Akkom, a startup aiming to transform the booking experience for hotels and guests, approached us at Hello Again to bring their vision to life. Backed by an independent hotel, Akkom empowers small and medium-sized hotels with a no-commission pricing structure, enabling them to retain more revenue and build stronger customer relationships. It offers guests a seamless booking experience while ensuring hotels maintain full ownership of their guest data.
Current booking platforms have high commissions, leaving hotels with reduced revenue and limited control over their customer relationships.
With the beta version of the app nearing launch, we've designed a seamless and intuitive booking experience. Early user testing and feedback, collected through the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) survey, showed a positive result with a score of 78%.
The project began with a 5-day Design Sprint to define and validate Akkom’s concept. I joined during the UI and branding phase, taking the project from concept to completion with designs for the app, web app, and marketing website. I designed Akkom’s interfaces to reflect a clean, modern visual identity and an experience that proves their straightforward, no-fluff approach. Key features include an intuitive discovery and booking process for guests, along with personalised dashboards for hotels to manage reservations and customer relationships.
As the beta version prepares for launch, the next phase will focus on iterative learning. This includes gathering insights through in-app surveys and in-depth interviews with hotels, followed by optimisations based on user feedback. Additionally, we will track key performance indicators such as booking completion rates, user retention, and hotel engagement.
This was my first time designing an app from scratch for a startup, and it taught me how startups operate differently from larger organisations. I learned to design in a lean, fast-paced environment with a limited budget, staying focused on the essentials and avoiding the rabbit holes of end-to-end design.
