We have launched Allowances in Spain, and will gradually roll this out to more customers across countries. We are open to adding customers to the beta for allowances - please let us know if interested!
Allowances lets you attach a monetary credit to a rate. They are automatically applied to qualifying charges during a guest's stay. Think of it as a native package credit engine built directly into Mews: no workarounds, no manual billing adjustments, no gift card complications.
What can you do with it?
- Consortia and partnership credits
- If you work with corporate travel consortia or have F&B partnerships, for example, an American Express €100 F&B credit on qualifying rates - Allowances handles this natively. The credit is attached to the rate, applied automatically when the guest charges qualifying products to their room, and handled cleanly in billing at checkout.
- Corporate rate packages
- When negotiating corporate or TMC rates, you can include a non-alcoholic F&B credit as part of the deal. The allowance, and any correction products can be attached directly using product rules, so it applies consistently across every booking on that rate without any manual steps at check-in.
- Direct channel incentives
- If you want to make your direct rate more attractive without dropping the room price, attach an allowance. Even when the headline rate is the same as OTA channels, the F&B or service credit gives guests a tangible reason to book direct, and keeps the spend on-property.
Why it's worth setting up
Hotels and resorts already using Allowances are seeing three clear benefits:
- Non-room revenue growth.
- Allowances guide guests toward spending on-property rather than outside. When designed well, they drive guests to spend beyond the credit value, capturing incremental F&B revenue that wouldn't have happened otherwise. In our early data, 29% of allowances are generating spend above the credit value.
- Breakage revenue.
- Unspent allowances are not refunded to the guest. Instead, they convert to profit. In our early data, 38% of awarded allowances are generating breakage, representing pure incremental revenue.
- Richer insight into service consumption.
- A dinner product tells you how many dinners were sold. A dinner allowance tells you how many were actually consumed, how many guests ordered beyond the credit value and what they spent, and how many didn't use it at all. All this, while allowing guests to flexibly choose from a menu, without having to standardise a “dinner”. This is a fundamentally different level of visibility and it gives revenue and F&B managers a data foundation to optimise packaging, pricing, and service design over time.
How to get started
If in Spain, allowances are available on Mews for you. If not, please let us know below, and we will add you to this initial launch.
Allowances is available in your Mews dashboard now (on the Products page). The setup takes a few minutes: create relevant accounting categories, attach the allowance to a rate, and define how it applies (per night, per stay, or per guest).
Full setup guide: How to create an allowance in Mews Operations (https://help.mews.com/s/article/How-to-create-an-allowance-in-Mews-Operations?language=en_US)
If you have questions or want to share how you're planning to use it, drop a comment below — we'd love to hear from the community.
