Traditional wisdom will tell you that switching your hotel’s Property Management System (PMS) is about the most painful thing a hotelier can do. Your team is busy. Your property never closes. And the system you’re replacing is tightly woven into the fabric of your day-to-day operations.
But here’s the thing: migration doesn’t need to be painful. It can be a moment of transformation where you reimagine how your hotel runs, how your teams work, and what your guest experience could be.
In the latest episode of Matt Talks, Matt sat down with Manisha, who leads both deployment and customer success at Mews, to talk through what it really takes to go live – and how we’re making the process smarter, faster and more empowering for hoteliers.
Here are the highlights.
What ‘Going live’ really means
At its simplest, going live means your old PMS is out, and your entire hotel is running on Mews (or another PMS of your choice). But the path to get there is strategic, not just technical.
After signing your contract, you move through a clearly defined journey:
- Account set-up and configuration: Think rooms, spaces, rates and revenue strategy. It’s a perfect moment to refresh your approach to things like upselling, discounting and even how you market your rooms.
- Defining your guest journey: Whether you want a fully automated experience or highly personalized touchpoints, we’ll tailor the setup to your goals.
- Training and enablement: Through Mews University, train-the-trainer models, and champion-based learning, we give your team what they need in a way that fits how they learn.
- Integrations and payments: From your channel manager to your POS and payment terminals, we make sure everything is connected and operational.
- System audits and go live support: Final checks. Reservation import. Real-time support. No surprises.
The average go live time? Around two months. But we’ve launched hotels in as little as a week. It depends on your readiness and your goals.
A moment to rethink everything
Too often, hoteliers treat a PMS migration as a simple swap. But that’s a missed opportunity.
The switch to Mews is your chance to ask: what could be better?
- Could check-in be faster?
- Could we reclaim time from repetitive admin?
- Could we generate more revenue from unused spaces or smarter upsell strategies?
Some of our most successful customers have completely rethought their front desk setup. Others have embraced automated pre-arrival emails to reduce friction for guests. One luxury hotel in Scotland used the switch to improve their directions process, automating a task that previously took manual effort every day.
Whatever your goals, we configure Mews to help you reach them.
Rethinking training for the modern hotel team
Traditional classroom training? We don’t do that. Instead, you’ll enjoy blended, intuitive learning that actually works:
- Self-paced learning through Mews University
- Train-the-trainer programs to scale knowledge
- Champions who become your internal experts
- Short-form learning built for modern attention spans (because yes, Gen Z really is learning on TikTok)
It’s all designed to build confidence fast, so your team can use Mews without needing to become tech experts.
Overcoming fear of change
Let’s be honest: change is hard. Hoteliers often worry about disruptions, data loss, or staff confusion. Those are fair concerns, but they’re also manageable – as long as you approach the process with the right mindset and support.
We’ve built robust checklists, clear processes, and real-time troubleshooting to reduce risk and respond quickly when things don’t go perfectly.
But it’s hotels that approach deployment as a strategic shift – not just a software update – that see the biggest long-term gains.
AI is already changing the game
The future of deployment is fast, intuitive and AI-powered. We’re already experimenting with:
- Website scraping to auto-populate room descriptions
- Tripadvisor review analysis to identify what guests care about most
- AI prompts that restructure data into import-ready formats in minutes, not hours
- Recording insights to avoid information loss between sales and onboarding
Our goal is to make switching systems feel less like major surgery, and more like a quick, high-impact upgrade. And plenty of Mews hoteliers have already felt the benefits.
What success really looks like
A successful deployment doesn’t just mean your hotel is operational. It means:
- You’re saving time and reducing admin
- Your staff is confident and excited about the new system
- You’re seeing real growth, whether through higher revenue, better guest satisfaction or more efficient operations
- You’re continuing to iterate, improve and innovate
Once you go live, it isn’t the end of your learning journey. Mews is improving all the time, with new features and products released every month. Make sure you maintain the mindset of always looking to learn and improve.
What makes a successful onboarding?
There’s no single template, but the hotels that thrive with Mews tend to be those who want a true tech partner. From the start, this means being:
- Prepared and intentional, with someone dedicated to managing the project
- Open-minded and curious, excited to innovate, not replicate
- Collaborative and honest, willing to share feedback so we can continuously improve together
- Realistic, understanding no system is perfect, but workarounds are always possible
What’s next?
We’re rethinking deployment from the ground up. Shorter timelines. Less manual effort. More automation and AI.
Because when hoteliers spend less time on system setup, they can spend more time doing what really matters: delivering exceptional hospitality.
Thinking of cutting the cord on your legacy PMS? Find out how a cloud-native PMS can improve your hotel operations and what you can expect when you switch to Mews.
