Hospitality podcast

In this episode, Matt breaks down how embedded payments are transforming the hotel payment flow. He digs into why pre-authorizations matter, how they support direct bookings and shares tips to cut down on chargebacks.

Have you ever stopped to think what's really behind staffing challenges and how small changes, including leveraging technology, can lead to happier staff and greater retention? Lucky for you, Matt thinks about it a lot and has some great advice in this episode.

We could talk all day about the value of direct bookings and a seamless booking engine. But what’s more useful are Matt’s practical tips to help your guests book direct, increase ancillary revenue, and build excitement before they arrive.

In this episode, we’ve invited our in-house expert on door locks – one of the most challenging aspects of hotel operations. Matt and Mews Product Director Adam Britton dig into old hotel room door locks, why they hold hoteliers back and how they can fix it with innovative tech.

Matt’s passion for data is a constant at Mews, and today, we’re excited to share it with a broader audience. Hotels can easily turn data into better decisions, smoother operations, and more revenue. Matt gives real examples and tips on the best tech.

It may not be the sexiest term, but user disengagement could be the difference between delivering exceptional guest experiences and guest journeys that are full of friction and frustration. In this episode, Matt goes deep on how a cloud platform delivers a more considered interface for staff, why attaching a reservation to a room is an outdated way of thinking and why you can't afford to ignore friction in the guest journey.

Matt sits down with Mews Chief People Officer, Naomi Trickey, to talk employer branding, staffing and growth. They explore the importance of offering engaging work, exciting career paths and up-skilling individuals while emphasizing the value of hiring the right people for your business. Discover how Naomi builds her team with creative strategies to attract new talent.

Timur Dikmen, Solutions Architect Lead at Mews, joins Matt to talk integrations, automation and why your tech should match your hotel brand (with a PMS at the heart of it all). Whether you're an independent hotel or a global brand, aligning your tech with your brand promise is key. Tune in to discover how smart integrations can transform your hotel’s profitability.

Rogier Braakman, founder of Mr. Green Boutique Office Collection joins Matt to talk co-working, sustainability, and how hospitality can build greener communities. They explore how integrating sustainable practices can enhance guest experiences and operational efficiency in hospitality.

The hospitality industry is undergoing a shift as technology and AI reshape traditional roles. Positions like night auditors and reservation agents are changing. This week Matt caught up with George Barker, Senior Director of Communications, to see what it takes to thrive in this new reality.

Matt shares his 10 favorite new Mews features, such as Apple Wallet keys, AI tooltips, dynamic pricing, automated workflows and more. All to help you work with more efficiency, keep staff and guests happy and earn more evenue. Plus, we throw in two bonus features.

Is there joy in PMS migration? There can be, when it's done right. In this episode, Matt talks to Manisha Athukorala, VP of Deployment and Customer Success at Mews, about the secrets behind what really makes switching to a new PMS successful. Hear how flexible training, smart use of AI and strong partnerships help hotels stay on track while everything behind the scenes changes.

It’s a time when hotels are short on staff. Costs are up. Talent’s scarce. How do you keep things running without burning out your team – or affecting the guest experience? In this episode, Matt gets into the real talk: what actually works when you have to do more with less and which parts of the job are best handled by technology and AI.

Claudia Meglin, Director of CMC Hospitality Software, has seen it all – botched migrations, bloated rate plans and hotels that swap systems without fixing what’s actually broken. In this episode, she joins Matt to unpack why so many PMS projects go off the rails, how to prepare your teams for go-live day and what smart hoteliers do before even touching their tech stack.

Rebecca Lane knows every inch of Paradise Resort. Having started as a server, 15 years later she’s now running revenue across the entire property. Rebecca’s seen the hotel transform from outdated systems and long check-in lines to one of the best rated family resorts in Australia. In this episode, she tells Matt how better tech and a shift in focus helped the team stop chasing room revenue alone and look at the full picture.

It’s Friday at 3pm, the lobby hums and the line at the reception snakes past the elevators. Guests tap their feet. Staff keep their heads down. Familiar pain? In this episode, Matt explores the real reason hotel queues build up and how technology can keep arrivals and departures flowing without piling pressure on the front desk.

Hotels count rooms, hostels count beds. But as hotel commercial performance and technology consultant Diogo Vaz Ferreira explains, that doesn’t mean hostel revenue management is simpler. Quite the opposite. Where they do differ is their approach to tech. With younger tech-savvy guests expecting instant service, hostels are innovating rapidly and building lighter, faster, more connected tech stacks. Which might just offer a preview of where hospitality tech is heading.

Staff turnover in hotels is up to 70-80%, as Matthew Parker, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition at Mews, points out. Between that and outdated recruitment and retention methods, many hotels are stuck in a loop of constant rehiring. Matthew joins Matt to discuss what it takes to attract and hire the best people in hospitality. They talk about the most effective recruitment channels, using AI in hiring and focusing on trial shifts over case studies.

Lark Hotels has grown into North America's leading hospitality management company for properties under 150 keys. With five self-managed brands, nearly 80 independent hotels and 22 restaurants across 24 states and two countries, they've built something rare in this industry. Peter Twachtman, the CEO behind that growth, explains the tech and operations model that holds it all together, and how Lark keeps each property worth staying in at scale.

Why are hotels charging the same for a parking spot on a Tuesday and on a Saturday? For Mews CEO Matt Welle, that question sums up everything wrong with how hotels think about revenue and technology. In this solo episode, he breaks down one of the most debated questions in hotel tech: should your property run an open, best-of-breed stack or commit to a closed, all-in-one ecosystem? Matt draws lessons from Shopify, Toast and ServiceTitan, and explains Mews’ approach to the debate, including what’s coming up next.

Hotel gyms. A dead space or a great investment? Matt talks to two experts with opposing views to settle the debate. Lou Zameryka, Global Head of Hotel Enterprise and Connectivity Partnerships at Airbnb, has worked at Booking.com for 17 years and has spent his career at the intersection of travel and wellness. He says hotels are sitting on an opportunity they can't see. Borivoj Vokrinek is Strategic Advisory & Head of Hospitality Research at Cushman & Wakefield, and has advised on hundreds of hotel investment projects across three continents. He sees hotel gyms as wasted real estate and a cost that rarely pays off. Tune in.

Why can you order an Uber within seconds but booking a hotel room still feels like filing a tax return? That is the question Frédéric Robles could not let go of. A tech and antitrust lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell and Amazon, he walked away from law in 2021 to build Namastay, a modern booking engine now live in over 400 hotels across 42 countries. He joins Matt to talk about why most hotels are stuck below 15 percent of direct bookings, and how payment optimization, including digital wallets like Apple Pay, can shift that number.

How should small hotels think about building and investing in a tech stack when they don’t have the data, the team size or the budget of large properties? Elise Roberts is the Managing Director of Happiness Hospitality, the operator behind The Gallivant, a beautiful boutique coastal hotel in East Sussex that holds a MICHELIN key and VisitEngland's Small Hotel of the Year. Elise joins Matt to talk about why 18 systems are not too many for a small hotel, what every hotelier should ask before buying software and how independent properties can outrun the big chains.

Up until a few years ago, Cole Rubin managed a $19 million residential portfolio of around 200 properties across Airbnb and Booking.com. He lived the midnight guest messages, the missed calls, the inbox chaos. That firsthand pain led him to build Conduit, an AI agent platform for hospitality. Guest requesting a late checkout? An agent checks availability, takes payment and updates the cleaning team, all without a human in the loop. Cole joins Matt to talk late checkouts, AI agents and the future of hotel guest communication.