Intelligent Bookings
A Customisable, Commission-Free Booking Engine for Hospitality Owners
Intelligent Bookings is the creation of hospitality entrepreneur Gary Moore, who set out to empower property owners with a more sustainable and autonomous alternative to platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com. Recognising the limitations and high fees these major platforms place on independent hoteliers, Gary envisioned a future where accommodation owners could manage and take bookings directly via their own websites, free of commission and with full operational control.
To realise this vision, Gary partnered with CEMET to design a comprehensive, UX-driven web platform. The result is a highly customisable booking engine initially built as a WordPress plugin, with future plans to scale across content management systems like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, and ultimately evolve into a standalone SaaS product.
What Did We Do?
Through a collaborative and research-led design process, CEMET and Intelligent Bookings co-developed a complete set of annotated wireframes, user flows, design prototypes, and UI component assets for both ends of the platform: the customer booking journey and the accommodation owner management dashboard.
On the customer-facing side, we designed a seamless and responsive booking experience optimised for mobile and desktop users alike. This included a flexible date selection system with support for multiple currencies and taxes, a booking confirmation stage featuring customisable upsell prompts and editable guest details, and a structured checkout flow accommodating a variety of payment options such as Stripe and PayPal. To ensure accessibility and user satisfaction, we also designed a confirmation page with clearly presented booking information and triggered email notifications. The aesthetic was kept clean and adaptable, including optional dark mode designs to accommodate modern user preferences and feedback gathered through future testing.
For accommodation owners, the plugin was designed as a comprehensive WordPress dashboard that guides users from initial onboarding to full property management. The system introduces venue-owners to the plugin via a ‘Getting Started’ sequence featuring explanatory content, video tutorials, and a structured setup process. From there, the dashboard enables owners to configure seasonal pricing, rate structures, and occupant definitions (including child and pet pricing). Users can assign tax rules and extra charges, define free or paid services like breakfast or transport, and tag listings with amenity labels for use in search and filtering.
We also designed interfaces for setting up listings and room types, defining minimum and maximum occupancies, check-in/out times, and associating listings with locations, rates, and seasons. A customisable search setup allows operators to define keywords, control how results are presented, and design the structure of the booking journey—from search to confirmation. Each booking is tracked and logged in the management system, which also includes an integrated calendar view, booking inbox, and payment tracker.
Finally, we created an interactive prototype of both the customer and accommodation owner interfaces using Adobe XD, giving stakeholders and developers a clear, navigable reference for future build and testing. A design asset pack, developer wireframes, and promotional imagery were also delivered as part of the final package, equipping the client with everything required to move into development and confidently pitch the platform to partners and investors.
Outcome & Impact
The final delivery included an interactive design prototype for both the customer-facing and owner-facing components, a full UX asset pack, wireframes and diagrams for development planning, and interface imagery for promotional use. Each design decision was made to reduce cognitive load, increase flexibility, and support extensibility into other CMS platforms and eventual SaaS conversion.
The completed designs enable Intelligent Bookings to provide property owners with a low-friction, powerful tool that consolidates their operations—listing setup, payments, guest management, and marketing—within a single, commission-free ecosystem. The flexibility of the system also positions it to serve larger agencies managing multiple properties and to offer long-term scalability as a white-label solution.
“The more I play with the interface, clicking various options and it moving along a fantastic journey from a user experience point of view, the more I am certain we have created something quite unique and amazing, better than any of the other Wordpress plugins available right now.”
With this comprehensive UX prototype, Intelligent Bookings is now perfectly placed to transition into development and begin disrupting the hospitality platform landscape—offering venue owners a smarter, fairer way to connect with their guests and build stronger, more direct relationships.
CEMET is proud to continue to support Intelligent Bookings through the development of this new app. To find out more about their latest work visit their website