Summary
VALO Hotel & Work is a hybrid hospitality concept that combines hotel accommodation, workspaces, co-working areas, and meeting rooms. Its fully adjustable hybrid rooms enable a seamless balance between productivity and rest. The venue is located in Ruskeasuo, Helsinki.
The goal for VALO Hotel & Work was to reimagine an existing web application as a mobile-first experience, enabling users to book hotel rooms and workspaces with ease. To achieve this, VALO partnered with Reaktor to create an intuitive, user-friendly mobile app.
Highlights
1 mobile app
Available on Android and iOS
Delivered in 5 months
From start to finish
A diverse range of customers
Multiple customer types with different needs and use cases
Creating a design system
Bringing consistency and easy continuation of development
One solution, diverse user needs
VALO serves a diverse customer base, ranging from one-time visitors to contract customers, and from hotel guests to clients hosting meetings at the venue. The offering also includes co-working spaces.
The app needed to support a diverse range of customers and understand their different use cases to provide sufficient guidance after a successful booking. It also needed to be available on both Android and iOS.
Because VALO already had a web app, it was essential that existing user accounts would work seamlessly in the new mobile app. Other requirements included: browsing by room type, seamless booking and payment, and internal company bookings that allow employees to view and join bookings within their organisation.
Key priorities included a user-friendly experience, long-term maintainability, and future scalability.
Designing room for ease
Reaktor led both the design and development of the mobile app, working closely with VALO. The team defined the app’s structure, crafted intuitive user flows, and built a scalable technical foundation designed to support future growth.
To ensure efficiency and long-term consistency, the team recommended a cross-platform solution that runs smoothly on both iOS and Android.
Designers also worked on-site at the venue to experience the services and spaces firsthand. This hands-on approach informed design decisions and helped translate VALO’s physical environment into a digital experience, reinforced by the venue’s own colour palette, which aligned with the brand.
Illuminating the future growth
Imagine booking a room for the next day while on the move. The confirmation appears instantly on your phone: room number, arrival details, and clear next steps all in one place. When you arrive at the venue, you know where you’re going – no uncertainty, no asking for directions, just a smooth arrival.
Logging in is quick, bookings take only a few taps, and the interface guides naturally from selection to confirmation. Clear post-booking instructions help navigate the venue with confidence.
Behind the scenes, a scalable technical foundation makes it easy for a single developer to add features, manage updates, and scale the app as the business grows. The project transformed VALO’s existing web application into a user-friendly mobile experience that supports a diverse customer base, from hotel guests to contract customers and meeting clients.
Our contributions
→ Cross-platform architecture for efficient long-term development
→ User-centred UX design
→ Post-booking guidance and in-app navigation support
→ A design system to support future development
