Airbnb Flexible Payments Solution

Challenge

Airbnb sought to integrate Klarna’s flexible payment options into their platform, but needed to maintain Airbnb’s established look and feel across both mobile and desktop. The challenge was to create a seamless, co-branded user experience that respected both Airbnb’s and Klarna’s brand identities while providing users with a smooth, intuitive payment process.

Approach

I approached the project with a strong focus on brand integrity, user trust, and frictionless checkout. The process began with a deep audit of Airbnb’s existing checkout flows and design language across mobile and desktop to understand where Klarna’s payment options could be introduced without disrupting the core experience.

Working closely with product, partnerships, and brand stakeholders, I explored multiple co-branded design concepts balancing Klarna’s visual identity with Airbnb’s established UI patterns. Rapid prototyping and iterative feedback loops allowed us to validate placement, hierarchy, and messaging early, ensuring the payment experience felt native to Airbnb while clearly communicating Klarna’s value.

Design decisions were guided by usability best practices and conversion principles, with a focus on minimizing cognitive load, preserving user confidence at checkout, and supporting a scalable integration model for future partners.

My Role

• Led end-to-end UX and visual design for the Airbnb x Klarna co-branded checkout experience across mobile and desktop.

• Defined co-branding guidelines that balanced Airbnb’s design system with Klarna’s visual language, ensuring consistency and brand trust.

• Designed and prototyped multiple checkout flow concepts, including payment option placement, messaging hierarchy, and interaction states.

• Collaborated cross-functionally with product managers, partnership teams, and engineers to align design solutions with business goals and technical constraints.

• Produced stakeholder-ready prototypes and presentation materials to support partnership discussions and executive buy-in.

• Iterated on designs based on stakeholder feedback and usability considerations to refine clarity, confidence, and ease of use at critical checkout moments.

Results

• Enabled successful Airbnb x Klarna partnership, directly supporting contract signing through stakeholder-ready, co-branded UX concepts.

• Delivered a seamless checkout integration that preserved Airbnb’s established brand experience across mobile and desktop.

• Improved checkout clarity and user confidence by introducing flexible payment options.

• Expanded payment flexibility for users, supporting installment-based purchasing within Airbnb’s existing flow.