Nice one ​@matt.jeffrey - you are a natural. Looking forward to your next update.  

For the team-extend-billing-automation-to-include-payments release, is there a way to have this solution run over past payments as well to solve our outstanding open invoices? 

Look like great progress 🙌. I have two questions about that:

• Regarding digital keys, did you mention that nothing other than Mews is needed for wallet-based keys? This means no integration is necessary on the locking system side? The licensing and technology for apple wallet, for example, is handled entirely by Mews? Are there any further details on this, or does it simply work natively when marketplace key integration is used with an supported provider?
   
• In the feature outlook, I saw that bill splitting is listed under kiosk improvements. I hope this will also be made available as a feature on the backend, as it's one of the most requested functionalities in the feedback forum.

Hello!

Regarding Digital Key: We are in the process to get this ready since End of August, when I signed up. In fact it’s not exactly as straight forward as it is described in the video. There is actually a length help article at https://help.mews.com/s/article/How-to-set-up-the-Digital-Key-in-Mews-Operations?language=en_US

But, at least here in Austria, the Vendor for AssaAbloy is not exactly 100% ready. At least you will have to buy some additional license for the Vostio System (Advanced License & Mobile Key License per lock, I believe), if you have the right lock hardware the software on the locks might need some updating, some consulting hours for setting up the integration are required, some graphics/logos/images and FAQ must be prepared for the wallet design, …

Also please note I have heard that Google/Apple (?) charge some fee per issued digital key which in turn becomes charged to the hotel through AssaAbloy (? or MEWS? or both ;-) ). Actually on this topic some clarification from MEWS would be helpful, so that it is clearer upfront what each digital key issue will cost, at least it’s not zero. It would be great to get some guideline from MEWS what to reasonably expect, as this is some fee that is imposed rather intransparently and it’s just “that’s the way it is”. I have received some estimate from our vendor that this fee might be around 0,50 EUR per issued digital key, but as I said it non negotiable and it’s not included in the vostio license contracts and quotes, as far as I know…

We hoped to get it up and running mid September, but I guess it will be November at best…

Still, it’s awesome that MEWS pushed this topic forward! It’s great to make use of the NFC technology that was withheld from iOS Users that long, technically it should have been possible since at least a decade! I guess Apple finally found a way to monetize it .. ;-)

Regards,

Jean-Philipp.

​@j.spiess i've also heard that these integrations involve license fees not only from the provider but also from Google and/or Apple. Let me know how it goes. Thats a interesting feature for us, but only if thats not to expensive as there is no particularly big advantage for anyone here.

Hello,

You say in the video the upgrade for the occupancy rate has been release but this one still not available and we quickly need this one to adjust our rate :(

Hi Femke, Short answer: not automatically.

• Billing Automation (incl. payments) works going forward. It listens for new/changed charges and new payments, then routes them to the right bill.
• We don’t auto-sweep historic payments because it can rewrite already-audited days/invoices.

What you can do for the backlog:

1. Open, uninvoiced bills:
   • Use the Payments/Unpaid Items view to filter past payments not on a target bill, then move them to the correct bill. Once your rules are enabled, any new related items will stay in sync.
2. Already invoiced items:
   • Don’t reassign the payment. Issue a credit note for the wrong invoice, route the items correctly (or create the correct bill), then re-invoice. This preserves audit history.
3. POS/integration payments without a reservation link:
   • These won’t be matched retroactively. After you enable the new rules, ask the partner to send linkedReservationId going forward; clean up older items manually (or via a one-off data fix using exports + bulk actions).

Hi ​@jones.eth and ​@j.spiess, thank you for the questions and comments regarding the Wallet keys mentioned in the summary of Q3. I can share a few clarifying points on what you’ve both asked. 

The video mentions no need for 3rd party apps

Previously, to have Digital Keys at your property you would need to work with Mews, your door lock provider and a 3rd party to provide the Digital Key functionality at your property. Now, with the Mews Digital Key, you only need to work with Mews and your supported door lock provider; i.e. Assa Abloy in the case of Wallet keys. 

Costs involved for Wallet keys

I’ve tried to summarise below the costs involved:

• With Mews, Digital Key is available as a paid add-on (you can see the price in the Marketplace for your property) or included in your subscription if your contract has the Advanced Guest Experience module.
• With Assa Abloy, there are additional licence costs and a fee per reservation to use Wallet keys. These costs are between you and Assa Abloy, so we don’t have specific numbers we can provide. I appreciate ​@j.spiess you mentioned that Assa Abloy haven’t clarified this fee, but they are the right people to provide this as this fee is outside of Mews.

Setting up Wallet keys

Thank you ​@j.spiess for sharing your experience so far. As you mentioned, setting up Wallet keys is not a simple case of adding it from Marketplace and switching it on. To set up Wallet keys your commercial agreement with Assa ABloy will likely need to be reviewed and updated, a software update is likely required and there are also certain pre-requisites and tests required by Apple and Google before activation for your guests. 

Both the Mews and Assa Abloy teams are here to support you with these steps and we’re also working on how we can improve this process in future. 

Please do comment if you have additional questions or comments on this and we’ll be happy to help.

Thank you,

James