Mews Systems, a software startup developing property management solutions for hotel and hostel owners, today announced that it’s raised $33 million in funding led by Battery Ventures, bringing its total raised to over $40 million. CEO Matthijs Welle says the fresh capital will support Mews’ U.S. expansion, chiefly the opening of its New York City office.
“Mews has a bold vision for where hospitality can go that extends far beyond our mobile check-in technology or plug-and-play marketplace,” said Welle. “We want to redefine the modern stay from the ground up by improving operations, enhancing branding and empowering staff to become a high functioning and resourceful experience design and curation team. We’re thrilled to be on course for consecutive 200% [year-over-year] growth, so it’s exciting to see a real appetite for change.”
Welle cofounded Mews with fellow ex-hotelier Richard Vlatr in 2012, out of a windowless office in the Czech Republic with just five employees. The company has since expanded its headcount to over 250 employees spread across London and New York locations, and its client base now reaches over 1,000 properties with 130,000 beds collectively across 47 countries, including brands like Accor, Generator, Collective, the LifeHouse Group, APX, Tsogo Sun, Wombat’s, Clink, and Machefert.
Above: Mews’ cloud dashboard.
“The hospitality industry has been slow in adapting to today’s guests’ expectations, to make their stay easy, enjoyable, and memorable. Mews was created to help hotels run far more efficiently so that they can switch their focus entirely back to the guest,” said Valtr, adding that Mews handles over $150 million in hotel and ancillary transactions per month. “We are building technology that enhances human capabilities to elevate the design and curation of experiences as the primary business of hospitality, away from repetitive data entry.”
Mews’ cloud-based and mobile-first tool suite aims to simplify tasks like registration while playing nicely with legacy systems. To this end, Operator — Mews’ reception desk product — allows front desks to register guests with tablets and take most forms of payment. Customers provide credit or debit card details at check in, at which point their accounts are either charged or preauthorized in order to cut down on chargebacks.
Mews claims its six-step Distributor booking engine generates some of the industry’s highest conversion rates, and it says that 40% of guests choose to check-in online so they can skip queues at reception.
From within Mews’ bespoke multi-property backend, hoteliers and hoteliers get an overview of departments from reservations to maintenance, and they’re able to generate reports and schedule report export jobs. Thanks to a collaboration with Snapshot Analytics, user can view and track metrics like pickup trends and available inventory (like individual beds, dorms, and private rooms) through a customizable dashboard, as well as competition and revenue projections.
The Marketplace extends Mews’ capabilities further by letting property owners plug in in popular apps, tools, and services, from accounting software like Bookboost and Basware to guest technology platforms such as I Am Max and Acentic. The breadth of its support extends to reputation management solutions like GuestRevu, and to software addressing pain points in facility management (e.g., 4Suites, Leviy, Room Checking), point of sales (Lightspeed), distribution (SiteMinder), upselling (GuestJoy, HotelFlex), event management (LetShare), business intelligence (Hotellistat), and more.
This robust support for third-party systems is one key way Mews sets itself apart from rivals Eviivo, Revinate, Guestline, Hotel Perfect, Hotelogix, 5stelle, and others, according to Battery Venture’s Sanjiv Kalevar. Affordable subscription plans are another point in its favor: A basic plan is €7.01 ($7.77) per room per month, ranging up to €15.29 ($16.95) per room per month for features like custom API access and support, unlimited premium integrations, and more.
“The [roughly] $8 trillion global travel and tourism industry has undergone a great deal of change over the last 20 years as both businesses and consumers continue to adopt digital [and] increasingly cloud-based software,” said Kalevar, who plans to join the company’s board of directors alongside Michael Brown, a new board observer. “As hotel and other hospitality property owners look to address the challenge of competition from peer-to-peer platforms like Airbnb, Mews provides hoteliers with the tools to not have to worry about the day-to-day of running the business, and instead focus on improving guest experience and helping travelers have the trip of a lifetime. Mews’ technology allows hotels to innovate on today’s guest experience, including the ability to offer subscription plans or designing specific hours of stay for their properties.”
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