Stay close to everything Mews in one place. This hub gathers the latest news, product launches and funding around Mews’ cloud-native hospitality operating system – PMS, payments and marketplace – as reported by trusted sources worldwide. A fast way to follow one of hotel tech’s fastest-growing platforms.
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Staypineapple Partners With Abra Hospitality
25 August 2026This article was written by Lodging Magazine. Click here to read the original article KIRKLAND, Washington, and KIHEI, Hawaii—Staypineapple announced a partnership with Abra Hospitality. Following the successful rollout of the Abra platform at Staypineapple’s Chicago hotel, the brand is preparing to launch Abra across the remainder of its portfolio, including hotels in New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, and Portland. Abra unifies guest intelligence from a hotel’s staff and systems, then orchestrates it across every department to ensure…
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The Guest Data OTAs Send You Comes With a Countdown, World Panel Weighs the Human-Free Hotel, Luxury RevPAR Runs 15.9% Ahead
25 August 2026Tuesday extended yesterday’s question about who owns the guest and gave it a paper trail. The clocks running on OTA-supplied guest data are published, specific and short, which makes the contrast with what an AI agent hands a seller unusually sharp. The World Panel opened a question on the fully automated hotel, and the H1 profitability split turned the K-shaped consumer story into something a budget can actually use. The Guest Data an OTA Sends You Has a Published Expiry…
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9 Best SiteMinder Alternatives & Competitors in 2026
25 August 2026You are not alone in searching for a SiteMinder alternative. Roughly a quarter of properties running legacy or on-premises channel management systems are actively evaluating or planning a migration to cloud platforms, and independent hotels and small chains are leading that shift, mostly because limited IT staff make maintaining an aging system harder to justify […] The post 9 Best SiteMinder Alternatives & Competitors in 2026 appeared first on RateGain.
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7 Best Cloudbeds Alternatives 2026
25 August 2026If you’re evaluating a Cloudbeds alternative, you’ve probably hit a wall on integrations, reporting depth, pricing fit, or multi-property control. Gartner forecasts worldwide public cloud end-user spending will reach $723.4 billion in 2025, up from $595.7 billion in 2024. The trend it pointed to, hotels moving toward connected, API-first stacks instead of siloed point tools, […] The post 7 Best Cloudbeds Alternatives 2026 appeared first on RateGain.
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Google Wires Agentic Booking to the GDS, IHG Converts 14 Kyoto Hotels in One Deal, European Booking Windows Compress
24 August 2026Monday moved the agentic booking question from argument to plumbing. Google’s live test now has a confirmed GDS partner, which reshapes the problem for independent hotels rather than solving it. IHG signed one of the largest conversion portfolios Japan has seen in years, and Expedia Group’s quarterly data showed European travellers booking later than they have all year while Asia Pacific plans further ahead than anyone. Google’s Agentic Booking Test Now Runs on the Rails the Industry Already Uses Google…
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AI Can Score Every Visitor on Your Hotel Website in Real Time, Shanghai Built the Terminal Before the Interface, Emerging Markets Build Sales Instincts Luxury Markets Never Could
21 August 2026The week closes with three pieces that each take the AI infrastructure argument somewhere concrete. Lighthouse puts a real-time scoring engine on hotel website visitors, moving AI from discovery to conversion at the property level. Pertlink documents what it looks like when a destination builds the data layer before the interface, which is the opposite of how most hotels are approaching the problem. And The Sales Leadership Brief makes a commercial capability argument that has nothing to do with AI…
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H1 2026 Hospitality Report: Global RevPAR Up 3-4%, Middle East Occupancy Down 43% Due to Geopolitical Disruption
20 August 2026Blog Post Excerpt 🌍📈 RevPAR grew 3-4% globally, but occupancy is stable, with the Middle East dropping 43% due to geopolitical issues. U.S. hotel profitability rose 3.6 percentage points to 44.9%, but only luxury segments grew. Europe saw EUR 9.4 billion in hotel transactions, down 10% but 11% above the ten-year average. The global hotel pipeline reached 15,976 projects and 2.4 million rooms in Q2 2026. The Park Hyatt signed its first all-inclusive in Riviera Maya.
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Stripe’s $7 Billion Acquisition of OpenRouter to Impact AI Model Routing Costs for Hotel Operators
19 August 2026🏨 IHG’s Kim Smith reveals that guests using Google-powered conversational search on IHG.com express specific intent through natural language, aiding in personalized hotel recommendations. ChatGPT Ads launch in 31 European countries next week, but hotels need agency partners for access. Stripe’s $7B acquisition of OpenRouter complicates AI model cost transparency for hotels. Birmingham hotels saw a 62.5% increase in room nights during the European Athletics Championships week, with bookings made 169 days ahead.
