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Case Study · Hospitality OS

SPOG — a single pane of glass
for luxury hotel operations.

Front desk associates, housekeeping leads, and guest service professionals at full-service 5★ properties juggled 6+ disconnected systems every shift. We unified them into one calm, decision-first workspace.

Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
14 weeks · 2024
Domain
Hospitality · 5★ Hotels
Users
Front desk · Housekeeping · Guest services
01 — About the Project

One screen for the whole shift — from check-in to turn-down.

SPOG (Single Pane of Glass) is the daily operating system for front desk, housekeeping, and guest services teams in full-service luxury hotels. It replaces the PMS, housekeeping board, request log, and shift radio with one calm dashboard tuned to the rhythm of a 24-hour property.

Every surface is judged against six dimensions — the things a 5★ team needs from technology that lives behind the marble counter.

9
Properties studied
47
Shifts shadowed
23
Workflows mapped
CLARITYSPEEDTRUSTCALMDELIGHTCOVERAGE
02 — Discovery

Mapping every pain on the floor — then matching it to a tangible move.

Pain Points

  • Front desk juggled 6+ systems (PMS, CRM, radio, paper logs) per check-in
  • Housekeeping room status lagged the PMS by 20–40 minutes on peak days
  • VIP arrivals and special requests lived in chat threads, not the system
  • Maintenance tickets were emailed — and routinely lost across shift handovers
  • No single view of 'what's happening at the property right now'

Solutions

  • One Good-Morning home that greets the associate with today's full picture
  • Live arrivals & departures with remaining counts and prep status
  • Inline VIP, preference, and accessibility flags on every guest card
  • Request inbox shared across front desk, housekeeping, and engineering
  • Property-wide notice strip for maintenance, weather, and shift briefings

47 shifts shadowed across 9 luxury properties

We rode along with front desk, housekeeping supervisors, and guest service agents through morning rush, afternoon turn, and overnight audit. The same phrase came up on every shift: 'I need one screen.'

47
Shifts
9
Properties
312
Hours
Principle Pillars

Three commitments that shaped every screen.

01

Calm over completeness

A 5★ lobby is quiet. The software should be too. We surface the three things the associate must act on right now — and demote everything else into progressive disclosure.

02

The guest is always on screen

Name, preferences, VIP status, accessibility needs, and stay history travel with every action. The associate never has to swivel-chair to remember who they're serving.

03

Built for the next shift

Handover notes, open requests, and pending tasks roll forward automatically. The 7am team inherits the night's context without reading a single email.

03 — Process

14 weeks, four workstreams, one continuous loop.

W1
W2
W3
W4
W5
W6
W7
W8
W9
W10
W11
W12
W13
W14
Research
Design
Prototyping
Engineering
PHASE 1

Foundations

  • →Stakeholder alignment workshop
  • →Research plan & recruiting
  • →UX audit & competitor teardown
PHASE 2

Definition

  • →Synthesized 32 interviews
  • →JTBD & opportunity tree
  • →Decision-first IA proposal
PHASE 3

Delivery

  • →Design system tokens v2
  • →Hi-fi prototypes in Figma
  • →Phased rollout tracked in Jira
My Role

Lead designer, end-to-end — from first shift shadow to GA rollout.

I owned the field research, information architecture, interaction design, and design-system build. I partnered with the engineering lead on tradeoffs, ran weekly playbacks with the GM sponsors, and co-authored the property-by-property rollout plan with the PM and the director of operations.

Design Strategy

Four pillars guiding every decision.

Guest First

Every screen is judged by whether it serves the guest at the counter.

One Source of Truth

PMS, housekeeping, and requests reconciled into one live state.

Calm by Default

Notifications are earned. Color, motion, and sound are rationed.

Built for the Shift

Handovers, breaks, and overnight audit are first-class flows.

User Research

Numbers that moved — and the associates behind them.

