"Mews has changed our day-to-day because they make it very easy to work and communicate with maintenance, housekeeping and the front desk. It’s very efficient to see things immediately or find the reports we need very quickly."
About The Eldred Preserve
The Eldred Preserve is a boutique destination in the heart of Sullivan County, New York, born from a deep love for the local landscape and its history. What began as a single property has grown into three historic landmarks – The Bradstan Boutique Hotel, The Eldred Preserve, and the Homestead Restaurant – brought together under one identity and offering 28 rooms that blend over a century of heritage with modern luxury.
The property draws guests who want more than a hotel room. With direct lake access, a full-service bar and restaurant, and a setting that rewards the drive from New York City, The Eldred Preserve has built a loyal following and a reputation. They’re ranked in the top 10% of boutique hotels worldwide on TripAdvisor.
Running an estate of this complexity – multiple buildings, departments that need to move in sync, group bookings alongside individual leisure stays – demands technology that can hold it all together without getting in the way of the experience. That’s what the team found in Mews.
A unified operation across three properties
Challenge
Before Mews, the team struggled to connect the various arms of the business. Maintenance tickets, housekeeping status and front desk activity lived in separate places. Financial reporting required manual consolidation. For a small, hands-on team running a multi-venue estate, this caused too much administrative overhead. The risk of things falling through the gaps was constant.
Solution
By migrating to Mews, The Eldred Preserve consolidated its operations into a single, intuitive system that every department could access in real time. Housekeeping status, maintenance requests, reservations and financial activity now flow through connected workflows, giving the front desk team visibility they did not have before and reducing the back-and-forth that slows a small property down. Ledger activity reports gave the team a cleaner view of their finances than they had managed with their previous platform.
Result
- Real-time visibility across housekeeping, maintenance and front desk in a single system
- Centralized financial reporting through Mews Ledger activity reports
- Operational alignment across three distinct property types under one platform
- Front desk staff save approximately 2 hours per shift with streamlined, connected workflows
"It is very efficient to see things immediately or find the reports we need very quickly."
Direct bookings that work harder
Challenge
For a property like The Eldred Preserve – distinctive, destination-driven, with experiences that are difficult to communicate through an OTA listing – direct bookings matter. The team needed a booking engine that could reflect the property's character, handle the complexity of packages and add-ons, and give groups the flexibility to manage their own reservations without adding work for the front desk.
Solution
The Mews booking engine is embedded directly into the property’s website, allowing guests to browse availability, select room types and add packages or special touches during the same reservation flow. For group business, the team implemented self-booking links for group blocks, giving guests personalized direct access to reserve within an allocated block without requiring the front desk to manage each booking individually.
Result
- Group self-booking links reduces manual reservation administration for group blocks
- Guests can add packages and experiences directly at the point of booking
- Direct booking channel reflects the property's identity rather than a generic OTA template
Frictionless payments across a complex estate
Challenge
Managing payments across a multi-venue estate – hotel rooms, restaurant tabs, event deposits, group blocks – creates significant reconciliation complexity. The team needed a payments setup that could handle multiple transaction types cleanly, reduce the risk of human error, and give them confidence that every charge was tracked and settled correctly without requiring manual oversight at the end of every shift.
Solution
Mews Payments is fully embedded into Mews, so every payment touchpoint across the property flows through the same system. Guest card details are tokenized at the point of booking, allowing deposits, pre-authorizations and final charges to be processed without re-entering information. Automated payment rules handle the routine charging across the estate, freeing staff from late-night reconciliations and reducing the risk of missed charges.
Result
- Payments, deposits and reconciliation managed in one environment across all three venues
- Automated charging rules reduce manual intervention and human error
- High monthly payment volumes processed reliably through Stripe Connect
"It's great peace of mind to have an inbuilt payments solution that we know we can rely on, both in terms of security and providing a smooth guest experience."
Integration spotlight
SiteMinder
By connecting SiteMinder to Mews via open APIs, The Eldred Preserve ensures seamless channel management and real-time inventory updates across all distribution points. This integration removes the friction of manual rate updates, allowing the team to maintain rate parity and maximize visibility without increasing administrative overhead.
Why Mews?
For The Eldred Preserve, Mews is the operational foundation that holds three distinct venues together. It gives the teams behind them the visibility, efficiency and reliability to let each one do what it does best. The technology blends into the background so that guest experiences stay in the foreground.