Transforming the Mobile Financial Experience for Accommodation Partners.
An accommodation partner managing their business on the go.
Overview
HostHub is Global OTA's operational mobile app for hosts and accommodation partners. For Small Home Partners, financial management is their most critical job, with 80%+ describing it as essential and rating its importance 8/10 in internal research.
Problem
The mobile financial experience lagged behind the web portal. Critical features were missing or poorly adapted for mobile, creating operational friction and driving high support costs. Meanwhile, partners were comparing the experience with competitors, raising the bar for what they expected from HostHub.
Goals & success metrics
We focused on three goals: close desktop parity, leverage native mobile capabilities, and simplify financial management for smaller partners.
With formal KPIs not yet established, we defined directional measurement proxies:
My role
I led end-to-end design strategy for the HostHub Payments program, working closely with a Product Manager, Engineering Manager, iOS and Android Engineers, and a Copywriter. I drove research synthesis, roadmap prioritization, and design execution across three MVP projects.
Confidentiality note: To respect my non-disclosure agreement, I’ve omitted sensitive information, anonymized company and product names, and adjusted figures to protect confidential data.
Discovery
We began with a broad brief: "Fix the mobile financial experience." To translate this into an actionable strategy, we set out to answer three fundamental questions:
Discovery questions
- Q1: Who uses HostHub, and what financial tasks do they need to perform on mobile?
- Q2: What critical feature gaps are driving down satisfaction?
- Q3: Which high-impact quick wins can we ship immediately?
To answer these questions, we conducted the following activities:
Activity #1: UX audit
I mapped the complete HostHub app in Figma, from the home screen through all financial pages, to identify usability friction, navigation bottlenecks, and desktop feature gaps.
Complete HostHub app mapped in Figma
Activity #2: Desk research
I collected data from app store reviews, partner feedback tools, CS ticket logs, Google Analytics, social listening, and existing internal FinTech research, then synthesized the findings into key pain points and opportunities.
Discovery insights synthesized in a presentation
Strategy
Following a comprehensive discovery phase, we mapped partner pain points across their journey on HostHub. We then ran a workshop to brainstorm solutions and used an Effort vs. Impact matrix to select the best ideas for our MVP.
HostHub partner (we'll call him Paulo): User journey
Get onboarded, finish setup & go live
Paulo onboards to HostHub, discovers payment products, and completes his financial setup to go live.
User need
- Clear onboarding guidance because critical setup steps like entering bank details get lost in lengthy task lists, leading to delayed or blocked payouts.
Onboarding checklist MVP
- A high-visibility onboarding checklist on the homepage to highlight critical tasks (including bank details entry).
Manage bookings
Paulo starts receiving and managing bookings.
User need
- Clear payout visibility for individual bookings because partners currently lack insight into how, when, or if specific bookings will be paid out.
Payout status on bookings Deprioritized
- Showcase payout status directly on the booking details page, using it as a key touchpoint to alert partners if bank details are missing.
Receive payouts
Paulo starts receiving payouts for his bookings.
User need
- Real-time payout notifications because a lack of status updates forces partners to check the app repeatedly to monitor incoming funds.
Push notifications MVP
- Proactive notifications for key payout statuses, such as when a payout is sent, or when a payout fails due to missing bank details or outage.
Reconcile payouts
Paulo checks to make sure all incoming and outgoing amounts are correct.
User need
- A centralized mobile financial overview because data fragmented across multiple desktop pages makes tracking payouts slow and confusing on mobile devices.
Payout Info page redesign MVP
- Redesign the Payout Info page for mobile with unified reporting, enabling reservation-level financial tracking.
Get support
Paulo reaches out to support when a financial discrepancy arises.
User need
- Easy-to-find finance support and self-help tools because hidden contact options and hard-to-find help content force unnecessary customer service escalations.
Finance help Deprioritized
- Dedicated finance help content, AI troubleshooting, and in-app ticketing pathways.
Monitor growth
Paulo reflects on his overall financial health and plans ahead.
User need
- Financial analytics and forecasting tools because partners currently lack visibility to track long-term performance or plan cash flow.
Finance dashboard Deprioritized
- Dedicated financial reporting dashboards and cash flow forecasting features.
Execution
We executed three targeted MVP projects, validating designs through A/B and qualitative testing.
Project 1: Onboarding module
Designed a high-visibility onboarding module on the HostHub homepage featuring an essential checklist to help partners complete critical steps and avoid payout delays.
Outcome: Yielded a +5% increase in properties with complete bank details and reduced blocked payout for new partners.
Project 2: Financial push notifications
Created a system of proactive push notifications to keep partners informed about their payouts.
Outcome: Significantly reduced resolution time for blocked payouts and boosted daily active user engagement on financial pages.
Project 3: Reporting & reconciliation (Payout Info revamp)
Redesigned the Payout Info view, transforming dense desktop tables into scannable mobile cards with clear fee breakdowns, real-time status tracking, and booking-level reconciliation.
Outcome: Usability testing showed partners could understand fee breakdowns without assistance, with A/B testing also showing a small reduction in payout-related support tickets.
Reflection
Key learnings
- Native vs. webview: We went back and forth on speed vs. experience, but ultimately chose native for critical financial workflows because user trust and seamless performance were worth the higher maintenance effort.
- Fighting for data and research: With the central research team booked, we had to rely on indirect data, which made it really tough to build strong business cases for several of our best ideas.