- Mews, a company that is reimagining hotel operations and guest experience management, announced it raised $33 million in funding
Mews — a company that is reimagining hotel operations and guest experience management — announced that it has raised $33 million in funding. The Series B round was led by Battery Ventures. In conjunction with the funding round, Battery principal Sanjiv Kalevar is joining the Mews board of directors and Battery General Partner Michael Brown is joining as a board observer.
And Mews plans to use the funding to further accelerate its ability to fundamentally transform how hotels operate and serve guests as well as enable entirely new technology players to find creative ways of providing hospitality experiences. Plus the funding will support the company’s expansion in the U.S. and the launch of its office in New York City where Mews founder Richard Valtr will be based.
The Mews platform was built to create new revenue channels and branding opportunities for hotels as well as offer guests more flexibility to create and manage their ideal stays. And with the new funding, Mews will bring other first-of-their-kind features to hotel operations to establish a new standard of excellence in hospitality.
“The hospitality industry has been slow in adapting to today’s guests’ expectations, to make their stays 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. “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 already built an open hospitality API for its platform to unlock the industry to the wider world of technology and bring innovative solutions to the full range of spaces it helps to manage ranging from niche alternative properties to hostels to large hotel chains thus allowing all kinds of apps to enhance back office and guest experiences.
“Mews has a bold vision for where hospitality can go that extends far beyond our mobile check-in technology or plug-and-play marketplace,” added Mews CEO Matthijs 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.”
Mews currently works with over 130,000 beds at over 1,000 properties across 47 countries and is enabling its hospitality customers to transact over $150 million each month in hotel and ancillary purchases. And Mews’ innovative approach to guest service has been adopted the world over by a broad range of property types suggesting opportunities in the future for any space management business. Some of Mews’ partners include European-based global chain Accor, African hotel company Tsogo Sun, hostel group Generator, and new hospitality players like the Collective and the LifeHouse Group.
“The ~$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, now, increasingly cloud-based software. 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,” explained Kalevar. “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. Mews is evolving the world of hospitality, and we are delighted to be a part of this journey.”
