News Briefs

Mews, a hospitality cloud, announced $100 million in financing from Vista Credit Partners, the subsidiary of Vista Equity Partners and a strategic credit and financing partner focused on the enterprise software, data and technology markets.

As cloud adoption accelerates across the $15.5 trillion global travel and tourism industry, the new financing will expedite Mews’ growth and strengthen its M&A program to further establish the company as a market leader. The company’s investment and corporate development arm, Mews Ventures, has acquired nine hospitality companies to date, and will continue to invest in technology and teams to accelerate technological transformation across the hospitality industry.

“Hospitality at its core is a human industry, and we are relentlessly focused on driving cloud technology which empowers staff to disconnect from their screens and focus on their guests. We have a huge opportunity to support the world’s most revolutionary hospitality brands to accelerate their digital transformation,” Matt Welle, CEO of Mews, commented. “Receiving financing from an experienced enterprise software investor, like Vista Credit Partners, enables us to expedite our efforts. By investing in both our organic and inorganic growth, we will completely reshape the way hospitality is delivered.”

Richard Valtr, Founder of Mews, commented, “The market is ripe for consolidation. Having successfully acquired nine companies to date, the funds from Vista Credit Partners further progress our position to continue investing in M&A via our investment and corporate development arm, Mews Ventures.”

Over the past year, Mews has demonstrated significant momentum and continued growth. Milestones include:

• A valuation crossing $1 billion
• Expanding its customer base to serve over 5,500 customers in 85 countries, including Strawberry, The Social Hub and Airelles Collection
• Increasing customers in North America by 250% in the last 12 months
• Surpassing 75,000 hospitality staff platform users worldwide
• 54% growth in gross payment volume to over $8 billion year-to-date¹

Mews has also continued to add innovative product functionalities, from its AI-driven smart search to provide users with a context-rich intelligent assistant, to its next-generation Mews Kiosk solution which has seen hotels cut check-in times by a third.

Amy Mathews, Managing Director at Vista Credit Partners, added, “As an integral property management system for hospitality brands worldwide, the Mews cloud platform helps to automate core operational, business and payments processes while empowering staff to provide the best possible guest experiences. We are pleased to provide Mews with a flexible capital solution specifically tailored to its ambitious growth plans as the team drives transformation across the rapidly digitizing global hospitality sector.”

PolyAI, a pioneer in voice AI solutions for customer experience and service, announced a partnership with OpenTable, a global leader in restaurant technology, expanding PolyAI's guest-led voice assistants to enterprise restaurants. Locations that opt in will be able to take reservations over the phone, answer questions, gain visibility in customer trends, and deliver on-brand experiences - all while alleviating staff time and resources.

This alliance delivers PolyAI's lifelike voice AI to help restaurants tackle challenges around staffing and provide consistent hospitality, even off premise. In a survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association, 62% of operators said their restaurants did not have enough employees to support existing demand. With onsite staff focused on in-house patrons, restaurant groups routinely miss between 30-60% of phone calls to their front of house (per PolyAI customer data) – meaning missed revenue opportunities and equally valuable customer touch points.

Never miss another call

With this strategic partnership, OpenTable's global network of restaurants will be able to integrate PolyAI voice assistants, built using generative AI and spoken language technologies, to assist their diners in seamlessly booking and managing reservations over the phone, during and outside of operating hours.

"We know how tightly restaurants manage their guest experience and this can be even more complex for our partners doing business at scale," said Susan Lee, Chief Strategy Officer at OpenTable. "We have, and continue to invest in, technology that pushes boundaries and enhances hospitality and our integration with PolyAI is a new way we can drive efficiencies for our restaurants, and diners."

For larger operators, this partnership enables numerous iterations of voice assistants to cater to the unique needs of multi-location and multi-brand portfolios, while providing PolyAI's proven enterprise-grade assurances around availability, security and data protection.

"We have extensive experience deploying voice assistants to hundreds of locations for some of the largest restaurant groups in the world, helping operators resolve up to 70% of calls over the phone without the need for additional staff," said Michael Chen, VP of Strategic Alliances at PolyAI. "This strong connection with the restaurant industry started right from the earliest days of PolyAI. We're thrilled to deepen that further and work with OpenTable to help even more restaurant operators attract more diners, streamline operations and maximize revenue."

Popular fondue restaurant group among the first to dip in

North America-based fondue restaurant Melting Pot is an early adopter in leveraging this partnership. With PolyAI voice assistants rolling out to locations in Indiana, New Jersey and New York and many other restaurants in the implementation stage, the appeal of quick scale is evident. "Locations can go live with a branded, pre-trained voice assistant in as few as three weeks, which for our restaurants, means less time working on technology and more time taking care of our guests." says Randy Barnett, VP of Innovative Technology Systems & Data at Melting Pot Restaurants, Inc.

