Sell the feeling before the box
The landing page had to make the value legible before someone handled the product: a better stay for the guest, a more thoughtful service for the host, and a clear reason to order.
Founder · BRAND · LAUNCH · 2017 – 2020
Hosty Club
Hospitality platform & guest experience kit
- Timeline
- 2017 – 2020
- Role
- Founder - Concept / Brand + Product
- destination expressions
- 3
- early preorders
- ~$1K
Process & contextStrategy, decisions, outcomes, chronology, and sources
Process & contextStrategy, decisions, outcomes, chronology, and sources
Context
Hosty Club began at 30 Weeks as a question about the overlooked moment between booking a stay and actually arriving. A host could provide a beautiful place, but the welcome was usually improvised. I explored how a small, well-designed kit could make hospitality feel more personal while giving hosts a repeatable product they could order, customize, and send to guests.
Product decision
Treat the welcome kit as a service, not a souvenir. The website became the front door, destination-specific packaging made the experience feel local, and the box itself behaved like a quiet interface: open it, understand what is inside, find your way around, and feel expected.
A connected hospitality system
The work grew into a connected system spanning the ecommerce experience, the Welcome Set, destination packaging, toiletries, maps, Wi-Fi cards, inserts, and Traveler Tales. The product could move from direct preorders into a more repeatable B2B offer without losing the warmth of a personal arrival.
- 3
- destination expressions
- ~$1K
- early preorders
- 1
- welcome ritual
New York, Barcelona, and Airbnb-host contexts gave the system distinct local entry points.
The first ecommerce version validated demand before the business moved toward B2B.
Website, box, contents, and printed matter were designed as one arrival experience.
ScopeIdentity, Web, Packaging
Sources & prototypes
Key decisions
Make place do the personalization
Maps, copy, palette, and packaging details let the same product logic flex between New York, Barcelona, and broader Airbnb-host applications.
Design the reveal as an interface
Pull tabs, labels, inserts, toiletries, and guest instructions choreograph what happens after delivery. The packaging explains itself through use.
Build two doors into the business
The direct-to-consumer storefront made the idea easy to understand, while the business-facing offer made the system useful to hosts and property managers at scale.
Live Demo
This is the actual product running live.
Website
Open01
A product, not a souvenir
Hosty Club combined a commerce front door with a physical welcome system. The first image shows the intended relationship: the website explains the promise while the kit makes it tangible.
02
A welcome system built around place
The original Hosty packaging translated each destination into the kit itself, connecting the ecommerce promise to a physical arrival experience for guests.
03
One system, different places
The product stayed recognisable while the surface changed with the destination. New York and Airbnb-host contexts use different compositions, but both turn local knowledge into a generous first impression.
04
The unboxing is the product
The kit was designed as a sequence of small acts: open the box, discover the essentials, find the map, understand the Wi-Fi, and feel the host's presence before the stay begins.
05
Give the system a voice
The identity had to feel warm, useful, and a little unexpected. Tone of voice and visual references established a world where hosting could be generous without becoming precious.
06
A front door for the service
The website made the value proposition immediate, then gave the physical kit somewhere to live: a clear explanation of the offer, the emotional promise, and the path to order.
What carried forward
A small box taught me how to design a service
Hosty Club connected brand, commerce, packaging, and content before those pieces were usually treated as one product. The strongest work was not any single label or screen; it was the handoff between them.
Brand as behavior
The identity lived in the sequence of opening, reading, finding, and using - not only in the H mark.
Packaging as interface
A good physical object can orient, reassure, and create momentum with the same clarity as a digital flow.
Make the demo sellable
The website did more than present the idea. It made the service understandable enough to buy.
The linked write-up preserves the original “sell me this box” framing behind the project: make the object earn its place in the experience.