When hotel GMs receive hundreds of emails from software vendors claiming to be the best, judging new tech becomes difficult. That exact problem led to Hotel Tech Report, one of hospitality’s most-trusted review platforms. Its co-founder Jordan Hollander joins Matt to talk about what goes into hotel tech buying decisions. The episode lands as Mews wins Best PMS for the third year in a row and Best POS at the 2026 HotelTechAwards, run by Hotel Tech Report.

Jordan Hollander is the Co-founder of Hotel Tech Report, the industry's leading platform for ranking and reviewing hospitality technology solutions through verified customer reviews, partner input, and comprehensive evaluation criteria. With a decade of experience observing how hotels evaluate and purchase software, Jordan has become a trusted authority on identifying authentic product quality and market trends in the hotel technology sector.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0

#hoteltech #hospitalitypodcast #mews #hotelmanagementsystem #pms #hotelrevenue

00:00 – How hotels buy tech
01:00 – Vendor noise and buying pressure
05:32 – The origin of Hotel Tech Report
08:34 – Trust and risk in choosing hotel tech
14:55 – What winning platforms get right
20:15 – Hotel reviews and AI
29:39 – What comes next for hotel tech


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Can a hotel run with one seventh of staff and still outperform its peers? Bob W is built for the modern traveler who wants the best of both worlds: the consistency and reliability of a hotel, with the space, utility and local feel of a short-stay apartment. But what truly sets Bob W apart is its software-first mindset. Niko Karstikko, Co-founder and CEO of Bob W, joins Matt to explain how Bob W blends apartments, hotels and automation into a new hospitality category.

Niko Karstikko is the Co-founder and CEO of Bob W, a European hospitality tech company operating thousands of apartments across more than 19 cities. With a builder’s mindset shaped by scaling companies outside the traditional hospitality sector, Bob W has pioneered a hybrid hotel-apartment model that achieves 2.5x greater EBITDA profitability than comparable hotels.

Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0

#hoteltech #hospitalitypodcast #mews #hotelmanagementsystem #pms #hotelrevenue

00:00 – 1/7 staff, 6/7 tech: The Bob W operating model
03:24 – Why Bob W is not an Airbnb and not a hotel
08:45 – Inside Bob W’s automated tech stack
12:10 – Why Bob W is 2.5x more profitable
14:09 – Making self-service feel human
17:49 – “The last check-in ever”
26:34 – Scaling without using the local touch

 Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Cocoons and capsules sit at the heart of Zedwell Hotels’ London city-centre vision, where rooms are designed around sleep, efficiency and the realities of urban life rather than tradition. In this episode, Matt speaks with Halima Aziz, Head of Hotels at Criterion Hospitality, which owns and operates Zedwell Hotels, about turning forgotten city spaces into some of London’s most profitable hotel real estate, all while removing TVs, kettles and even windows from the rooms.

Halima Aziz is Head of Hotels at Criterion Hospitality, with a background that spans real estate, operations, and large-scale development. Halima works with underutilised buildings that most people would call difficult and turns them into functioning, profitable hotels.

Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0

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00:00 – A city-centre hotel that breaks the rules
03:44 – Do guests really care about windows
07:41 – What hotels get wrong about room amenities
10:15 – Why daily housekeeping doesn’t make sense
15:35 – The OTA expectation gap
20:03 – Capsules versus hotels and hostels
31:12 – Early check-in, late check-out and paid convenience
38:08 – What’s next for Zedwell Hotels


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

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 Venezuelan refugees in Boa Vista, Brazil.


Jan van Hövell is the founder of KLABU, an organization that builds sports clubs to support refugee communities around the world. With a background in law and experience at the UNHCR, he is dedicated to creating long-term impact through sport.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0


#hoteltech #hospitalitypodcast #mews #hotelmanagementsystem #pms #hotelrevenue


00:00 – Jan’s early experience working with refugees


08:02 – Life in a refugee camp


11:24 – Leaving corporate law for hospitality


15:00 – The inspiration behind KLABU


17:37 – How sport impacts refugees


19:50 – Building the first clubhouse


30:56 – How the Mews-KLABU partnership plays out


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

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, consultants and investors. You’ll hear about the changing AI use cases in hotels, new guest behavior patterns and what determines which hotels get surfaced and booked in 2026.


