Dorry
Dorry flips the traditional accommodation booking model - guests post their travel preferences and dates, and hosts compete to welcome them with personalised offers.
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A two-sided marketplace, reimagined
We designed and built the full Dorry platform - the guest-facing request flow, the host dashboard for reviewing and responding to requests, the offer comparison UI, and the booking and payment infrastructure. The reverse auction mechanic required a carefully designed notification system and time-bounded offer windows.
"Put the traveller in the driver's seat."
Most booking platforms are optimised for inventory display, not guest intent. Dorry starts from the opposite premise: tell us where you want to go, what matters to you, and let the right accommodation find you. This inversion required rethinking every interaction pattern.
Designing the reverse auction UX
The core mechanic - guests receiving competing offers - was novel enough that there were no established patterns to reference. We prototyped and tested six different offer comparison layouts before landing on one that felt clear without overwhelming.
Balancing urgency without anxiety
Time-bounded offers create urgency but can also create stress. We spent significant time calibrating notification timing, offer window lengths, and the visual language of countdowns to feel motivating rather than pressuring.
Trust on both sides
A marketplace where hosts proactively reach out to guests required strong trust signals - verified host profiles, transparent pricing, and clear cancellation terms - built into the offer flow itself.