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Hotel Software Vendors Struggle with AI Hype, Customer Service Failures, and Venture Capital Pressures
18 August 2026📈 Oracle Inc’s market cap dropped from $560 billion in 2025 to $423 billion by August 2026. Hotel tech valuations are soaring, with startups like Mews raising $710 million and Cloudbeds $248 million. Mews recently cut 15% of its workforce, citing AI. SynXis, acquired for $40 million in 2004, sold for $1.1 billion in 2025. Software support is lacking, with chatbots replacing staff. Hotels rely on systems like Opera Cloud PMS, facing service issues during migrations.
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Proactive Destinations Recover 1.5 Times Faster from Crises, Reveals 20-Year Analysis of 85 Events by TOURISE.
18 August 2026📈 Twenty years of data from 85 crises reveal proactive destinations recover 1.5 times faster, with recovery times dropping from 24 to 10-12 months. AI agents now significantly influence hotel bookings, requiring specific optimization strategies. Fall 2026 U.S. lodging prices are 20% higher than in summer, but select cities offer 15-45% discounts. IHG expands in Taiwan and launches a LINE MINI App, while Rosewood, Fairmont, and Fraser expand in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Malaysia, respectively.
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IHG Expands Vignette Collection with Properties in Hong Kong, London, and Singapore in Single-Day Announcement
17 August 2026📅 AI pricing tools are marking up room prices while hotels receive listed rates, failing to own guest relationships. By 2028, Gen Z will represent 27% of travel spend, mainly discovering hotels through influencers. Hotels need shared data architecture for AI tools to prevent contradictory guest experiences. Europe captured EUR 2 trillion of global leisure travel in 2025. Fitness is a new booking driver across hotel segments. IHG expanded its Vignette Collection across three continents in one day.
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Mews Receives Electronic Money License from Dutch Central Bank, Handling $19.7 Billion in Transactions Last Year
17 August 2026💵 In 2025, Mews processed $19.7 billion, handling 42.3 million stays. By late 2026, Mews Financial Services BV will hold both guest card settlements and records, starting with a pilot in the Netherlands. On August 11, De Nederlandsche Bank granted Mews an electronic money license, allowing limited credit related to payment transactions. Mews ensures client funds are safeguarded, per EU rules, though not equivalent to bank deposits. Hotels should inquire about fund handling during the pilot in Amsterdam.
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Marriott and Therme Group Partner to Develop Wellbeing Travel Packages for Bonvoy’s 228 Million Members
14 August 2026📈 AI booking agents are applying dynamic markups based on guest data, affecting hotel room prices. Direct booking is the only channel that avoids this. 📆 Marriott International and Therme Group announced a strategic alliance for wellbeing packages for Bonvoy’s 228 million members. 📚 USALI published its 12th revised edition. 📍 Marriott added three New Caledonian properties. 📈 Wyndham emphasizes midscale hotels for Tourism 2030 in the Gulf. 📱 Les Roches highlights “considerate connectivity” as the luxury differentiator in hospitality.
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SuitePad Analysis Reveals Top European Hotels Earn EUR257 Per Room Annually from Room Service, Median at EUR99
13 August 2026📰 Europe’s hotel construction pipeline reached 1,736 projects in Q2 2026, a 3% increase year-over-year, with 307 new hotels expected in 2026. AI advertising platforms, like ChatGPT Ads, debuted with CPCs of $3-$3.50, drawing parallels to metasearch ads’ evolution. SuitePad found top hotels earned EUR257 annually from room service per room, compared to a median EUR99. Nearly 70% of travelers prefer booking through trusted brands over AI agents. U.S. LGBTQ+ travel safety ratings have declined, affecting booking patterns.
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Tripadvisor and Airbnb Partner to Offer Over 425,000 Tours and Activities on Airbnb Platform Later This Year
12 August 2026📰 Tripadvisor and Airbnb merge their experiences inventory, allowing Airbnb’s 150+ million users to access 425,000+ activities directly. ChatGPT Ads for hotels reveal CPC costs of $3-$3.50 with click-through rates at 1.6-1.9%. The EU’s AI watermarking rule, effective August 2, 2026, requires AI-produced content to be marked, impacting hotel marketing. Puerto Rico approves a $2B+ Esencia development on its southwest coast, the largest hospitality investment in its history, opening in late 2029.
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Mews Secures First Electronic Money Institution Licence for Hospitality Operating System in European Economic Area
12 August 2026💵 Mews Financial Services B.V. secured an Electronic Money Institution license from De Nederlandsche Bank, the first of its kind for a hospitality operating system in the EEA, allowing it to process payments but not to take deposits. In January, Mews raised $300 million at a $2.5 billion valuation and reported $19.7 billion in hotel transactions in 2025. The license creates strategic implications, linking financial workflows closely with their platform, impacting hotel operations and decisions.
