Redesigning an onboarding flow to improve activation

A UX design case study on reducing friction in a multi-step onboarding form for independent hoteliers.

A content management system used by independent hoteliers to upload product, availability, and rates to an online travel agency had an onboarding problem. After completing a sign-up process with the acquisitions team, hoteliers were asked to fill out a long form before they could start using the platform. Acquisition was one of the main KPIs, and the onboarding was killing it.

Two things made it worse. First, the onboarding was completely detached from the main platform, meaning hoteliers needed separate credentials to access each one. Second, the form itself was a single long list of requirements with no structure, no milestones, and no sense of progress. It was slow, intimidating, and a source of frustration for both hoteliers and the account managers supporting them.

If the onboarding was shorter, better structured, and integrated into the main platform, more hoteliers would start and complete it.

I focused on two KPIs: maximising the number of hoteliers who start the form, and maximising the number who complete it.

For the first KPI, the solution was relatively straightforward: clear value proposition, social proof, and high-contrast CTAs to reduce hesitation at the entry point.

The second KPI was more interesting. A long form doesn't feel long because of the number of fields. It feels long because there's no sense of progress or confirmation. I broke the work into a multi-step flow using progressive disclosure, grouping related fields together and organising them into milestones.

Hoteliers could also complete steps in any order, which reduced the feeling of being stuck. Smart defaults, inline hints, and clear feedback at each step kept the flow moving.

I mapped out the full flow in a flowchart before wireframing, which helped surface a few edge cases in the original requirements that would have caused confusion later. The prototype was tested with hoteliers and account managers before handoff.

The redesigned onboarding unified the login credentials, eliminating the need for hoteliers to manage two separate accounts. The form was restructured into grouped milestones with visible progress indicators, giving users a clear sense of how far they'd come and what was left. Each milestone ended with a small confirmation moment before moving on.

The redesigned onboarding was a long-awaited feature. It helped the business acquire new hoteliers faster by removing the friction at the start of the relationship, and it reduced the load on account managers who had been manually supporting hoteliers through the old process.

The main learning was about sequencing. Placing sensitive or complex fields early creates anxiety and drop-off before the user has built any momentum. Leaving them for the end of a milestone, once the user is already invested, changes the dynamic considerably.