What does it mean to be truly guest-centric? For decades or longer, the hospitality industry has talked about guest experience as a top priority. But when you look under the hood of many of the systems and metrics that hoteliers rely on, the focus is on rooms and reservations.
It’s impossible to be truly guest-focused if you measure success by this narrow means, rather than a more rounded approach with guests at the core.
However, this philosophy is finally changing. Properties that put guests at the heart of their business are seeing transformational results.
A system built around the guest, not the room
When Mews was founded more than a decade ago, it was clear that none of the existing systems prioritized what mattered most: the guest experience. So, we built a new kind of PMS. Not one centered around reservations and rooms, but one centered around people.
Instead of treating the room as the central data point, Mews uses architecture that places the guest profile at the heart of everything. That simple shift has had a profound impact.
Today, guest-centric design means more than just better service. It enables smarter technology, richer data and more meaningful revenue. It allows us to move beyond the industry-standard RevPAR (revenue per available room) and embrace a much more powerful metric: RevPAG, or revenue per available guest.
Why RevPAR is no longer enough
RevPAR will always have a role in hospitality. It gives us a helpful snapshot of how well a hotel is monetizing its rooms. But that’s the key limitation: it only tells you how well you’re selling this one specific element. It doesn’t tell you how well you’re engaging your guests once they arrive.
You can beat your comp set on RevPAR and still leave massive amounts of revenue on the table, by missing out on spa bookings, restaurant spend, parking, or other ancillary services. From an owner or investor perspective, that’s a missed opportunity to unlock the full value of each guest.
What makes RevPAG such a valuable metric?
RevPAG measures the total revenue generated per guest – not just from the room, but from every touchpoint across the property. And if your PMS is agile and unified (like Mews) that data is captured in real time and made actionable.
The calculation is simple: total revenue from all outlets (rooms, F&B, spa, parking, you name it), divided by the number of guests staying over a given period. The result? A much clearer picture of how well your team is serving, engaging and monetizing each guest.
And unlike RevPAR, RevPAG directly connects to the things that drive loyalty and long-term value.
The data is clear: personalization drives revenue
We’ve all felt that friction when a hotel asks, “Have you stayed with us before?” and the answer is yes. When the system doesn’t know, that moment is awkward for guests and frustrating for teams.