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PODCAST

Matt Talks Hospitality

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Matt Talks Hospitality is a podcast for hoteliers who want to understand the technology, ideas and people shaping modern hospitality. Hosted by Mews CEO Matt Welle, each episode explores the tools, challenges and decisions behind how hotels work – and how they keep getting better. All episodes available here: https://hubs.ly/Q0350wrf0 Meet Matt beyond the podcast: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthijswelle/

business management

All Episodes

29:16

Profit vs purpose with The Social Hub CEO Charlie...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2026/02/18

Can a hotel brand successfully scale while building social impact into its business model? The Social Hub, now certified as a B Corp, is built on the belief that a hotel can serve its city as much as its guests. The Social Hub’s Founder and CEO, Charlie MacGregor, shares what it takes to keep profit high and purpose alive as the company scales.

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23:33

How skipping housekeeping can plant a forest, with...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2026/02/11

Hotels have spent years trying to convince guests to skip daily cleaning through towel reuse signs, drink vouchers or loyalty points. Having run large city hotels, Floris Licht saw firsthand how none of those ever worked. He ended up founding Hotels for Trees, a non-profit that turns skipped room cleans into forests. One skipped clean –⁠ one tree planted, with over 800 thousand trees planted so far. Floris joins Matt to explain how Hotels for Trees fits into hotel operations, from door hangers to

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36:20

How hotels buy new tech, with Jordan Hollander of HTR

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2026/02/04

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.

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35:41

Inside Bob W: Why Niko Karstikko treats hotels like...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2026/01/28

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.

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41:36

Cocoons to capsules: Halima Aziz on Zedwell's...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2026/01/21

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.

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38:17

Sports, refugee clubhouses and a new idea of...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2026/01/14

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.

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36:12

AI and other key trends changing hospitality in 2026...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2026/01/07

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

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49:50

The future of work and hospitality with Rogier Braakman

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/12/30

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

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34:16

Unlocking hotel revenue potential with Alexander...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/12/23

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.

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43:50

End-of-year special on everything hotels and...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/12/17

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.

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22:30

Seasonality and revenue in a hotel carved from ice,...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/12/10

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

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32:03

When hospitality becomes a lifeline: Armen...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/12/03

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

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27:04

How a five-star London hotel turns pet-friendly...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/11/27

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

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35:43

Walkie-talkies, AI and the remaking of housekeeping...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/11/19

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 housekeeping tasks and break down language barriers.

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27:42

What's next for AI in hospitality and why Mews is...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/11/12

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 acts

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36:18

The push and pull of automating hotel operations

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/11/06

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 everyday without slowing anyone down.

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32:51

Why hotels struggle to hire and keep their staff

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/10/29

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 hiring and focusing on trial shifts over case studies.

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26:03

How AMANO Group hotels rebuilt their tech with Mirco...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/10/22

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 some of their hotels. Matt sits down with Mirco to hear how they pulled it off.

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34:42

One year older, 50 episodes later: Matt Talks...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/10/14

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 Matt’s podcasting tips and tricks as she gears up to launch her own show, The Future is Human.

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25:24

Frogs, hotel AI agents and customer automation with...

Matt Talks Hospitality ·

2025/10/01

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 share how it all works.

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106 results

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