A case for windowless rooms: mastering the art of the basics
In an industry focused on amenities, scaling down can be shockingly innovative. Especially when you remove almost everything and get the basics exactly right.
In a recent episode of MattTalks, Halima Aziz, Head of Hotels at Criterion Hospitality, shared how Zedwell is redefining city stays through adaptive reuse, windowless rooms and ultra-compact capsules. Built inside some of London’s most underutilized real estate, Zedwell challenges long-held assumptions about what guests need, and what they’re willing to pay for.
No windows, no problem
Zedwell was born out of necessity. Criterion owned large, complex buildings – former arcades, car parks, entertainment spaces – that no longer worked for traditional tenants. Rather than forcing conventional hotel layouts into unsuitable structures, the team designed a brand flexible enough to fit almost anywhere.
We’re a windowless-by-design concept,
Halima explains. We often call ourselves an adaptive reuse brand.
Zedwell built itself from the ground up to fit into a car park, arcade or department store and make use of the assets that had been more or less forgotten about.
The result is what they call the “cocoon”: a compact, oak-lined hotel room built for deep rest. No windows, no TV, no clutter. Just complete silence and a high-quality bed.
What on the surface sounds like a potentially poor guest experience becomes, in practice, a much-needed escape from the world. In fact, Halima says, Guests are almost ignorant of the fact that there’s no window inside.
An unapologetic approach to the basics
Zedwell’s philosophy hinges on one principle: hospitality, at its core, is about rest.
That focus drives every operational decision. By stripping back non-essentials, like kettles and minibars, Zedwell reduces visual clutter and lowers costs. That said, rooms are intentionally over-specced where it matters most. Take the doors, for example, which let zero light in and borrow soundproofing mechanics from music studio doors.
The approach extends to housekeeping. Rooms are designed to be cleaned in less than 15 minutes. Zedwell also shifted to an opt-in deep-clean model rather than relying on guests to opt out. There are so many things that, as consumers, you don’t notice and you don’t need,
Halima notes.
For Zedwell, perfecting the basics is an art. And it’s also what makes their business model commercially feasible and scalable.
Technology removes friction and adds transparency
Zedwell’s guest journey is built around speed, clarity and choice. Check-in happens via kiosks. Communication happens via WhatsApp and the guest portal. Add-ons like early check-in and late checkout are automated, optional and clearly priced.
By removing face-to-face upselling, the team removed friction and embarrassment. As Matt observes, technology allows guests to say yes to convenience without feeling awkward. The result is better uptake, happier guests and additional revenue that directly funds operational improvements, like paying housekeepers to prep rooms earlier.
We’re commercially unapologetic,
Halima explains. But our guests need to feel like we’re not deceiving them. We’re really open and honest about who we are and the experience we deliver.
Capsules for an untapped market
Zedwell’s latest evolution takes the concept even further. Capsules by Zedwell shrink the cocoon down to a single square meter, with shared washrooms and prices starting as low as £30. The goal isn’t to replace hotels or hostels, but to unlock entirely new demand.
We wanted to open up a new market,
Halima explains. The people who weren’t planning to stay in a hotel that night.
Capsules offer a compelling alternative to long commutes home from work, late-night travel or missing out on experiences because you need to catch the last train home. Especially in dense, expensive cities, this new concept offers access at an affordable price point.
Less hotel, not less hospitality
Zedwell’s success comes from questioning inherited standards and designing around real guest behavior, not assumptions.
As Halima puts it, Hotels that deliver the basics well satisfy the needs of a budget-conscious traveler without needing to go down the routes they used to.
In an industry often tempted to add more, Zedwell’s story is a reminder that innovation can just as powerfully come from subtraction — and from having the confidence to build exactly what a space, a city and a guest actually need.
Watch the full MattTalks episode to find out how Zedwell is ripping up the traditional hospitality playbook and writing their own.
About Mews
Mews is the operating system for hospitality, unifying workflows across revenue, operations and the guest journey so teams can automate the mundane and focus on memorable guest experiences. The Mews platform spans PMS, POS, RMS, Housekeeping and Payments, helping hoteliers move from property management to profit management. Powering 15,000 customers across 85 countries, the company was named Best PMS (2024, 2025, 2026), Best POS (2026) and listed among the Best Places to Work in Hotel Tech for six years running by Hotel Tech Report.
