Home-Away
Product Strategy · UX/UI · Service Concept

A platform connecting internationals with local hosts through cultural exchange, shared activities and homely experiences designed to reduce isolation and create meaningful connections beyond the typical social or dating app.

Moving abroad gives you a new city, but it does not automatically give you a new sense of home.

Home-Away began with a question:

How might we connect people living alone with local households that would like to welcome guests?

The project explored the social challenges experienced by people building a life abroad loneliness, language barriers, cultural distance and the difficulty of building relationships outside familiar international circles.

Rather than designing another dating, networking or accommodation platform, we looked at connection through a different lens: belonging.

Home-Away connects international guests with local hosts who want to share their homes, interests, culture and everyday routines. A guest might join a family for Christmas dinner, learn to cook a local recipe, spend time with someone’s dogs, practise a language, join a cultural celebration or simply share an afternoon together.

The platform therefore treats the home not only as a physical space, but as a social one.

Guests can discover hosts and experiences based on location, language, interests and activities, while hosts can invite people into experiences they already enjoy creating. Features such as identity verification, profiles, messaging, location-based discovery, availability and reviews were designed to support trust between people who would otherwise remain strangers.

The resulting concept shifts the value proposition from finding somewhere to stay to finding somewhere and someone that makes you feel welcome.