Oak Theory was asked to design a website for travelers to search, browse, and book a place like home for their next adventure.
Quick answer
Oak Theory is a web design, development, and branding studio that designed the website for Urbain, a platform for booking alternative travel accommodations in major cities around the world. The engagement included branding, discovery and user research, wireframing, roadmapping, technical strategy, and web design — creating a booking experience focused on safety, familiarity, and ease of use.
About
Oak Theory joined forces with the Urbain team to rethink the concept of booking alternative travel accommodations for big cities around the globe.
Just as Urbain strives to create the relaxation, familiarity, and peace of mind that comes from staying somewhere that feels like home, Oak Theory designed a booking experience that is just as safe and intuitive — so that the only thing travelers need to focus on is planning their own itinerary.
The challenge
Travelers comparing short-term rentals juggle unfamiliar brands, inconsistent listing information, and the quiet worry of arriving somewhere that isn't what was pictured. Trust, not inventory, is the real conversion problem.
Urbain needed a booking flow where safety and clarity were visible at every step: legible search, honest listings, and a reservation summary that never surprises anyone at checkout.
What we did
Oak Theory wanted to create a stress-free booking experience, where travelers can focus on exploring their next destinations rather than worrying about their accommodations.
We conducted user interviews to validate our assumptions about the different short-term rental brands in the market today and to better understand travelers' pain points.
We used the feedback we collected to map how travelers may interact with Urbain, uncovering what we needed to build to create a seamless experience.
Low-fidelity wireframes covered search, filtering, listing detail, related listings, FAQ, and safety and security — the pages that carry the most doubt.
Work Sans across bold, semibold, and medium weights paired with a calm blue-and-neutral palette gave Urbain a voice that reads as hospitable rather than transactional.
"Feel at home. Everywhere." became the line the whole interface answers to.
We sequenced the build so the booking core — search, availability, reservation — shipped first, with amenities filtering, district results, and editorial content phased in behind it.
Selected work
FAQ
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