Heights House Hotel automates payments and check-in with Mews

OPERATIONS

Heights House Hotel, a nine-room boutique hotel in a restored 1858 Raleigh mansion, uses Mews to take payments and check-ins off its small team’s plate. Staff now spend that time on guests.

Why it matters: Independent hotels that also run weddings and events have very few staff. Chasing card details, reissuing invoices, reconciling payouts and processing check-in paperwork pull those people away from guests. Heights House Hotel used Mews to automate payments and registration while driving direct bookings instead of paying high OTA commissions.

Heights House Hotel runs Mews PMS, Mews Payments and the Mews Booking Engine. Payment details are tokenized, charging rules are automated, guests can pay with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and guests check in online with digital registration cards.

Top 3 Core Objectives: Heights House Hotel wanted more personal hospitality from a lean team, with fewer commissions and less manual admin.

Drive direct bookings: Heights House Hotel wanted to avoid high OTA commission rates. It does not use channel managers, so its direct booking system had to perform.
Make payments invisible: The hotel wanted payments that stay secure and reliable without getting in the guest’s way. Deposits, pre-authorizations and final bills needed to run smoothly.
Reduce manual admin: The hotel wanted less time spent on forms, IDs, invoices and payout reconciliation. That frees staff to welcome guests and offer more personalized hospitality.

Innovators Mentioned

Mews

Sarah Shepherd

Owner & Operator

Heights House Hotel

"Mews handles all our vital background operations without ever getting in the way. This means we can provide every guest with a more personable, memorable experience."

Sarah Shepherd

Owner & Operator

👍 Owner & Operator Sarah Shepherd said that Sarah Shepherd says Mews runs the hotel’s background operations so the team can focus on a more personal guest experience.:

"Mews handles all our vital background operations without ever getting in the way. This means we can provide every guest with a more personable, memorable experience."

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Sarah Shepherd evaluated Mews's product differentiators, customer support, and holistic value as a strategic partner and ultimately decided that Mews was the best fit solution:

Owner & Operator Sarah Shepherd said, about their decision: "It’s great peace of mind to have an inbuilt payments solution that we know we can rely on, both in terms of security and providing a smooth guest experience."

📈 The results: Heights House Hotel earns more per direct booking and sees strong online check-in adoption. It has had very few chargebacks since moving to Mews Payments.

$77 Average value added per direct booking reservation, from upsells and multiple rate types
31% Online check-in rate, with 25% higher ADR for guests who checked in online
2 Chargebacks in four years with Mews