YANA DASHBOARD
DESIGNED 2023
Designing a Unified Workspace for Travel Hosts
ROLE
Product Designer
TIMELINE
4–6 Weeks
TEAM
1 Designer
2 Frontend Developer
1 Backend Developer
TOOLS
Figma
Figjam
Notion
SKILLS
Product Design
User Research
User Interface
User Testing
PRODUCT WALKTHROUGH
OVERVIEW
A streamlined dashboard that gives travel hosts clarity, control, and confidence while managing trips, bookings, expenses, and communication.
Improving the hosting experience by simplifying information and reducing friction across core travel operations.
BACKGROUND
YANA is a platform built to help trip organizers manage group trips with ease.
Instead of juggling Instagram, WhatsApp, and Excel, hosts get a central dashboard to manage itineraries, bookings, payments, and leads — all in one place. Each host also gets a free website that automatically displays their trips, helping them attract more bookings effortlessly. YANA further supports hosts with Instagram and WhatsApp bots that automate lead capture and daily operations. Soon, YANA will launch a travel marketplace to bring all trips together, making it easier for travelers to discover and book experiences.
PROBLEM
Travel hosts had no centralized workspace. Their daily operations were scattered across WhatsApp, Instagram, Excel, and direct calls — making trip management confusing, repetitive, and impossible to scale.
No single place to view revenue, bookings, or pending actions
Itinerary sharing + payments happening manually
Frequent miscommunication with travelers
No structured system for expenses or leader payouts
High risk of overbooking, missed messages, and delayed refunds
RESEARCH
What we did?
15+ conversations with active travel hosts
Reviewed workflows (WhatsApp, Sheets, Calls)
Competitor scan: LogoutWorld, BMS, Thrillophilia
Created host operational flow map
Analysed revenue & booking patterns
General Host Operational Flow Map
DISCOVERY
Host posts trip posters on Instagram (Reels, Posts, Stories)
INQUIRY
Travelers DM or WhatsApp the host & host replies manually to every inquiry
ITINERARY SHARING
Host sends itinerary as long WhatsApp text or forwarded PDF
GROUP MANAGEMENT
Host creates a WhatsApp group for each batch
BOOKING TRACKING
Host fills traveler details in Excel or Notes & Some hosts track via WhatsApp pinned messages
BOOKING CONFIRMATION
Host sends UPI ID / QR code & traveler sends payment screenshot
PRE-TRIP COMMUNICATION
Host shares pickup points, timing, what to carry & sends reminders manually
TRIP EXECUTION
Host handles logistics & updates via WhatsApp group
POST TRIP
Refunds processed manually & reviews asked via WhatsApp text
What surprised us?
We expected hosts to be frustrated with their tools. They weren't.
Most had built their own system — WhatsApp, Excel, saved contacts, forwarded PDFs. It was messy, but it worked. They weren't looking for something new.
The real cost only showed up when we looked closer.
Interns kept leaving because there was no structure to hand off. Reviews were slipping because post-trip follow-ups kept getting buried under new inquiries. And answering one traveler's question meant scrolling through three different apps just to confirm a single detail
The shift: They didn't need a new system. They needed their existing one in one place.
What we found out?
Most hosts manage everything manually.
They need one reliable place to “see everything.”
WhatsApp remains the core operational tool
Commission fees from existing platforms are a major barrier
Hosts prefer calm UIs over complex panels.
Tracking expenses and payouts is often inconsistent.
Lead generation relies on Instagram and word of mouth.
INSIGHTS
Hosts are drowning in open tabs, not missing features
Every host we spoke to already had a system — it just lived across 4–5 different places simultaneously. The problem wasn't capability, it was cognitive load. High-volume hosts managing 100–600 bookings a weekend needed to scan, not dig. The dashboard had to surface what matters right now, and hide everything else until needed.
WhatsApp is the benchmark, not the competition
Hosts don't avoid new tools because they're tech-averse — they avoid them because switching costs are real. WhatsApp works because everything is in one place and nothing needs to be learned twice. That became the design standard: if a host has to stop and think about where something is, we've already lost them. Predictability over cleverness, every time.
