SelfServe
Unify fragmented hotel operations into one intelligent, automated platform.
My Role
Design Lead
The Team
Generate
(PM
Engineers,
Product Designers)
Duration
Jan 2026 - April 2026
Skills
AI Integration
Systems Design
Figma
Overview
SelfServe is a property management system built for boutique hotels. Generate partnered with SelfServe to design a platform that brings reservations, housekeeping, guest services, and billing into one place—with AI automation to handle the repetitive work.
Designed web and mobile experiences focused on helping hotel staff manage tasks seamlessly
Led design on the largest team I’ve worked with (15 people total, 5 designers) and delivered both a web app and mobile app in 4 months.
Partnered closely with engineers and PM to balance technical feasibility with user needs, ensuring designs could actually ship within our timeline.
The Problem
The boutique hotel management landscape is fragmented
Boutique hotels juggle 5+ disconnected platforms. One for reservations, another for housekeeping, another for billing etc. etc. Staff waste hours switching between tools, manually entering the same data repeatedly, and hunting for information across systems.
Reservations
BookingTool Pro
Billing
PaymentFlow
Housekeeping
CleanTrack
Guest Services
GuestHub
Maintenance
FixIt Manager
Food & Bev
RestaurantOS
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed top property management systems (Opera, Maestro, RoomKey) and identified key gaps:
No AI support for repetitive tasks
Poor mobile experience for on-the-go staff
Siloed systems that don't talk to each other
Manual data entry required across platforms
✨ AI can turn manual busywork into automated workflows
Before: Manual entry
Guest calls front desk
“Room 304 needs towels”
Staff writes it down
On paper or in notes
Task gets lost
Cluttered amongst everything else
Gets forgotten or forever to be assigned
After: AI automation
Guest calls front desk
“Room 304 needs towels”
Staff types it in SelfServe
On web or mobile
AI creates task
Auto-fills & assigns a person
Task logged & tracked
Hotel staff spend 40% of their time on repetitive admin tasks—updating reservation statuses, logging housekeeping notes, reconciling bills.
These tasks follow predictable patterns, making them perfect candidates for AI automation.
OUR VISION
A unified platform that instead of another tool hotels have to manage, SelfServe becomes the single source of truth—automatically updating reservations, triggering housekeeping tasks, and syncing billing in real time.
The Solution
Feature 1: AI-Powered Task Creation
Staff type plain-language requests like "Room 304 needs towels restocked" and SelfServe automatically creates the task
Feature 2: Room Management at a Glance
View all rooms, their status, and active tasks in one organized list. Filter by availability, occupancy, or urgent tasks. Staff can quickly see which rooms need attention, who's assigned, and what's pending—no hunting through multiple screens.
Feature 3: Mobile-First for On-the-Go Staff
Housekeeping and maintenance staff can manage tasks, update room statuses, and communicate with front desk—all from their phones while moving through the property.
What I Learned
Working closely with engineers was critical, but we still discovered constraints too late—features we'd designed weren't feasible within our timeline. Starting technical conversations during research, not just at handoff, would have saved us from rebuilding work we'd already invested in.
None of us had hotel management experience. We spent significant time aligning on terminology and workflows—what does "turnover" mean? How does housekeeping communicate with front desk? For complex domains, building shared understanding across the team is as important as understanding the user.
As design lead for 5 designers building web and mobile in 4 months, not everything could ship in v1. Balancing feature scope, team capacity, and client expectations required constant trade-offs. Learning to make those calls—and communicate them clearly—was as much a part of the role as the design work itself.