NOTHING HIDDEN

Trustpilot's public counters tell what the overall 3.5 hides: the share of one-star reviews went from 18.6% for reviews over a year old to 36.4% over the last 12 months, and the average rating from 4.38 to 3.16 over the last 30 days.

My SpareRoom case study is about people and a brand. Spotahome asks something else: money, rules and what happens after paying. To avoid writing the same study twice, I changed the tools too. No invented personas, no rebrand: methods from sociology and ethnography, with ideal types built from the reviews, then a product redesign that keeps Spotahome's logo, colours and type.

I had no access to users, so I chose methods that work on traces people leave behind, and I say so on every deliverable. Interviews and tests are written, ready to run, not run.

Prepared, not run: interview guide, test guide, 22-question survey and note grid (Kaufmann).

I read all 716 texts, built a 26-code grid from what they said, then coded each one by hand. A first keyword pass only found 53% of the manual codes, so it was used to test the grid, not to count.

Over ten years: the same complaints on Que Choisir in 2016 to 2019 (agency fee on arrival, the 24-hour rule, deposits not returned) as on Trustpilot in 2026.

Instead of inventing personas, I described each of the 347 negative reviews by its codes and grouped close reviews with a k-medoids clustering (Jaccard distance, 5 clusters, silhouette 0.24). Each cluster is named as an ideal type in Weber's sense: an accentuated portrait, not a real person.

Specific words by log-likelihood, 1-2 stars against 4-5 stars

Spotahome publicly replies to 88% of 1-2 star reviews, within 46 hours in median. Read with Goffman, the reply is a front stage: it speaks to future customers reading, and sends the problem backstage, to a private channel. Positive reviews thank Andrea, Lucas or Lucía; the replies are never signed.

I walked through a real Madrid listing as a visitor, dates included, until the sign-up wall. The price shown is the rent alone. The first payment, €2,450, includes €650 of fees presented as "the Spotahome guarantee". The total for the stay is never added up: it is a help-centre article.

1

"€1,800/month" on the card

2

"Select dates to see prices"

3

"Total to pay per request: €2,450, includes one month in advance and the Spotahome guarantee"

4

In the breakdown: €650 fee, €599 before move-in, €121 at move-out

HousingAnywhere, Uniplaces and Wunderflats also hold the first payment until after arrival and charge a non-refundable fee. Read with DiMaggio and Powell, this is isomorphism: under uncertainty, a field ends up alike. Spotahome can stand out through what no one does: state the total, date the verification, write the rule before payment.

34 findings in an Excel grid, each with its Bastien & Scapin criterion, severity, screenshot, recommendation and a "users' voice" column: the share of reviews that describe the same problem.

Ten more methods carried through to results, still without participants: task analysis and the KLM model, cognitive load, a cognitive walkthrough, a dark-pattern audit, an accessibility test, Mayer's trust model, a service blueprint, Labov's narrative analysis, homechecker job ads and the terms read against the Consumer Code.

Homechecker job ads describe a freelance photographer, and 6 clauses of the terms match the French Consumer Code's black list (a reading grid, not legal advice).

Five desktop screens and six mobile screens, drawn in draw.io in sketch style. Each blue number points to an audit finding; yellow notes hold the open questions to settle in testing, including two business tensions for Spotahome.

A "Total for your stay" split by moment, the fee named, what was checked and when, who signs the contract, reviews of the home.

Three columns aligned with the terms: you can cancel, we get it fixed, not covered. An unlisted resident landlord moves to "you can cancel".

Photos room by room, and each problem says what it entitles you to before you send it.

A product redesign, not a new identity: Poppins, Spotahome's orange #FB6E44, sand, mint and light-blue backgrounds, 12 px corners. Agrandir, the licensed heading font, is replaced by Poppins.

Pick a page, then switch between today's site and the redesign. On the left, the audit findings each change fixes.

ListingThe rulesMy requests

Listing

The total for the stay comes first, split by moment, next to what was checked and when.

Workload, critical

Today : Total never added up

Redesign : "Total for your stay" first, split by moment

Codes, major

Today : Fee called "guarantee"

Redesign : "Service fee, not refundable"

Codes, critical

Today : "Verified" without how or when

Redesign : Visited in person, 11 months ago

TodayRedesign

The app, from search to deposit

Six screens, one per moment of the stay. Three of them don't exist today: confirming, the arrival check and following a case.

Before paying

1. Search

The total for 3 months is the main figure; the trust line says how and when the home was checked.

Before paying

2. Choose

What you'll pay, open by default: €0 today, €2,450 on confirming, €1,800 a month.

Paying

3. Confirm

A sheet over the request: deadline, amount charged, and what happens to the other requests.

Arrival day

4. Arrive

The 24-hour check as a grid of rooms. Each problem shows its rule before sending.

Afterwards

5. Be followed

A dated feed of events, a named contact and the next deadline.

Afterwards

6. Leave

The deposit's due date, and the day Spotahome pays if the landlord doesn't.

Everything above comes from traces, not from people. The next step is written and ready.

The real files, in English, in the formats used with clients. Switch the portfolio to French (FR, top right) to download the French versions.

Four numbers before and after shipping the total for the stay and the dated badge, which cost little and touch the most reviews.