Check-in task success
94%
Success
Success
Partial
Fail
Time-to-room-ready signal
71%
< 5 min
< 5 min
< 15 min
> 15 min
Trust in shift handover
88%
High
High
Mid
Low
Associates interviewed across 9 properties
BW
MR
DK
KS
LJ
TR
NV
AB
EM
JC
SO
RL
+20 more
”
I finally know who's walking through the door before they do. Mornings feel calm again.
— Bridget · Front Desk Lead, Park Hyatt NYC
”
My team checks one screen at the start of every shift. The room board and the PMS finally agree.
— Marco · Executive Housekeeper, Four Seasons CDMX
05 — Meet Our Personas

Two roles, one shift — one product that serves them both.

Bridget Willis

Front Desk Lead
Age
29
Property
Park Hyatt · NYC
Context
6 yrs in luxury hospitality
Bio

Opens the morning shift. Personally welcomes every VIP arrival before 10am. Judged on guest sentiment, not ticket counts.

Needs
  • ✓See arrivals, VIPs, and special requests at a glance
  • ✓One-click messaging to housekeeping and concierge
  • ✓Remember every returning guest's preferences
Frustrations
  • !Swivel-chairing between PMS, CRM, and email
  • !Room-ready status lags real life
  • !VIP notes hidden three clicks deep

Marco Reyes

Executive Housekeeper
Age
42
Property
Four Seasons · CDMX
Context
12 yrs, Spanish/English
Bio

Runs a team of 38 across three towers. Lives on a tablet. Cares about one metric: rooms ready before the guest hits the lobby.

Needs
  • ✓Live room board with stayover / departure / VIP flags
  • ✓Tap-to-assign with skill and floor balancing
  • ✓A clean overnight handover to the AM supervisor
Frustrations
  • !Status mismatches between board and PMS
  • !Maintenance tickets get lost between shifts
  • !No way to flag rooms needing deep clean

Empathy map

What the associate behind the counter says, thinks, does, and feels.

Says
“Just show me who's arriving now.”
“I shouldn't need three tabs to check a guest in.”
Thinks
“The VIP's car is 8 minutes out.”
“Did housekeeping get my note about 1207?”
Does
Memorizes regulars by face
Texts the supervisor instead of using the system
Feels
Composed in front of guests
Anxious about what's missed between shifts
U
Pains
  • • Cognitive load of 6+ open systems during morning rush
  • • Missed VIP arrivals because alerts blend into the noise
  • • Lost handover context after every shift change
Gains
  • • A single calm screen for the entire shift
  • • Confidence that every guest preference is one tap away
  • • A clean, written handover that travels with the property
Top Screens · Live in production

The surfaces that run a 5★ shift.

Dashboard
Good-Morning Home
→
74
Arrivals
35
Remaining
90
Departures
Front Desk
Arrivals & Departures
→
Ms. Chen · 1402
Mr. Okafor · 818
Patel · Connect
Ms. Albright
Mr. Tanaka
Housekeeping
Live Room Board
→
VIP arrival ETA 8 min · Suite 2401
now
Engineering: AC issue Rm 1207
now
Housekeeping cleared 14 rooms
now
Concierge: dinner booking confirmed
now
Guest Services
Guest Request Inbox
→
Front Desk
Open
Housekeeping
Open
Concierge
Open
Engineering
Open
User Journey Map

Property health over 24 weeks.

Adoption × guest satisfaction × shift confidence, indexed against the legacy stack.

Score
Release
Impact

What changed when one screen replaced six.

90
Guest Satisfaction Score
Property-level GSS climbed from 76 to 90 across pilot hotels within two quarters.
0
Lost handover incidents
Down from 14 logged handover misses per month before rollout.
80/20
Single-screen ratio
Associates now complete 80% of shift tasks without leaving the SPOG home.
100%
System consolidation
PMS, housekeeping board, request inbox, and shift notes all live in one surface.
60%
Faster check-in
Median guest check-in dropped from 4m 12s to 1m 38s at the front desk.
35%
Lift in repeat-guest recognition
Returning guests greeted by name and preference, up from 48% to 83%.