Smart automation that puts the guest first and keeps the staff attentive to onsite diners is crucial for Barnett: "Anyone who's dined at a Melting Pot knows it's an immersive experience, and by integrating this technology our teams can spend more time delivering the Perfect Night Out to our guests. Having PolyAI's voice assistant answer our guest calls not only offers immediate attention and resolution to those offsite guests preparing for their meal with us, it also preserves that intimate, social environment we provide for our in-house guests and team members."

Barnett reports the voice assistant is popular with Melting Pot team members and guests alike, and that the ability to fully book, change or cancel a reservation through an integration with OpenTable has been seamless. Barnett anticipates wider spread adoption of the platform in the coming weeks and months among Melting Pot's 90+ locations.

The journey starts at the Integration Marketplace

OpenTable restaurants will be able to request an integration with PolyAI via its Integration Marketplace, which powers 150+ integrations among the most widely used restaurant software. Beyond managing reservations over the phone, PolyAI's guest-led voice assistants also offer operators a powerful new channel for implementing consistent brand experiences that can deliver greater personalization, more proactive revenue and upsell as well as offer new ways of collecting diner feedback and tracking customer satisfaction.

Restaurant Tipping Trends

•  In 2024, 38% of consumers say they tip restaurant servers 20% or more. This is down from 42% of consumers last year and 56% in 2021.
• In 2024, 19% of consumers say they tip restaurant delivery drivers 20% or more. This is down from 26% of consumers last year and 38% in 2021.  
• The number of consumers tipping restaurant staff 10% or less jumped 10 percentage points over last year:
  • 30% of consumers tip restaurant servers 10% or less, up from 19% of consumers last year.
  •  42% of consumers tip restaurant drivers 10% or less, up from 32% of consumers last year.

Mirai – which provides hotels with technology and operations support to sell in the direct channel – is pleased to announce its latest integration with Omnibees, a channel manager with a strong presence in Latin America. This integration will expand its already extensive list of channel manager partnerships. This new integration offers hoteliers enhanced functionality and seamless management of their operations through Omnibees' advanced tools.

With the new integration, Mirai’s hotel clients using Omnibees will now have the ability to manage their inventory, pricing, and booking engine restrictions directly through the Omnibees platform. Additionally, they will benefit from the two-way integration between Omnibees and various Property Management Systems (PMS), allowing bookings made through their booking engine to be automatically received into their PMS.

Mirai remains committed to cost-efficiency, offering this integration at no initial or monthly cost to hoteliers. The integration is powered by Omnibees' latest API, which introduces several key improvements, including faster processing speed and response times, enhanced personal data security, better error control, and increased scalability to handle large volumes of data concurrently. These advancements further strengthen the platform's reliability and overall performance.

"We are excited to partner with Omnibees, a leader in channel management with a strong presence inLatin America, particularly in Mexico and Brazil, to offer our hotel clients even greater flexibility and control over their operations," said Pablo Delgado, CEO America at Mirai. "This integration not only enhances efficiency by streamlining inventory and pricing management but also ensures a smooth connection with various PMS systems, all while maintaining our commitment to providing cost-effective solutions with no additional fees."

DailyPay, a worktech company and leading provider of earned wage access, is joining forces with WorkJam, the world’s leading digital frontline workplace to bring financial wellness and flexibility to daily workers.

"The partnership with WorkJam speaks to our commitment to empowering daily workers with the tools that enable them to be great at their jobs,” said Stacy Greiner, CEO of DailyPay. "Our employer-sponsored earned wage access solution is a win-win for both workers and employers, who are consistently challenged with retaining top talent. Research from the Hanover Group shows that 95% of companies offering an earned wage access solution today believe it has a positive impact on employee retention.”

"Partnering with DailyPay is a natural extension of WorkJam’s mission to empower frontline workers with the tools and flexibility they need to succeed," said Steve Kramer, CEO of WorkJam. "By integrating DailyPay’s earned wage access solution into our platform, we’re not only enhancing the employee experience but also enabling businesses to drive greater engagement and retention. This collaboration will help companies create a more connected, motivated workforce while simplifying how employees manage their earnings and time."

Demonstrating this win-win for workers and employers, recent research underscores the critical role earned wage access plays in boosting workplace performance. A Harvard Kennedy School study also found that 79% of employees using EWA experienced less financial stress and were more motivated at work. In fact, data from Arizent notes about 7 in 10 (69%) employees who previously paid late fees do this less often or stopped completely since they started using DailyPay.

The announcement with WorkJam demonstrates DailyPay’s continued growth and expansion, coming on the heels of the company’s recent announcement of expanding internationally.

By embedding DailyPay’s EWA solution into WorkJam’s platform, frontline employees will benefit from an all-in-one SuperApp experience, powered by industry leaders in both EWA and workforce management.

With this partnership, employers will be able to leverage DailyPay’s award-winning platform to strengthen their relationships with employees, boosting satisfaction and reducing turnover.

WorkJam is a digital workplace platform designed to improve frontline workforce management. WorkJam’s proprietary tools enable organizations to centralize employee communications, offer on-demand training, provide self-service scheduling, and manage tasks more effectively, all through one app. Industries with large frontline workforces, including retail, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, and distribution, are served by WorkJam