Overbooking isn't a data problem — it's a visibility problem
Multiple hosts described the same nightmare: confirming a booking manually over WhatsApp, forgetting to update their Excel sheet, and accidentally selling the same spot twice. The fix wasn't a smarter spreadsheet — it was making slot availability impossible to miss. Status had to be visible at all times, not buried inside a trip detail page.
Every weekend is the same — the system should know that
Most hosts run the same trips, same routes, same batches every weekend. Yet every week they were rebuilding the same information from scratch — re-entering details, re-sending the same itinerary PDFs, re-answering the same DMs. The design had to work with that repetition, not ignore it. Repeated tasks should take one action, not five.
OPPORTUNITY AREAS
Based on patterns observed across 15+ host interviews, these four opportunity areas emerged as the highest-impact spaces for unifying and simplifying daily operations. Each one addresses a direct pain point repeatedly expressed by hosts.
Holistic Homescreen
A unified home screen that gives hosts instant clarity. Key performance metrics, quick actions, and important updates are surfaced at the top so hosts can understand the health of their trips in just a glance.
“I don’t have a centralized view of my trips.”
Trip Management
Trip creation and management are organized into simple, predictable sections. Hosts can easily track batches, monitor traveler counts, and review trip performance without digging through multiple screens.
“Managing multiple trips across weekends.”
Communication Medium
A calm, threaded messaging system that helps hosts respond quickly and stay organized. Conversations feel familiar, reducing confusion and preventing missed messages across multiple trips.
“I’m overwhelmed managing all my messages.”
Expenses Unified
All expenses, settlements, and revenue analytics are brought into one clean space. Categorized entries, summaries, and transparent breakdowns help hosts understand their financial position without manual calculations.
“I want my finances organised and transparent.”
FINAL DESIGNS
Sidebar Navigation
Hosts were switching between 4 apps constantly. The sidebar had one job — make sure that never happens here. Every workflow in a fixed, named slot. Nothing moves, nothing hides.
Dashboard Overview
On a busy weekend morning, hosts need to know in 5 seconds if anything needs attention. Pending bookings, unread messages, revenue, upcoming trips — one scroll, no digging.
Booking Management
Overbooking happened regularly — not because hosts were careless, but because confirmation and tracking lived in different places. This table puts both in one row, updated in real time.
Trips Management
Hosts were rebuilding the same trip details from scratch every weekend. This screen treats repetition as a feature — duplicate what worked, update what changed, done in minutes.
Messages Inbox
Inquiries came from Instagram, WhatsApp, and in-app simultaneously. Hosts were either paying interns to manage it or missing messages entirely. One inbox replaced all three.
Expenses Management
Costs were split across UPI histories, WhatsApp screenshots, and handwritten notes. Trek lead payouts were calculated manually — often wrong. Every expense now has a category, a timestamp, and a name.
Reviews Dashboard
Most hosts had a gut feeling about which trips performed. This replaced the gut feeling with data — revenue per trip, booking trends, which batches filled fastest.
Analytics Dashboard
Most hosts had a gut feeling about which trips performed. This replaced the gut feeling with data — revenue per trip, booking trends, which batches filled fastest.
Customer Relationship Management
The conversion problem wasn't reach — it was follow-up. Travelers would DM, wait hours for a reply, and book elsewhere. Every lead from every channel, one pipeline, no follow-up forgotten.
IMPACT
3,191+ bookings processed
Previously tracked in Excel sheets and WhatsApp messages. Now managed in one place, automatically.
28K+ leads captured
Travelers discovering trips through host subdomains like trekup-karnataka.yana.travel — no custom website needed.
58 hosts onboarded
10 actively subscribed as of June 2026. Every feature adopted was one less manual task.
Intern reassigned, not replaced
Hosts who employed people just to answer Instagram DMs reassigned that work entirely. The bot handles inquiries automatically, every day.