In our exclusive interview with Mews CEO Matthijs Welle earlier this year he described how the fast-growing Amsterdam-based provider of cloud property management systems is preparing to serve global hotel brands.
He said: “We have to prepare the groundwork for enterprise scale because it’s such a long sales journey with these brands. We’ve been talking to them for years already and we’re waiting for the right moment to get to rollout.”
Historically, Mews’ typical customer base has been independent hotels, and the Mews platform was not considered an option for larger hotel groups. So, what’s changed?
John Burns, president, Hospitality Technology Consulting, said: “With its growth, Mews is now sufficiently large, sufficiently successful, sufficiently proven, and sufficiently known in the industry to be of interest to hotel groups. The task for Mews now is to complete their gap analyses to determine, as they did with their first PMS versions, what are the most important group-related PMS features and functions, and to then add them to the Mews PMS package. No doubt that work is already well underway.”
Kevin Edwards, managing director, PnK People, added: “Mews has managed to shift the historic herd mentality of PMS acquisition. The next step must be signing one of the big enterprise brands. The demand from operators, owners and asset managers is there to see change.”
As Mews scales up to bigger hotel customers, now is a good time to take an overview of the hotel technology landscape.
Increasingly, both tech vendors and hotels are moving towards bundled-up services. Burns said: “The focus now is on integrations, especially at group level. The view is not of single systems but of a suite based on the big four (PMS, CRS, RM, CRM). People are saying: ‘As a group, yes we need these to work well individually but we also need some harmony if we’re going to excel in a technology- dependent industry. How does it all fit together? How easy is it to use? We can’t all be technicians.’”
Oracle recently announced Opera Cloud Central, a unified platform that combines PMS and distribution capabilities. This trend mirrors Shiji’s enterprise platform, emphasizing an all-in-one approach, and Infor offers a suite-style PMS too.
This trend is also about wanting to reduce the number of vendor relations. For a brand, the complexity of having hundreds of different IT systems is unmanageable, so brands are looking at bundled services from the same vendor.
Some of these bundled combinations are new. Historically, payment systems were never tied to the PMS, but now several PMS vendors are encouraging – or even mandating - that hoteliers use their payment system too. Why? Because payment processing has long been neglected by the hotel industry and vendors have realised how lucrative it is. Indeed, for some technology vendors, the provision of the PMS is a loss leader, while the real money is made from the multiple fees associated with payment processing.
According to market research company IDC, the global PMS leaders are Oracle and Infor with Agilysys in third place. Mews is characterised as a major player along with Shiji Group, Cloudbeds, Protel, Sabre, and Amadeus. Which tech vendors work with the major hotel brands? Below is a short summary.
“The global brands tend to use one PMS provider in North America and another for the rest of the world,” said Burns. “It’s often because of support availability. You can get great support in America but not in Borneo, so that often means Oracle is the default provider for the rest of the world.”
- Hilton has its own legacy OnQ PMS but is making a wholesale migration to a cloud solution provided by Dallas-based HotelKey.
- Marriott operates its own internal PMS and an Amadeus CRS. The selection of Amadeus carries weight, given Marriott’s influence in the industry.
- IHG uses an Amadeus CRS and its own internal PMS.
- Hyatt plans to retire its CRS by the end of 2024 and adopt Sabre’s SynXis CRS. Hyatt uses Oracle as its PMS internationally and has its own PMS in the US.
- Accor uses Sabre’s SynXis CRS, its own integrated PMS, plus third-party options.
- Wyndham uses Sabre for its CRS. Larger branded hotels rely on Oracle, while smaller properties use a Sabre small PMS.
- Choice Hotels is an outlier in having built its own in-house PMS and CRS, both of which are relatively new.
- Best Western operates its own older CRS. Owners have flexibility in choosing a PMS, including a legacy PMS that Best Western acquired called AutoClerk.
When will the Mews name feature in lists like the one above? Industry experts suggest it is only a matter of time.Burns commented: “It’s interesting to ask why Mews have been so successful and try to dissect them. Part of it is their focus on simplicity, part of it is their messaging, and part of it is their leadership. It’s almost trite to say it, but leadership matters. Richard Valtr and Matthijs Welle have been very present and that’s made a difference.”
Edwards added: “It is refreshing to have a company like Mews that aspiring technology companies want to emulate, as well as encouraging investors to continue to invest in the sector.”