Partners are operators, not consumers
Blueground's partner network was growing, and partners were running dozens of listings through tooling that wasn't built for them. Key information about a listing or a booking was scattered, hard to find, or missing entirely.
Treating partners as operators and suppliers changed the brief. They don't need delight first; they need density, speed, confidence in the numbers, and a clear signal when something needs their attention.
Build on shadcn, make it ours
Instead of extending a legacy UI, the portal started on shadcn/ui: accessible, composable primitives that engineering could own in code, branded with Blueground's own typography, colour and component styling so it felt unmistakably ours.
That let a small team move fast without forking a design system, and gave us a foundation we could extend screen by screen.
Navigation that scales with the business
I started with the IA: mapping every job a partner does, then designing a sidebar, breadcrumbs and scroll behaviour so the navigation that works for five listings still works for five hundred. Scroll through the exploration:
One screen that answers "how is my business doing?"
The dashboard is where partners land, and it became the portal's most-used surface. Five insights with 30-day trends, the next bookings with a countdown to each move-in, and upcoming payouts sit on one screen, with integration health and help alongside.
Stay in the list, go deep in the panel
Partners work across many listings at once. So instead of sending them to a new page for every record, a side panel opens next to the table. They can scan, open and step through listings without losing their place, and expand to a full page when they need room.
Every detail of a listing, one panel away
The side panel carries the whole listing without leaving the table. Each tab answers one question a partner has about a home, and every state is designed, from the first load to an issue that needs fixing. Pick a tab:
Photos, description, amenities, regulation info and links to Blueground and the PMS: the essentials, scannable in seconds.
Minimum and maximum rates, length-of-stay discounts and every extra charge, from cleaning to local taxes, in one place.
A month view with nightly rates, bookings and discounts together, so partners see the whole picture before they change a thing.
Active, upcoming and past bookings for this listing, each one tap away from its full details.
The rules guests see, edited right where partners manage everything else about the home.
Where the listing is distributed, with each channel visible and editable from the same panel.
When something blocks a listing, a “1 issue” badge says so, and the to-do menu goes straight to the fix, like adding missing regulation info.
Even loading is designed: a skeleton keeps the structure in place, so the panel never jumps while data arrives.
A booking page that explains every euro
The most common partner questions were about money: what was charged, what Blueground keeps, and when they get paid. The booking page answers all three in one read.
Selling the redesign internally
A redesign of a revenue-critical tool needs more than a Figma link. So I produced a short motion walkthrough that told the story to stakeholders across the business in six chapters, from navigation to settings, closing with what comes next.
From a tool nobody used to the one partners open every month
Before the redesign, fewer than 1 in 10 partners used the portal's MVP. After it, partners came back, and when the portal tells them something needs attention, they fix it themselves.
Monthly active partners peaked at 66% on the original analytics setup. A stricter tracking method introduced in Jul 2026 reads ~45%, still 4.5× the MVP.
A foundation, not a finish line
The portal now carries the roadmap: partner-facing engagement metrics on the dashboard, bulk actions and status insights for large portfolios, and migrating all partners from Nestpick into one platform.