Matt Talks Hospitality: Real conversations for innovative hoteliers

Survival requires food and water, but spirit craves community. By building sports clubs inside refugee camps, KLABU creates places where people can gather, play and regain a sense of normal life amid displacement. KLABU’s founder Jan van Hövell explains how these clubhouses are set up in crisis zones, why sports help build communities and how KLABU and Mews are collaborating to support indigenous...

What can the hospitality industry expect in 2026? Especially given the rapid development of AI and the fact that a third of travelers already use LLMs to search and get travel inspiration. Wouter Geerts, Director of Market Research at Mews, joins Matt to break down the 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook report, shaped by conversations with 18 industry experts, including hoteliers, tech vendors, con...

From the archives* Rogier Braakman from Net OS and Mr. Green Offices joins Matt to talk occupancy, why offices have tolerated emptiness for decades, and what happens when you apply hotel logic to desks, pricing and space. Along the way, Rogier dives into what technology should handle, where people still matter, why hotel room desks are often a mistake, and how underused meeting rooms could become...

From the archives* Matt sits down with Alexander Edström, founder of Atomize RMS, a Mews Company, to dive into the world of revenue optimization. They explore how revenue management software can help hotels of all sizes, the state of RMS adoption in hospitality and the undeniable revenue uplift these systems provide. Note that this episode was originally released in February 2025.

For this end-of-year special, Matt is joined by Mews founder Richard Valtr. Except this time around, they both ask each other questions. What was the first app they opened this morning? What advice have they ignored? What decision looked smart at the time but almost broke the company? From there, they talk about the drivers behind great hotels, the core of hospitality and the 13 years of working t...

How do you build a revenue strategy for a hotel that melts away every spring? When the temperatures fall in Finland, Maria Mänty, Sales Director at Snowhotel Family, and her team shape memorable stays out of snow, freezing nights and the glow of the Northern Lights. They build extraordinary ice rooms, set up ice sculpture workshops and even snow saunas. Maria joins Matt to talk about what it takes...

Armen Melkonian was forced to flee war-torn Syria and then Lebanon, until he rebuilt his life from scratch in the Netherlands through UNHCR’s resettlement programme. He opens up about finding safety as a member of the LGBTIQ+ community, the challenges of acclimatizing to a foreign culture and how his experiences shaped a deeply personal approach to service. To Armen, hospitality starts with someth...

A five-star hotel and a Michelin-starred restaurant that welcome dogs? There’s a big difference between a hotel that embraces pets and one that simply tolerates them. Dean Culpan, General Manager of South Place Hotel in London, has built a dog-friendly approach that even drives more revenue: fuller weekends, higher on-property spend and loyal guests who return because their pets are treated well....

When Luka Berger landed a summer job as a housekeeper at Yellowstone National Park, he didn’t expect it to inspire his whole career trajectory. But seeing staff juggle walkie-talkies and race between rooms to remain on top of housekeeping tasks ultimately sparked the idea behind Flexkeeping. In this episode, Luka shares how Flexkeeping, now part of Mews, uses AI to automate time-consuming housekee...

AI in hospitality so far meant chatbots and big promises, while hotel teams still worked using manual checklists and post-it notes. Matt talks about the rise of AI agents and how the next wave will move fast for hotels built on the right tech stack. He explains why Mews acquired DataChat and how its technology brings a new kind of intelligence into hotel operations, one that listens, learns and ac...

When Maurits Bots stepped into the Hotel ICT Specialist role at WestCord Hotels, some properties still ran on legacy systems. Others used Mews like the old PMS. He didn’t set out to replace tools, but rather to rebuild how the work gets done. “The fact that somebody has to check every reservation – that time has passed”, Maurits says, as he joins Matt to talk about what it takes to automate the ev...

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 h...

When AMANO Group asked independent turnaround consultant Mirco Weber to review their hotel accounting processes, it didn’t take long to see the problem ran deeper. He found that the entire tech stack needed rebuilding, including the PMS. That shift triggered both a systems and a concept change, as AMANO rolled out Mews and rethought how guests are welcomed, including removing the reception desk at...

We’re celebrating. Matt Talks Hospitality turns one and hands over the mic to Ella McCann-Tomlin, VP of ESG at Mews. On this 50th episode special, Matt is the guest. He shares how the podcast began as a creative spark during a rough patch, how it turned into a weekly ritual, and what he learned from fifty weeks of honest conversations with hoteliers and industry leaders. Along the way, Ella gets M...

No Wi-Fi, a cold shower and a power outage topped with a frog jumping in his face. That’s what greeted Jason Noronha in a budget guesthouse in Goa and inspired him to open his own hostel. Years later, frustrated by disconnected hotel systems, Jason created D3x, a platform powered by AI agents that route guest messages from any channel straight to the right hotel system. Today, Jason joins Matt to...

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...

Hospitality is at its best when everything just works. That’s the idea behind the very first Mews Summer Release, aptly named Smooth Operations. It's a bundle of new Mews features intended to make hotel operations (and stays) smoother. Think guest ID & selfie collection, wallet-based room keys, guest lifetime value insights and automatic payment routing, among others. Adam Britton, Product Directo...

What happens when you hire for personality? That’s how Staypineapple built a culture where staff aren’t afraid to be themselves at the front desk, where genuine interactions win over guests and where hospitality feels authentic, not scripted. The hotel group’s president Dina Belon explains how that same culture kept the staff resilient when Staypineapple overhauled most of its tech stack – PMS, PO...

Michael Coscetta, President of Mews, knows how to build and scale global business teams in high-growth industries. He also spends about half of every year staying in hotels, which makes him an expert on loyalty programs from the guest perspective. In this episode, Michael joins Matt to talk points: are they still relevant, and do they have anything to do with loyalty? Learn more about the podcast...

Charlie Delamare knows hotel operations inside out. Before joining Mews, he was a hotelier himself, dealing with the same manual tasks every hospitality team faces. In this episode, Charlie and Matt discuss how AI tools like ChatGPT are already lightening the load for hotel teams. Think scheduling staff rotas without the spreadsheet pain, replying to reviews and guest emails in any language or sta...

It’s mid-afternoon and the reception line is growing. Guests are restless, and staff are heads down just trying to keep up. Sound familiar? In this episode, Matt uncovers why lines really build up—and how smart tech keeps arrivals and departures flowing without overloading the front desk. Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0 #hoteltech #hospitalitypodcast #mews #hotelmanage...

Rebecca Lane knows every inch of Paradise Resort. Having first served breakfast, 15 years later, she’s now running revenue across the entire property. Rebecca’s seen the resort 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 an...

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. Learn more about the podcas...

Have we over-engineered the basics in hotels? Bashar Wali, Founder of Practice Hospitality and This Assembly, argues that true hospitality is human-led even as automation, AI and dynamic pricing become the norm. The tools may evolve, but the heart of great service stays the same. Bashar explains what hotels should protect as they modernize. Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350w...

AI chatbots are flooding the hotel tech space, but which of them actually deliver? In this episode, Matt puts the spotlight on the top 4 AI chatbots on Mews Marketplace and asks the founders to pitch their products. You'll hear from Evan Chen (Akia), Jeremy Atlan (Duve), Michiel de Vor (Runnr.ai) and Tiago Araújo (HiJiffy). Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0 #hoteltech #h...