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Mews Financial Services Secures EMI License from DNB to Integrate Financial Services in Hospitality Platform
12 August 2026💸 Mews Financial Services B.V., a unit of Mews Systems, secured an EMI license from De Nederlandsche Bank. This enables unified payment services in the EEA, integrating financial workflows and operational data in one platform. Mews reached $19.7 billion in hotel transaction value by 2025. Rollout of the regulated capabilities begins in late 2026, starting in the Netherlands. Mews supports 15,000 customers across 85 countries and has received multiple awards for its PMS and POS systems.
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“The hospitality industry doesn’t have a software problem. It has an intelligence problem”
12 August 2026This article was written by HospitalityOn. Click here to read the original article When Richard Valtr founded Mews in 2012 in Prague, he wasn’t trying to build a better property management system. He wanted to build a platform for guests. The founding idea was this: every hotel is its own social network. Twelve years later, Mews is Europe’s first hospitality unicorn, valued at $2.5 billion, with a portfolio of more than ten strategic acquisitions (Hotello, Bizzon, Nomi, Frontdesk Anywhere, Loopon,…
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STR and Tourism Economics Raise U.S. RevPAR Forecast to 4.4% Amid Warnings of Potential Government Shutdown Impact
11 August 2026📈 STR and Tourism Economics raised the 2026 U.S. RevPAR growth forecast to 4.4%, driven by World Cup premiums. A potential government shutdown in September could cost the travel sector $1 billion weekly, affecting over six million travelers and delaying 9,000 flights. Cambria Hotels opened new properties in Oregon and Texas. Meanwhile, 42% of U.S. hotel operators face workforce shortages, with digital tipping aiding in staff retention. Millennium Hotels partners with HXE to boost MICE demand across 145 properties.
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Mews Secures Dutch Central Bank License to Launch Financial Services for Hotels Across EEA by 2026
11 August 2026💰 As CEO Richard Valtr explains, Mews has obtained a significant license from the Dutch central bank, enabling it to process payments directly within its hospitality management system. In 2025, Mews acquired DataChat and Atomize, supporting its platform expansion strategy, buoyed by a $300 million funding round. Starting in late 2026, Mews will implement regulated financial services, starting in the Netherlands and gradually expanding across the EEA, aiming to streamline hotel financial operations.
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Mews becomes first hospitality operating system in EEA to secure an e-money license
11 August 2026This article was written by Travolution. Click here to read the original article Mews Financial Services BV, its regulated financial entity of Mews, has been granted an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) in a landmark move for the European ecosystem. Until now, the operational record has lived in Mews while the financial record has originated in third-party systems but now the license gives Mews a regulated status in the European Economic Area (EEA), enabling it…
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JLL Reports Luxury Hotels with High-End Restaurants Achieve 6.7% Higher Occupancy and 18.6% More RevPAR
10 August 2026📈 JLL data shows that luxury hotels with flagship dining see a 6.7% increase in occupancy and an 18.6% boost in RevPAR. Belmond’s Lawrence Edwards highlights that hotels prioritizing room revenue are outdated, focusing instead on guest experiences. 60% of luxury travelers now choose hotels based on dining options, up from 38% in 2022. Lighthouse advises independent hotels on AI booking strategies to counter OTAs’ dominance. A dual-brand Marriott opened in Portland, Maine, adding Residence Inn and Moxy.
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2026 FIFA World Cup Boosts U.S. Hotel Revenue by $680 Million, Driven by ADR Increases Across 11 Host Cities
7 August 2026🏆 The 2026 FIFA World Cup boosted U.S. hotel revenue by $680 million across 11 host cities. Despite occupancy drops in 7 of these cities, ADR increases were prominent. The event highlighted the need for dynamic pricing strategies. In Q2 2026, APEC’s hotel construction hit a record high with 2,506 projects. Global guest satisfaction peaked at 87.3%, with quick response times boosting ratings. Five hotel groups surpassed one million rooms, but per-key value creation remains crucial.
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Mews Raises $300M to Integrate Systems with AI-Native Operating Platform in Hospitality Industry
7 August 2026💻 In 2026, hotel platforms are streamlining operations by integrating systems like PMS, RMS, and CRS. Mews raised $300M to merge revenue management and guest services through an AI-native platform, partnering with SiteMinder. Cloudbeds and Oracle Hospitality advance with AI, while specialists like IDeaS and Canary maintain their niche. The strategic focus shifts to irreplaceability and specialization in the tech ecosystem. i5invest connects startups with over 150,000 decision-makers in business development and M&A.
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Booking.com Holds $8.2 Billion in Hotelier Funds Under Merchant Model, Impacting Cash Flow and Financial Planning
6 August 2026💸 $8.2 billion in hotelier funds are held by Booking.com under its merchant model, impacting hotels’ cash flow and financial planning. Kempinski CEO Bernold Schroeder advocates for less excess in luxury hospitality. RevPAR in the U.S. increased by 7.3% as of August 1. The Middle East’s tourism GDP is projected to grow annually by 6.3% until 2036. Travel and tourism investment exceeded $1 trillion in 2025. New hotel openings include Kimpton Quinta da Marinha in Portugal and Zamara Private in…