Download 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook


Wouter Geerts is the Director of Market Research at Mews, where he leads comprehensive industry research initiatives, including the 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook Report. With expertise in hospitality technology trends and data-driven insights, Wouter brings a rigorous, objective approach to understanding the future of hotel operations.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0


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00:00 – About the 2026 Hospitality Industry Outlook report


04:50 – The AI inflection point for hotels


06:45 – Agentic AI and guest booking behaviors


15:10 – How to beat OTAs in 2026


17:12 – Turning unused spaces into revenue


19:19 – Why AI won’t fix your data silos


22:37 – Semantic layer explained


32:16 – Is 2026 really the year of change?


 Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

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 a serious revenue stream if hoteliers rethink how work actually happens today.


*Note that this episode was originally released in March 2025.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0


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0:00 - Introduction to the future of work


2:52 - Occupancy in hotels


4:11 - The damage of legacy in hospitality


16:17 - Humans and remote work


20:03 - Innovative office solutions


22:02 - Dynamic pricing strategies for office space


24:44 - Rethinking hotel room functionality


42:47 - Implementing co-working in hotels


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

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.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0


#hoteltech #hospitalitypodcast #mews #hotelmanagementsystem #pms #hotelrevenue'


0:00 - Introduction to Atomize RMS

5:13 - Revenue systems for different hotel sizes

8:39 - Current RMS adoption in hotels

12:57 - Expected revenue uplift from implementing RMS

20:17 - Real-time pricing strategies

27:12 - Dynamic guest profiling and pricing


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

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 together to shape Mews into what it is today.


With a background in hotel development, Richard launched Mews in 2012 after managing his family’s hotel and experiencing first-hand the limitations of legacy PMS systems.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0


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05:40 – Is having a role model really that important?


10:41 – What drives Richard’s passion for hospitality?


20:23 – A culture of transparency


23:29 – Underestimating the American market


27:01 – To build or not to build a PMS?


30:19 – Matt’s favourite Mews customer story


38:58 – Mews in 2026 and beyond


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

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 to keep their Arctic SnowHotel & Glass Igloos thriving when what you sell only exists for a few months of the year.


With a background in theatre and tourism, Maria Mänty now leads sales and revenue strategy for Arctic SnowHotel & Glass Igloos in Lapland.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0


#hoteltech #hospitalitypodcast #mews #hotelmanagementsystem #pms #hotelrevenue


0:00 – Life and work in Santa’s Village

03:24 – Finding purpose through theatre and tourism 

05:31 – How to know it’s going to be a good season

07:25 – Carving hotel rooms from ice

11:49 – The tech turnaround with Mews

17:30 – How do snow saunas even work?

20:10 – Building stellar guest experiences


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

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 something small –⁠ a greeting, a moment of acknowledgment, the thing that tells someone they’re no longer invisible.


Armen Melkonian fled Syria as an LGBTIQ+ refugee and rebuilt his life in the Netherlands. He now works at Hotelschool The Hague and advocates for inclusion with UNHCR.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0


#hoteltech #hospitalitypodcast #mews #hotelmanagementsystem #pms #hotelrevenue


00:00 - The meaning of hospitality

03:05 - Hospitality across cultures and borders

05:55 - When hospitality meets survival

07:57 - Leaving Syria, Lebanon, and reaching UNHCR

12:38 - Rebuilding a life in the Netherlands

20:23 - Hospitality as recognition and safety

24:47 - On advocacy and creating a sense of belonging


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

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. He joins Matt to talk about rising demand for pet-friendly stays and how his team delivers a luxury experience for both guests and their fluffy companions.


Dean Culpan is the General Manager of South Place Hotel, a boutique, five-star property in London complete with a Michelin-starred restaurant. With over 20 years of hospitality experience, Dean has pioneered a strategic approach to luxury hospitality by positioning dog-friendly amenities as a revenue-driving business strategy.


Learn more about the podcast here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0


#hoteltech #hospitalitypodcast #mews #hotelmanagementsystem #pms #hotelrevenue


0:00 – Dean’s background and love for pets
02:21 – Luxury at South Place Hotel
04:35 – Solving weekend occupancy with a dog-friendly strategy
06:11 – Personalised dog amenities and menus
10:35 – Operations, cleaning and pet-ready rooms
15:36 – Dogs in the Michelin-star restaurant
20:06 – The rising demand for pet-friendly hospitality


Matt Talks Hospitality is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so