced onboarding time for each subsequent property
“Once we got to the third property, it was all fairly routine. Mews allowed us to copy and paste the setup, so once the first was done, it was replicated and then adjusted.”
Crown Group of Hotels
Challenge
With their previous PMS, Guestline, integrating new tools was slow and costly. Even straightforward changes – like updating room types – required the vendor to step in, which could take weeks and came with a price tag every time.
Solution
With Mews, Crown Group of Hotels gained full control over their tech stack. Mews Marketplace gave the team access to over a thousand integrations, ready to connect without lengthy implementation or vendor involvement. The group currently uses HiJiffy for guest messaging and Xero for accounting, and can explore and trial new tools on their own terms and timeline.
Result
- Full self-service access to 1,000+ integrations via the Mews Marketplace
- New tools connected quickly, without vendor involvement or additional cost
- Freedom to experiment and adapt the tech stack as the business evolves
“It’s much better with Mews because we can just go to the Marketplace and it’s all live very quickly.”
Running six properties from one place
Challenge
With six hotels to oversee, repetitive operational tasks – setting rates, pulling reports, assessing group performance – can quickly eat into a director’s working week.
Solution
Mews gives Zahra a single environment to manage operations across all six properties. Rates can be set in one go and pushed wherever they’re needed, removing individual property updates. Reporting works the same way: group- and property-level views are available in the same place, making it straightforward to see both how individual hotels are performing and how the group is tracking overall. Channel performance is also visible. When Crown Group of Hotels meets with OTAs, the team arrives armed with a clear picture of actual production – a simple but meaningful advantage when negotiating.
Result
- 10 hours saved per week on reporting across the group
- Rate updates pushed across multiple properties in a single action
- OTA performance data readily available, supporting sharper commercial conversations
Self-serve for guests who want it
Challenge
Crown Group of Hotels didn’t use online check-in or self-serve options with their previous PMS. With two properties sharing a reception desk at certain times of day, queues risked a poor first impression.
Solution
With Mews, guests coming to Crown Group of Hotels now have the option to complete check-in before they arrive while Mews Kiosk at the front desk provides a quick, self-guided alternative. And for anyone who prefers a chat with staff, the traditional option remains. The result is shorter queues and smoother arrivals – particularly at Arran House Hotel and Hotel Cavendish which share a reception at certain times of the day. Getting guest information early through online check-in also unlocks earlier communication, so the team can send pre-arrival emails and prepare for each stay before the guest walks through the door.
Results
- 50% kiosk check-in rate at Arran House Hotel and Hotel Cavendish
- Reduced queuing at arrival, particularly at shared-reception properties
- Earlier access to guest information, enabling pre-arrival communication
Know who you’re welcoming back
Challenge
Serving a wide variety of guests across six properties means the front desk needs quick, reliable context to personalise interactions, especially for returning guests.
Solution
Mews Smart Tips give front desk teams a guest summary that appears directly in the PMS at check-in. They surface returning guests instantly, flag room preferences from previous stays, and provide other relevant context from the guest’s profile – all without the team needing to search for it. Crown Group of Hotels’ front-of-house staff use this feature of Mews Guest Intelligence regularly to tailor their welcome and make returning guests feel recognised. A warm “welcome back” or putting a guest in a room they liked before is a small gesture. But in a city where guests have countless options, it’s the kind of detail that builds loyalty.
Results
- Front desk teams across the group use Smart Tips in their daily check-in workflow
- Returning guests recognised instantly at arrival
- Room and stay preferences tracked for a more personalised experience
“Front of house use Smart Tips to help make the check-in more personal. When someone’s been back a few times, it’s helpful.”
Simplifying housekeeping with paperless, sustainable processes
Challenge
Distributing housekeeping tasks via paper lists and WhatsApp groups was time-consuming, prone to human error and harder to track as the team scaled.
Solution
Crown Group of Hotels’ Head of Housekeeping now uses the Mews housekeeping app to plan and distribute tasks across the group. Rooms, assignments and status updates are managed digitally, reducing manual work and the risk of tasks slipping through the gaps. The shift to a paperless workflow also aligns with the group’s broader sustainability commitments and guest concerns – less paper means a smaller environmental footprint. And Zahra reminds us that it also means a tidier hotel and fewer lost records.
Results
- Housekeeping tasks distributed digitally, reducing manual coordination and the risk of human error
- Paperless workflows support Crown Group of Hotels’s sustainability commitments
- Tidier operations across the group
Looking ahead
Crown Group of Hotels is continuing to develop how they use Mews. Two areas are on the horizon.
The team is exploring seasonal and themed rate packages, creating offers that bundle room types and additional services.
On the operations side, they're evaluating Flexkeeping, a Mews company, our AI-powered housekeeping and maintenance tool. With WhatsApp groups still doing some of the heavy lifting in daily housekeeping coordination, the opportunity to centralise and automate those workflows is an appealing next step.
For Zahra, the value of the partnership goes beyond the platform itself. Crown Group of Hotels feeds back openly when something isn’t working and expects Mews to keep developing. That ongoing exchange, she says, is what makes it a relationship worth investing in.
“Mews is easy to work with. We can integrate, we can try things. And you’re open to feedback, which is essential for a successful partnership.”
Zahra Kassamali, Director, Crown Group of Hotels
Integration spotlight
HiJiffy
This AI-powered guest communication platform helps hotels seamlessly answer guest queries and drive direct bookings. Integrated directly with Mews, guests can easily check room availability and make reservations via the chatbot. Crown Group of Hotels also leverages HiJiffy’s WhatsApp features for targeted pre-arrival and in-stay communication, as well as sending post-stay review requests, turning every guest touchpoint into an opportunity.
Xero
Crown Group of Hotels connects Mews to Xero via Omniboost, a hospitality data unification platform that automates financial data transfers between the PMS and accounting environments. The fully automated API connection supports three accounting flows – consumed, closed (journal entry) and closed (bills and invoices) – working to each property's specific accounting standards.
