Mobile app, SaaS app
UFF: Fixing the Gap Between Hotel Staff and Guest Expectations
UX design
UI design
Prototyping
40
faster task turnaround reported by pilot hotels
3
hotel chains onboarded in beta roll out

overview
Client: UFF Hospitality Tech
Role: Freelance Product Designer
Platform: Web App (Hotel Staff) + PWA (Guests)
Timeline: 3 months
Team: Product Lead, Me (UX Designer), 2 Frontend Devs, 1 Backend Engineer
Hotels are great at hospitality, but not so great at coordination. UFF set out to fix the awkward calls and slow responses by building a two-sided app—one for guests to order services without speaking to anyone, and one for staff to stay on top of requests without sticky notes and walkie-talkies.
highlights
This was a two sided application, one SaaS solution used by hotels and a PWA used by hotel guests
deliverables
Mobile app design
SaaS solution design
Landing page
goals
Business Goals

Design Goals

research & discovery via user interviews

Stakeholder interviews: Hotel managers, front desk, room service, housekeeping
Guest surveys: Frequent travelers from 3-star and 4-star hotel segments
Competitor audit: Compared apps like Zingle, StayFlexi, and in-house CRMs used by chain hotel
mapping and aligning dual user journeys
Hotel staff/ Guest (Traveller)

Key Insights
For Hotel Staff:
Manual handoffs between shifts often caused service drop-offs
Front desk teams used fragmented channels: phones, WhatsApp, paper logs
No system existed to track request ownership or task completion
For Guests:
Delays in getting room service or amenities were common
Guests didn’t know what services were available unless they asked
Many preferred self-service for speed and privacy
problem framing
How might we streamline task management for hotel staff and enable guests to order and explore services without needing phone calls or wait times?
This question shaped our product as both a productivity tool for the hotel and a self-service concierge for the guest.
solution design
Initial wireframes


User flow & IA

We designed two tightly integrated systems:
Staff App (Admin PWA)
Roles & Permissions
Role-based access (front desk, housekeeping, F&B)
Managers could monitor all tasks; other staff saw only their responsibilities
Task Assignment
Managers assigned tasks with deadlines and instructions
Staff updated progress in real-time: pending → accepted → in-progress → complete
Guest Request Management
All guest orders (food, cleaning, luggage pickup) synced to staff dashboard
Notifications and reminders built-in for time-sensitive actions

Guest App (PWA)
Self-Service Ordering
Guests could request housekeeping, order food, book spa or transport
Checkout and request flows designed to be completed in under 3 taps
Amenity Discovery
Guests explored available services, discounts, and hotel events
Designed to reflect each hotel’s branding and offerings
Live Updates
Guests received push-style updates as staff accepted and fulfilled tasks
This reduced uncertainty and minimized front desk calls

ux & design approach

Accessibility
WCAG AA-compliant color palette
44px+ touch targets
Icons paired with labels for colorblind-friendly usage
Readable at 6th-grade literacy level for hospitality inclusivity
collaboration & constraints
Engineering trade-offs:
We postponed chat and multi-language support to prioritize MVP deadline
Hotel operations complexity:
Had to account for shift overlaps, dynamic staff assignments, and no-show tasks
PM & dev syncs:
Weekly sprint reviews, mid-week async updates via Loom & Figma comments
outcomes
>40% faster task turnaround reported by pilot hotels
Guest satisfaction scores improved in post-checkout surveys
UFF began onboarding 3 hotel chains for beta rollout within 6 weeks of MVP
reflection & learnings
This project taught me how to design for two personas with vastly different goals and constraints, while keeping the experience unified.
Key Learnings:


Let’s build something worth bragging about !
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