HostConnect
Role
UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma, Canva, Miro
Stakeholder
Customer Experience Team, IT Team,
Timeline
8 weeks, Jan 2022
Project Overview
The Problem
My Roles and Challenges
Results & Impacts
1000+
active users within 3 months
4x
monthly revenue growth
75%
successful tasks completion
Who Are the Users?
The platform serves 3 key user groups:
1
I need a simple, centralised system where I can manage everything about my property without having to rely on someone else every time.
Rajesh
Homeowners
Oversees daily operations of the property, including bookings, availability, guest experience and revenue tracking. Wants autonomy, clear insights, and easy updates.
2
I want a system that reduces manual tasks and back-and-forth with homeowners, so I can focus on onboarding new properties and improving service quality.
Komal
Admin Team
Supervises all backend operations, assists homeowners, updates inventory and pricing, and ensures property data is accurate across OTAs.
3
I need a system that keeps me updated on real-time tasks and maintenance issues, so I can ensure everything runs smoothly across locations.
Amit
Operations Manager
Coordinates property upkeep, handles service requests, and ensures smooth day-to-day functioning of on-ground operations.
This case study focuses on Homeowners, a core group user.
As a homeowner, I want a system that simplifies day-to-day property management, so I can spend less time on manual coordination and more time growing my rental business.
What did the research find?
NEED FOR A UNIFIED AND USER-CENTRED PLATFORM
Currently existing tools for property management were fragmented with key features scattered across separate admin-only systems. Homeowners had no direct access, limiting control and causing frequent dependency on the admin team.
Usability Challenges
Tasks like updating property availability, checking bookings, or accessing reports were either scattered across different tools or required manual admin intervention. Homeowners lacked a unified, intuitive interface to manage their properties independently
Lack of Autonomy
Because only admins had access to the management tools, homeowners had to rely on them for every update or query. This lack of control frustrated users and created bottlenecks in communication and task completion.
Inconsistent User Experience
The old system had multiple tools with inconsistent layouts and poor navigation. This caused friction when admins had to manage multiple properties, often switching between different screens and products.
It became evident that in order to truly scale and improve homeowner experience, HostConnect needed to move away from an admin-centric model and offer a well-integrated, user-friendly platform built specifically for property owners.
👉🏼
Prioritise building a central, user-friendly platform with accessible tools for homeowners.
Aren’t there already platforms for this? Yes, but...
There are plenty of property management tools out there some packed with features for hospitality businesses. However, most are built for large hotels, not individual homeowners. Their complex interfaces and overwhelming steps make them less user-friendly.
More importantly, everyday tasks like updating rates, calendars, or tracking bookings usually require admin help or multiple tools — making things slower instead of simpler.
Phase 1 : Empowering Homeowners with Core Controls
While our long-term vision included end-to-end property management, we structured them into 3 phases, prioritising Phase 1 to give homeowners control over the most essential and time-consuming admin tasks. This also helped reduce operational dependency on internal admin teams.
Solutions
FEATURE 1 - BOOKING OVERVIEW
🫧 How might we give homeowners a clear, at-a-glance view of all booking details while enabling them to take timely action?
🫧 Design Rationale
This approach aimed to give homeowners a quick pulse check on performance—bookings made, total earnings, and category-wise revenue (meals, accommodation). We designed a summary-first layout to minimise mental load and help users identify high-value listings and booking trends at a glance.
✅ Why it worked?
High-level metrics (bookings, earnings) were prominently shown, offering clarity on business performance.
Clean, minimal layout with sortable lists.
The table format allowed quick scanning of guests, listings, and earnings.
Clicking "Details" gave access to deep booking-level insights
🚫 What didn’t worked?
Some users found it inefficient to access booking-level insights:
Clicking "Details" broke user flow—taking them to another screen or modal.
Redundant info (same guest repeated multiple times for the same booking with split charges) cluttered the view.
No inline or quick actions (e.g., call/email guest, raise issue).
Over-reliance on tabular navigation for core actions.
🧠 1st Approach
🤝🏻 Final Solution
🫧 How might we keep essential booking details immediately visible while allowing hosts to explore further details effortlessly?
💡 Design Rationale
This version integrates progressive disclosure: Important booking details are kept in the main list, while deeper info (charge breakdowns, GST, SaffronStays share, meal/accommodation splits) is revealed in a slide-in sidebar panel—only when needed.
This helped achieve a balance: simple overview + optional deep dive—without losing context or overloading the interface
✅ Why it worked?
Quick-access sidebar gives hosts all essential details (dates, charges, listing, earnings, guest platform) without navigating away.
Clean overview lets users focus on what matters most (guest, stay, earnings).
Smart grouping under one guest/booking avoids clutter from repeated listings.
Integrated inline actions (e.g., "raise issue", "call/c
hat", "download invoice ") let hosts manage bookings faster.
Enhanced efficiency: no page reload, faster interactions, and better visibility.
Earned trust by giving control + simplicity—flexibility in actions without cognitive overload.
FEATURE 2 - CALENDER MANAGEMENT
🫧 How might we simplify calendar management for homeowners while keeping the interface clean and intuitive?
🔍The Problem
User interviews revealed a major pain point—home owners needed a way to quickly check availability and block/unblock inventory across multiple dates, while also knowing the current availability count at a glance. The process had to support bulk actions without losing track of inventory or requiring back-and-forth clicks.
🚫 What didn’t worked?
Lack of Inventory Visibility: Admins couldn't see how many units were available on each day. The calendar only showed "Booked" or blank cells, which required extra effort to verify availability manually.
🧠 1st Approach
💡 Final Solution
Refined the inventory management experience by surfacing unit-level availability directly on the calendar, allowing admins to act confidently when blocking or unblocking dates across properties.
💡 Design Rationale
✔ Enhanced availability visibility by showing unit-level data directly on each date cell.
✔ Improved visual hierarchy using colour-coded statuses (booked, blocked, partially available), reducing cognitive load.
✔ Consistency in layout ensured familiar workflows were retained while enhancing clarity.
🚀 The Impact
A clearer, more efficient inventory management experience—minimising errors and speeding up bulk updates with improved availability visibility.
🤝🏻 Final Solution
🚀 PROJECT IMPACT
Business Impact – Since launch, HostConnect has empowered over 100 homeowners, simplified property management workflows, surpassed 1,000 active users, and increased monthly revenue 4x—all within three months of launch.
Users Impact – As we consolidated multiple tools into one intuitive platform. Homeowners found it easier to manage their properties.The ease of use led to increased adoption, organic referrals, and strong platform advocacy among the host community.
🫧 Key Takeways
This project taught me how to:
✔ Balance user needs with business goals.
✔ Design for scalability while maintaining simplicity.
✔ Adapt quickly in a high-pressure, fast-changing startup environment.
Most importantly, it reinforced my passion for turning complex problems into intuitive, user-friendly solutions.
