I designed and developed a digital product that guides guests throughout their stay and helps independent hosts manage their property information without repeating the same tasks for every booking.
In 2025, short-term rentals accounted for nearly 952 million guest nights across the EU, including 189 million in Spain.
Despite existing digital solutions, independent hosts still face challenges managing guest information scattered across booking platforms, emails, and messaging apps.
Having experienced these challenges firsthand as a vacation rental host, I saw an opportunity to explore a more contextual approach: making the right information available at the right moment, while reducing repetitive work without losing the personal touch.
That's how Aloira was born.
Before designing a solution, I needed to understand whether other guests and hosts experienced the same problem.
I conducted two interviews with vacation rental hosts and surveyed 20 guests who had traveled recently.
The findings revealed a clear pattern:
19 / 20
guests had to search again for information they had already received.
11 / 20
guests remembered receiving the information but couldn't remember where to find it.
17 / 20
guests contacted their host during their stay, particularly about arrival, access, or check-out.
“The information was there, but I couldn't find it the first time.”
Survey participantThe sample was small and exploratory, but it helped me reframe the problem.
The information wasn't missing. The context was.
Receiving instructions doesn't mean guests will be able to find or understand them when they actually need them.
The interviews revealed another need: hosts wanted to avoid sending the same information repeatedly and know whether guests had followed important instructions.
But there was something they didn't want to lose.
“If everything becomes automated, I start losing that personal connection with people.”
Host interview participantThis insight shifted the product's direction. The goal wasn't to automate every interaction, but to remove friction without losing the human connection.
The product needed to address two different sets of needs.
It meant finding the right instructions and completing essential tasks throughout their stay without constantly relying on the host.
It meant setting up their property's information once, reusing it across bookings, and staying in control of what they shared.
With an MVP limited to three properties and no integrations with booking platforms, I had to prioritize the essential user journeys. Guests would access the portal from their phones using a link and an access code, without creating an account.
The principle guiding my design decisions was simple: make routine tasks easier, so there's more room for personal connections.
Aloira connects two experiences designed around the needs of independent hosts and their guests.
For guests: A simple portal that guides guests through each stage of their stay, making relevant information and assistance easy to access when they need it.
For hosts: A dashboard to organize property information, manage stays, and share content with guests without repeating the same tasks for every booking.
One connected experience: hosts prepare the information once, and Aloira delivers it to guests at the right moment of their journey.
Turning this concept into a functional MVP meant making deliberate choices about how information is delivered, how hosts manage it, and where automation should stop.
Instead of presenting everything in a static guidebook, I structured the guest experience around six stages, from booking to departure.
The portal adapts its content to the current stage. Important instructions become available when they're relevant, while upcoming information clearly indicates when guests will be able to access it.
This way, guests don't have to remember where to find a message sent days earlier.
Stage 3: Arrive
Stage 4: During the stay
Stage 5: Last day
Prioritizing information based on the stage of a stay introduced a new challenge: guests still needed the freedom to find information whenever they wanted.
I designed Guide as a complementary space to My Stay, keeping previously available content easy to access throughout the stay. Upcoming sections remain visible but locked, with a clear indication of when they'll become available.
This way, guests can explore information independently without losing the benefits of contextual guidance.
Guide: Content grouped by moment of the stay.
Arrival and access: Locked content shows when it unlocks.
How to get there: Content written by the host.
I designed two complementary spaces to help hosts manage information without losing the ability to personalize the guest experience.
Property: Define the place and its identity
Hosts set up their property's essential details, rules, amenities, and check-in information once. They can also define a tone of voice that guides AI-generated text and guest assistance, keeping communication consistent with their hosting style.
Stay experience: Shape the guest experience
Hosts decide what guests see at each stage of their stay, from booking to departure. Guided content blocks make it easier to organize information around the moments when it's most useful.
Both are reusable across stays. Hosts can save changes as drafts and publish when ready, maintaining control over what guests see without having to start from scratch for every booking.
I introduced AI at two specific points: helping hosts improve their written content and helping guests find answers to their questions.
But I established clear boundaries.
AI cannot publish content, make up instructions, or provide information that guests aren't yet allowed to access.
When it can't find an answer, it acknowledges the limitation and offers a way to contact the host directly.
AI was meant to support hospitality, not replace it.
For hosts, this takes the form of an Improve text action available in the Property and Stay experience sections of the host portal. It refines what they've written, and nothing changes until they review it and publish.
I designed the Stays section as the bridge between the host dashboard and the guest experience.
Instead of setting up a new portal for every booking, hosts create a stay by adding guest details and reservation dates. Aloira automatically connects it to the property's existing information and Stay experience.
Each stay gets its own guest portal, with content adapting to the booking timeline. Hosts can share access through a link and code, while guests can explore their stay without creating an account.
The goal was to make every stay feel personal without making hosts start from scratch.
Message generated from the host dashboard, ready to send to the guest.
In just over four weeks, I turned an initial hypothesis into a functional MVP, connecting the host management experience with a contextual, mobile-first guest portal.
Designed specifically for independent hosts, Aloira aims to deliver value in three areas:
To assess its potential, I built an initial impact model based on booking volume, repetitive enquiries, and time spent responding. The model helps estimate where time savings could come from, rather than claiming results that haven't yet been measured.
The next step is to test these assumptions during real stays, tracking guest enquiries, information accessibility, and the effort required to manage each booking.
Time saved
Host time spent on routine communication
Fewer enquiries
Guest questions answered without host intervention
Smoother stays
Guest confidence and access to instructions
Finding opportunities where market trends and user needs intersect. While exploring existing solutions, I noticed a tendency towards feature-heavy platforms and static digital guidebooks. But independent hosts needed simplicity without losing control or personal contact, while guests needed information that was relevant to each moment of their stay. Connecting these perspectives helped me identify an opportunity for a more focused, contextual experience.
AI expanded my role beyond the interface. Writing a detailed build spec and developing the MVP pushed me to explore product logic, edge cases, and technical constraints more deeply. It also meant defining clear boundaries for AI: protecting personal data, limiting responses to information provided by hosts and available to guests, and redirecting questions to the host when answers weren't available.
Technical constraints shape the user experience. Leaving booking platform integrations out of the MVP simplified development but increased manual work for hosts. It reinforced the importance of balancing technical feasibility with ease of adoption.
What I'd do differently: Test the host setup experience earlier to understand whether the effort required could become a barrier to adoption.
I enjoy working on projects where understanding the problem matters just as much as designing the solution.
If you're building or improving a digital product, let's start with a conversation.
