Backpackers don’t just book beds they look for connection, shared experiences, and spontaneous social moments. While 8 out of 10 backpackers actively join hostel events, only ~30% of hostels actually organize them. This creates a fragmented, frustrating experience for travelers and operational challenges for hostels.
Hostelhive is a product that solves this gap by surfacing all hostel events across a city in one place, allowing travelers to discover, join, and even host events regardless of where they are staying.
Due to time constraints, we focused on creating detailed wireframes and complete user flows. The UI design phase will follow 😊
While 8 out of 10 backpackers actively join hostel events,
only around 30% of
hostels actually organize social experiences consistently.
This creates:
As a result, travelers struggle to find activities nearby, even in highly social backpacking destinations.
Before jumping into solutions, we noticed that not all backpackers seek the same kind of social experience. Designing one generic “social feature” would either overwhelm some users or under-serve others.
To avoid designing for assumptions or personal bias, we clustered repeated behavior patterns from interviews into clear behavioral archetypes. These are not fictional profiles, they are decision-making tools.
We mapped out Lonely Planet’s ecosystem of products and services as an easy way to understand and visualise Lonely Planet’s offerings and to see if any areas of opportunity presented themselves.
To define the scope of the MVP, we evaluated potential features based on user value, business relevance and implementation effort. This helped us identify which features were essential for the initial experience and which could be deferred.
Features that delivered high value with lower complexity were prioritised for the MVP, while others were intentionally left for future iterations. This ensured the product remained focused, lightweight, and realistic to build.
To support quick decision-making in a travel context, the information architecture was kept intentionally simple. The structure prioritises event discovery and participation, while keeping secondary actions accessible without overwhelming the user.
Key sections were organised around core traveler goals like discovering events, managing participation, and hosting events ensuring the experience remained clear even for first-time users.
The final solution created a centralized platform for discovering hostel events across a city, making social experiences more accessible for backpackers regardless of where they stayed.
