Marketing & Guest Loyalty

The days of generic, one-size-fits-all travel marketing are over. Instead, catering to specific tourism niches is the perfect way to attract the right guests and gain those all-important direct bookings. In today’s evolving travel landscape, understanding the diverse needs and preferences of travellers is crucial for hotels to attract and retain loyal guests.

One of the great benefits of cloud-native technology is the ability to move at pace. Technology must move quickly to help hoteliers find new efficiency gains and revenue streams, and that’s exactly what Mews has been doing.

In today’s hospitality landscape, customer experience goes far beyond “friendly staff” and a “comfortable bed.” Guests no longer seek just rest—they want to feel like they’ve stepped into a personalized storyline, where every detail—from the room temperature to a well-timed push notification—conveys thoughtful care and meaning.

While this isn’t formal research, I’ve asked many people the question, “What do you think is the most common question that customers ask employees?” I made the point that this isn’t about calling customer support; it’s a people-to-people interaction.

Despite some strong headwinds in the hotel industry, speakers at the NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum painted a cautiously optimistic picture. While average daily rate (ADR) growth is trailing inflation in 2025, occupancy remains relatively steady, which signals underlying resilience in the sector. The following are some key takeaways from the conference that stood out as opportunities or concerns for the hospitality industry:

For the first time in four years, U.S. hoteliers are staring at a genuine cyclical crosswind: topline erosion combined with cost stickiness. RevPAR in upscale and upper-midscale is receding 4–5 percent year-over-year, and wage inflation still burns 11 percent hotter than last winter. In this environment, patience is expensive. The only sustainable advantage is the ability to reshape labor and operating inputs in real time—shrinking them when demand softens, expanding them when pop-up revenue appears. Done right, that agility doesn’t merely protect profit; it compounds it, because every point of flex you build now will amplify flow-through once the cycle turns.

During the EHL Open Innovation Summit in Lausanne, we spoke with Caty Batten, Co-founder and CEO at Intaconnected and The Nature of Business Lab, about how the hospitality industry can move beyond traditional sustainability and embrace a regenerative approach. Our conversation focused on the Net Positive Hospitality Pathway, a practical tool for building resilience and long-term value, and why regeneration must become the new standard for climate, nature, and people.

At the EHL Open Innovation Summit in Lausanne, we spoke with Thierry Teyssier, Founder and CEO of Dar Ahlam and 700’000 heures Impact. Our conversation focused on the emotional essence of hospitality, why he sees privilege as more meaningful than luxury, and how impermanence can open the door to more human-centered guest experiences.

As hospitality evolves, hotels must streamline operations, harness data more effectively, and enhance efficiency to stay competitive. The Property Management System (PMS) is at the core of hotel management, an essential tool connecting various hotel functions. As more business shifts online and seamless digital experiences become the expectation, PMSs must integrate with internal and external systems, including POS, front desk, and housekeeping. Yet, most PMSs were built for a different era, making it difficult to support the growing web of integrations required in today’s digital-first environment.

In a recent podcast on dojo.live, I spoke about the game-changing role of a unified data layer in staying competitive, especially in an era driven by AI and other emerging technologies.