Behind every feature in HostyGuides is a simple question: does it genuinely improve the guest experience? Interactive maps nearly didn’t make the cut.
We Almost Didn’t Include Maps
When we first started building HostyGuides, interactive maps were one of the first features we ruled out.
That might sound strange. Every digital guidebook platform seems to have a map. They look fantastic in screenshots, they make great marketing images, and they immediately communicate that a guide contains information.
But after building our first prototypes, we weren’t convinced.
Every version seemed to suffer from the same problems.
- They slowed page loading.
- They added extra JavaScript and external requests.
- They filled the screen with dozens of pins.
- Guests spent more time navigating the map than discovering places to visit.
The map looked impressive. It just didn’t seem particularly useful.
Rather than adding maps because everyone else had them, we stepped back and asked ourselves a much more important question.
Can a map genuinely improve the guest experience, or is it simply another feature?
That single question ended up changing the entire design of HostyGuides maps.
The First Prototype
The obvious starting point was to place every recommendation onto a map. It worked. Technically. The map showed beaches, attractions, restaurants, scenic walks, shopping, transport, host favourites and much more.
On screen it looked fantastic.
But something didn’t feel right.
As soon as a guide was filled with recommendations, the map became busy. Even with colour-coded markers there was simply too much information.
The guest’s first question became:
“Where do I start?”
That wasn’t the experience we wanted.
We Realised We Were Solving the Wrong Problem.
The more we watched people use guidebooks, the more obvious something became. Guests rarely begin by looking at a map.
Instead they think things like:
“I’d love to visit Hardwick Hall.” or “Where exactly is that beach?” or “That restaurant looks nice.”
The recommendation comes first. The map is simply there to answer:
“Where is it?”
Once we understood that, the solution became obvious. We had the interaction backwards.
Turning the Experience Inside Out
Most guidebook maps follow this journey.
Map → Find a pin → Open it → Read about the place → Find another pin → Open it
Well you get the idea. After 10 pins the loop becomes quite tedious.
HostyGuides now does the exact opposite.
Recommendation → View on Map → Directions
That subtle change completely transformed the experience. Guests browse beautiful recommendation cards.
Every recommendation contains: Visual image, editorial descriptions, host recommendations, journey time and why the host recommends it
Only when they want geographical context do they tap: View on Map
The map immediately opens around that recommendation with the marker highlighted. No searching. No zooming around. No wondering which pin belongs to which attraction. The recommendation remains the focus. The map simply provides context. The guest experiences something incredibly straightforward.
Putting the Holiday Property at the Centre
Every HostyGuides map is centred around where the guest is staying.
The map instantly answers: “How do I get there from here?”
The property becomes the anchor. The selected recommendation is highlighted. Nearby recommendations from the same category are also shown. Suddenly the map starts feeling personal rather than generic.
Less Really Was More
Building maps unexpectedly improved another part of HostyGuides. Originally our research produced a lot of recommendations. Once we plotted everything onto a map, we realised quantity wasn’t helping. It was creating clutter. So we changed our philosophy.
Rather than showing everything we could find, we began selecting only the highest-quality recommendations and host picks. Maps didn’t just improve navigation. They improved the quality of the guides themselves.
Performance Was Non-Negotiable
One thing never changed. The guide still had to load incredibly quickly. Interactive maps normally introduce:
- JavaScript libraries
- CSS
- third-party requests
- render-blocking resources
We refused to compromise. Instead we redesigned the way maps worked.
Maps are loaded only when a guest actually taps View on Map. Until then, the guide behaves exactly like a normal HostyGuide. No performance penalty. That was something we genuinely didn’t think we’d achieve when we began development.
The Hidden Engineering Behind Every Recommendation
Ironically…The biggest part of this project isn’t the map guests use. During development we realised something about maps. Even when Google Maps returned perfectly valid directions… They weren’t always taking guests to the best place.
For walks…Should directions go to:
- the centre of the walk?
- the postcode?
- the trailhead?
- the visitor centre?
- the car park?
This led us to build one of the most sophisticated parts of HostyGuides. Map quality control.
Originally maps and directions could disagree. The map might point to a visitor car park. Google Directions might route guests to a postcode nearby. Neither was technically wrong. But they weren’t the same.
Eventually we adopted one very simple philosophy.
Every recommendation has one official location.
When an editor manually verifies a location inside our studio…Everything updates.
There is now only one truth. Maps → Directions → Published guide. Everything points to the same place. It sounds simple but took hours of testing to get there.
Good Design Solves Problems
Maps nearly didn’t become part of HostyGuides. Looking back, we’re glad we waited. Had we released our first prototype, it would simply have been another map filled with pins. Instead, we kept asking one question.
“Does this genuinely improve the guest experience?”
That question shaped every design decision we made. Today, interactive maps have become one of the strongest features in HostyGuides. Not because they look impressive. Not because they tick a marketing box. But because they help guests understand exactly where recommendations are in relation to their stay, without slowing the guide or overwhelming them with information.
The result is something we didn’t originally set out to build. A map that doesn’t compete with the guide. A map that quietly supports it.
And that’s probably the biggest lesson we learned throughout the entire project. The best user interfaces often hide the most sophisticated engineering. The guest sees three simple buttons:
Recommendation → View on Map → Directions
Behind those three buttons sits an entire editorial workflow that ensures every recommendation is high quality, every map is meaningful, every guide remains fast and every guest spends less time searching and more time enjoying their holiday.
Great guest experiences aren’t created by adding more features. They’re created by carefully removing friction until every interaction feels effortless. That’s the philosophy behind every HostyGuide we build.