My first real education in leadership didn’t come from a classroom. It came from the lobby of a hotel.
Hospitality teaches you to read people quickly. You notice when a guest hesitates at the front desk or when fatigue shows in a traveler’s posture. You learn that experiences are emotional, not transactional, and that small gestures can transform someone’s entire perception of your brand.
That lesson has guided every stage of my career. Even as I’ve moved from hotels to technology, the principle remains the same: The best businesses remove friction so people can connect more easily. A great hotel doesn’t just operate efficiently; it makes guests feel at ease in its care. A great company should do the same.
LEADING THROUGH CONTROLLED CHAOS
Managing a hotel is a daily exercise in resilience. A flight cancellation throws off the schedule. A VIP room isn’t ready. Yet guests still expect everything to feel effortless. You learn to stay calm in noise and improvise without panic.
That rhythm shaped how I now think about leadership. In fast-growth environments, perfection is rarely possible. What matters is recovery: the systems and people that bend without breaking. At Mews, that mindset helped us scale across 85 countries and support 12,500 properties without losing the sense of human connection that defines hospitality.
FROM “HEADS IN BEDS” TO PEOPLE AT THE CENTER
When I started in hotels, performance was measured by RevPAR and occupancy. But as a recent Skift study highlights, that model is too narrow. Global occupancy is projected to dip to 62.5% in 2025, and RevPAR is expected to fall 0.1% year over year. Those figures reflect an industry still built on outdated assumptions.
The future of hospitality, and of leadership, is customer-centric rather than asset-centric. The Skift report notes that nearly one-third of guests now generate revenue from non-room services, using technology to make everything from parking spots to co-working memberships bookable. That represents a 300% year-over-year increase in these additional bookable services since 2024.
To me, this is more than a business trend. It represents a shift in values, from extraction to experience. When you design for people rather than inventory, you expand your addressable market and deepen loyalty. Hospitality becomes a community engine, not just a place to sleep.
THE DISCIPLINE OF DETAIL
Hospitality also trained my eye for details. A crooked glass or scuffed wall is never just an imperfection; it is a signal that care has slipped somewhere. In leadership, the same rule applies. Every unanswered email, unclear policy, or broken process sends a message about what your organization tolerates.
McKinsey data shows that companies putting customer experience at the center of their business strategy achieve twice the revenue growth. That reinforces what hospitality has always taught us: Attention to detail is not cosmetic; it is commercial.
I have learned to hire people who notice those signals, the ones who ask why something feels off. The best leaders I have worked with share curiosity, decisiveness, and humility. They understand that service is not servitude; it is craftsmanship.
TECHNOLOGY SHOULD AMPLIFY HUMANITY
There is a misconception that automation erodes hospitality. I see it differently. Technology, when thoughtfully implemented, frees humans to focus on meaning.
In the age of AI, we can use data to anticipate needs, not replace empathy. At Mews, we have seen how integrated systems—connecting property management, CRM, and point-of-sale—allow staff to deliver truly personal service. When every interaction, from booking to check-out, is seamless, guests remember how they felt, not how long they waited.
Technology doesn’t replace hospitality; it reveals it. I’ve seen that truth play out time and again.
CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP AS ACTS OF CARE
Building a global company has reminded me that the principles of hospitality apply everywhere, especially in leadership. You cannot instruct people to care—you show them what care looks like in the details. Whether it is owning a mistake publicly, creating rituals that connect teams, or designing systems that make employees’ work easier, every small action reinforces a culture of trust.
Hospitality has taught me that business is not a machine. It is a memory-making enterprise. People may forget what they paid or what you promised, but they will never forget how you made them feel through a product, a service, or a single moment of genuine connection. That is the lesson I carried from the front desk to the boardroom: Serve people well, and everything else, from revenue to resilience, will follow.
Matt Welle is CEO of Mews, the industry-leading hospitality cloud.
