We interviewed our community superstar and long-term Mews customer, Mick Vazquez of YHA, and got the lowdown on what’s coming up for YHA this year and his top tips for getting the most out of working with Mews. Here’s what we said…
Hi Mick. Can you briefly introduce yourself and your role within your organization?
My name is Mick Vazquez, I work for YHA Australia serving as the Senior Application manager, I am responsible for all applications that power our operation and enable us to deliver exceptional service and experiences to our guests.
How would you personally describe your chain? Could you provide some insights into its overall atmosphere, amenities, and the experience it offers to guests?
YHA is a membership-based, for purpose organization which for more than 80 years, has encouraged inclusion and diversity by welcoming travelers from all walks of life.
We provide unique and sustainable accommodation across Australia, connecting our guests to opportunities, experiences and a community of global travellers.
We own, operate and partner with a diverse range of 44 properties across Australia, offering private and co-living accommodation with amenities like on-site pools, co-working spaces and open-air rooftops.
As someone working in the hospitality industry, what do you enjoy most about your job? Is there a particular aspect that brings you the most satisfaction?
I’d have to say what I enjoy most about my job is the opportunity to get out on the ground and work with our teams, it provides a great insight into daily operations that allows us to bridge the common gap between frontline staff and IT, it enables us to deliver better experiences through technology.
Overall, the combination of meeting diverse individuals, facilitating meaningful experiences, delivering technology solutions enables us to challenge the status quo in the industry. This aspect makes my work fulfilling, challenging and rewarding.
Are there any notable trends or changes you've observed in guest preferences or behaviors over the years? How have you adapted to meet those changing needs?
One notable trend would be the increasing demand for personalized digital experiences. Guests now seek unique and tailored experiences that align with their preferences and interests. To adapt to these changing needs, we have implemented various strategies including leveraging technology like Mews, Salesforce, TrustYou and Guest engagement platforms to deliver these.
In your experience, what are some of the key benefits that properties can derive from effectively utilizing technology solutions like Mews? How have you seen it positively impact your operations and guest experiences?
Ease of use and training that has been challenging in the past, the open API and marketplace allows us to expand the functionality and build our perfect eco system. We have an automated revenue strategy with hourly updates for all properties which we’ve been able to achieve by utilizing Pace Revenue (Mews marketplace), we built a membership system in Salesforce using the Open API which allows us to deliver our membership offering to members, we benchmark and manage our online reputation and post stay feedback with TrustYou, we have created new revenue streams and opened communication channels with guests through our engagement platforms across a number of properties and lastly created bespoke automations using Zapier which assist in automating tedious tasks.
Have you implemented any unique approaches or strategies in setting up your properties? Are there any valuable tips or tricks you'd like to share based on your experience?
Sure, I can think of a handful.
- Firstly, getting buy in, from the senior leadership and property managers is a paramount and will help dealing with the change management. No system will be a perfect fit and Mews is no exception. Managing expectation with the support of the executive team and managers will assist in developing business practices to work with Mews and aid in embedding adoption.
- It's crucial to have a deep understanding of the Mews platform and its capabilities. Invest time in learning the features and functionalities and then leverage them for your properties.
- Understand what you want to achieve from the platform. Identify your goals, whether it's streamlining operations, enhancing guest experiences, improving revenue management or all of those. This understanding will guide your configuration process and ensure that Mews aligns with your objectives.
- Standardize everything. Buildout a catalog of products, spaces, rates, and rules that will work in all your business make sure you’ve considered of everything. Consistency is key.
- Managing change requests from multiple properties can be challenging. Establish a centralized system or process for handling requests. This ensures that all requests are evaluated, prioritized and implemented whilst maintaining your agreed standards.
- User management can be complex, especially when dealing with multiple properties. We have 31 properties using Mews. We found success by building a user provisioning tool. This allows us to add users to multiple properties, update permissions and offboard users seamlessly.
How would you describe Mews as a business partner?
I’d describe Mews as a progressive business partner, their system is the backbone to our organization and we rely on a close, innovative forward-thinking relationship. They are very open and accommodating, never said no to anything we requested, I find the team are friendly, responsive, and proactive from the onboarding team, support, customer success, to the product teams and to the CEO, we have regular interactions with many of these people and departments.
Looking ahead, what are your future plans or goals for your chain? How do you see Mews supporting your growth and helping you achieve those objectives?
This year we have a group-wide Assa Abloy Vostio upgrade scheduled, enabled through Mews Marketplace, which will enable mobile key. We’re upgrading a lot of our rooms and modernizing with integrated tv systems. We’re working towards our new property, Tech Central, which replaces our Sydney Railway property in the Atlassian building. We’re looking at how we can achieve carbon neutrality, we’ve set up several co-working spaces and looking at how we can expand that in the future & increasing our F&B offerings enabled through integrated POS, and improved offerings such as upsells, bike hire and even looking at long term accommodation options, all of these will be facilitated through Mews utilizing the API or Marketplace.
As a valued contributor to the Mews Community, what motivates you to actively engage and share your knowledge with fellow hoteliers? How has this engagement benefited you?
I think the community concept is invaluable, it opens the doors to communicate with fellow hoteliers and technology professional that wouldn’t normally be possible. Engaging and sharing knowledge allows us to learn from one another especially exchanging best practices, finding fresh perspectives and innovative ideas that we can incorporate into our operations. We’ve been able to discuss with other operators about event management platforms, housekeeping systems and we were able to be involved in a community-led discussion around online check-in and kiosks which, as a result, had a positive outcome and we can now customize the required fields in Mews’ online check-in and kiosk. That really is amazing!
Is there a specific destination or hotel that holds a special place in your heart? What makes it so memorable for you?
Probably my hometown, Cairns Australia, the weather is tropical, so much to do whether its fishing, diving the reef, rafting a river, or swimming in ice cold creeks. My wife and I got married on a beach here and we love it so much we actually named our children after the Great Barrier Reef, that’s how special it is to me.
Thank you!