Hotel Trader

Project Overview

Client: Hotel Trader, a hotel & hospitality automation startup positioning itself to be world leaders in the distribution space.
Industry: SaaS, Fintech
Timeline: 3 years 2 months (Nov 2021 - Feb 2025)
My Role: Lead / Founding Product Designer

Being the first design hire at Hotel Trader, I was in charge of branding, graphic design, creation of their first design system, UI/UX research and designs, feedback collection and design revisions.

So here's what I did :

1. Introduce order to chaos via User Research & Discovery Exercises

Research Method: Qualitative (interviews with potential end users and stakeholders) and quantitative (survey audits and analytics)
Duration: 2 weeks
Discovery method : I employed an atomic approach by breaking down data into Experiments, Facts, Insights, and Opportunities to create actionable outcomes. I also introduced Fathom AI note-taker as a staple summarization tool in all our meetings.

Outcome: Introduced research backed processes to standardise and improve the quality of group meetings and collaborative efforts. This led to freeing up of over 24 hours in a week in meeting slots for all participants.

2. Identified and finalised core Feature-Sets and User Flows

Method: Conducting design sprints, workshops and outcome-based brainstorming sessions with dev leads and leadership team.
Duration: 1 week
End goal: To filter down 100 'good' ideas into 10 'great' ideas and formulate a build plan keeping our core value proposition in mind.

Outcome: Creation of our first feature set for Phase 1, with plans for feature releases over Phase 2. This led to the creation of our effective 'feature Bible' which served as a reference point for future discussions.

3. Championed the creation of a design system and outlined usage rules

Method: Moodboard creation, designing graphic assets, typeface selection, front-end framework selection, component identification and high-fidelity UI design.
Duration: 1 week
End goal: To filter down 100 'good' ideas into 10 'great' ideas and formulate a build plan keeping our core value proposition in mind.

Outcome: Creation of our first proprietary design system and also branding guidelines for marketing collateral. This was the formation of the visual identity for Hotel Trader, based on its core principles and value proposition. This would be reflected across posters, banners, cards, letterheads and all of Hotel Traders' SaaS products for many years to come.

4. Wireframing for validation and High-fidelity Prototoype delivery

Method: High-fidelity wireframes to demonstrate and get approval on information architecture, user flows, corner cases and error/success states. Finally turning them into fully interactive Figma prototypes based on
Duration: 2-3 weeks
End goal: To deliver finalized Figma design files to the dev team , outlining front-end best practices and ensuring adherence to the previously constructed design system and brand guidelines.

Outcome: A high-fidelity wireframe which allowed internal users and stakeholders to test out each interaction and use-case. Finally, after a couple of rounds of feedback and iteration, a working click-through prototype of the Client Portal and Supplier Portal, with designs properly sectioned into modules according to sprint tasks.

5. Conducted UAT, Feedback sessions and Iteration

Method: Usability testing, Beta testing and Scenario based testing. Conducting surveys and Q&A sessions with closed Beta testers.
Duration: 2 weeks
End goal: To iron out any unwanted interaction logic, edge cases and front-end-related-performance issues before launch.

Outcome: Identified performance and design issues which helped us rework minor portions of both applications. Achieved a 30% reduction in page load times and decreased site memory usage to help animations and interactions feel more responsive.

And then what ?

Real-World Results: On-boarded over a 100 hotel partners ( suppliers ) and demand clients ( clients ) in the first month of launch, special mentions in multiple travel conferences like WTM London, WTM Singapore, ITB Asia, Skift Global, Cancun Travel Mart and more. We also onboarded Hilton chain of hotels , which was the single largest client acquisition till date in Hotel Trader.
Live: 3+ years

Outcome:

#1. Decreased Customer Acquisition Cost by 80%.
#2. Decreased monthly burn rate by 38%.
#3. Increased MRR over 100% and recorded our first $500k month ever, which still stands solid above this figure at the time.
#4. Automated client and supplier acquisition to reduce time-to-onboard by ~300%.

So what's the takeaway?

Process works. Panic doesn't.
When I came onboard I saw a group of extremely talented and passionate people without a framework that enabled them to do the most with their time. Establishing a system which fostered collaborative discussion and standardised day-to-day tasks went a really long way in achieving clarity which in turn led to goal oriented activities. We knew what had to be done, and came together to do it in a certain way, and it worked.

Hotel Trader has since raised over $120 million in funding reaching a $1.2 billion valuation.