Maybourne stories that last a lifetime page on desktop
Overview
Research
Decisions
Design
The Website
Validation
Outcome

Maybourne

Maybourne
Website · Hospitality/2025 — 2026, 1 year/Live, handed to in-house team

Overview

Six luxury hotel brands, a parent corporate platform and one shared booking experience, all losing bookings to third-party channels the group didn't control.

Scope: A single booking flow and shared design system underpin six properties and the corporate platform, so guests move from brand site to confirmation without leaving the group.

The tension sat in plain sight from week one. Brand wanted distinction across six voices; revenue wanted conversion through one predictable booking flow. Guests trusted the brand but not the booking.

Everything that followed came from resolving that conflict rather than choosing a side.

My role

Sole designer across IA, UX/UI and the design system for six properties and the corporate platform. Set the editorial direction and owned the end-to-end visual language across every touchpoint.

Shipped

  • 01Rebuilt six hotel sites and the corporate platform on 20+ shared templates
  • 02One booking flow shared across six properties and the corporate platform
  • 03Reset structure around three pillars and the journeys carrying revenue
  • 04Let 500+ surveyed guests shape editorial so booking had less to do
  • 05Held six brand voices on 60+ shared components, no per-property fork
  • 06Handed over a platform the in-house team ships against without an agency

Research & understanding

Research earned its place by what it settled.

Maybourne stories that last a lifetime page on desktop
Maybourne welcome, destinations and our hotels screens on mobile
Maybourne book with Maybourne page on desktop
Maybourne dine with distinction and Surrenne screens on mobile

What we investigated

15+ stakeholder and guest interviews, analytics across existing sites, and a measurement framework agreed before design started.

How guests arrive

A 500+ response survey set three guest profiles and 20+ archetypes, each opening the site differently.

Structure, tested

Card sorting and tree testing set labels and hierarchy before layout, so IA was tested rather than argued.

What we learned & what it meant

Maybourne Stay with us illustrated artwork
Guests trusted the brand but not the booking: opaque rates, thin destination content and drop-off late in payment showed confidence was the problem, not the form. Content had to build confidence earlier, and structure had to follow guest intent, not the shape of the business.

Key decisions

Let the editorial do the persuading, so booking only has to confirm.

Inspiration to conversion

Editorial and destination content does the persuading rather than the booking form, with rates, availability and cancellation logic all surfaced honestly well before a guest reaches the payment step.

Structure around intent

The information architecture was rebuilt around three pillars, hotel, destination and editorial, with every template leading on a single commercially weighted action instead of competing for attention.

One system, many voices

Shared primitives hold behaviour constant across the group while a brand layer carries voice, art direction and photography, so six distinct properties can express themselves without the system ever forking.

The design phase

Concept exploration

Concept exploration

Three directions pushed layout, type and editorial tone across corporate and hotel templates. The one that survived absorbed six voices through tone, photography and pacing, with no per-property template tree underneath.
Design system

Design system

One component library, two layers. Shared primitives, type, spacing, motion and booking patterns hold behaviour constant, while the brand layer above lets each property feel distinct without a separate build.

The website

Six hotels, one unmistakable Maybourne.

Maybourne relax and unwind and Surrenne opening page on desktop
Maybourne dream locations, residences and booking screens on mobile
Maybourne hotels listing page on desktop
Maybourne events and the green book page on desktop

The hotel sites

Six distinct hotel UIs alongside the corporate identity, each property with its own personality, all unmistakably part of one Maybourne.
Maybourne hotel site style: deep green with heritage pattern
Maybourne hotel site style: blush pink with arc pattern
Maybourne hotel site style: mint with diagonal stripe pattern
Maybourne hotel site style: yellow with vertical stripe pattern
Maybourne hotel site style: black with line illustration

Testing & validation

What we tested

Tree testing on the new structure, then 15+ sessions on booking and key editorial templates.

What we learned

Guests navigated confidently once labels matched their language, but hesitated when rates appeared late.

What changed

Labels and hierarchy revised, rate visibility moved earlier, and direct-booking and OTA measurement handed to the in-house team.

Outcome

A platform Maybourne can grow into, six brands today, the next property without a parallel design build.

Delivered the corporate platform, six hotel sites, the shared booking experience and the design system underneath, handed over to the in-house team to ship against.

Key decision: held six brand voices on one product system instead of forking it per property. Tighter constraints on each hotel, but a new property can launch without a parallel design build.

Other case studies

Quantifire

View

Product · B2B Intelligence · 2026—ongoing

A dashboard that turns scattered signals into decisions.

Tribe

View

Product · Community · 2025—ongoing

Memberships, events and ticketing as one connected product.

OVO Energy

View

Mobile App · Everyday · 2024

An energy app built around the questions people actually ask.