I never expected the hours I spent as a teenager behind hotel reception desks would one day help me build a $1 billion traveltech company. I learned in those lobbies that small details shape big outcomes, and that lesson still guides how I lead Mews, which now powers 12,500 properties in 85 countries.
Those nights weren’t glamorous; it wasn’t anything like Eloise at the Plaza. My family was entrepreneurial, and my summers were spent in half-built hotels or on graveyard shifts at reception. I would watch guests arrive, study their body language, and notice how a misplaced chair or a distracted glance could unravel an entire stay.
