With Viqal integrated into MEWS, guests now check in through WhatsApp, doubling completion rates and cutting manual work at reception.
El Josemari Youth Hostel is a high-traffic property in Palma de Mallorca, welcoming over 1,200 monthly reservations across 86 beds. With such guest volume, manually handling check-ins and common questions became a bottleneck for staff.
Seamlessly integrated with MEWS, Viqal’s AI Concierge now automates 87% of guest inquiries — by guests using Viqal’s AI Concierge directly through WhatsApp. Their staff uses the MEWS’ native messaging inbox (there is an option to use Viqal’s inbox or MEWS’). Guests complete online check-in via MEWS, get key info proactively, and receive smart upsell offers at the right time — all without needing human intervention.
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El Josemari Youth Hostel runs high volume — over 1,200 monthly reservations across 86 beds in central Palma de Mallorca. Before Viqal, online check-in adoption was low: guests missed the email links, so most arrivals still had to be processed manually at reception.
During peak check-in hours, this created a clear bottleneck for a lean front-desk team.
Viqal was integrated directly into MEWS. The hostel now shares unique, dynamic MEWS online check-in links through WhatsApp — the same channel guests already use to ask questions. The check-in step lives inside the conversation, not in a separate email a guest has to find and click through.
Staff use the MEWS native messaging inbox alongside Viqal so the workflow stays in one familiar place.
Guests handle everything in WhatsApp — completing online check-in, asking questions, and receiving smart upsell offers at the right moment. Viqal automates 87% of inquiries, while the MEWS integration keeps reservation context tight.
Staff intervene only when a request needs judgment, with the rest of arrival admin running in the background.
The shift to WhatsApp-based check-in produced an immediate jump in adoption. Front-desk workload dropped meaningfully, especially during the peak arrival window, and the team is no longer playing catch-up on the same admin questions all evening.
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