Preserving the Legacy, Embracing the Future

Enhancing guest experiences through a new digital access pass that families found easy and exciting to use.

The Challenge

Paper passes were used to track event inclusions but were easily damaged or lost, causing guest frustration and missed opportunities to cross-sell for Great Wolf Lodge.

3 Weeks

Reduced product decision timelines, from 6 months, by accelerating validation.

88%

of guests interviewed preferred new app designs to current guest experience, de-risking mobile app decisions

3

guest-validated product iterations completed in 2 weeks—before committing build resources

great wolf lodge challenge

Context & Constraints

Great Wolf Lodge is celebrated for creating unforgettable family experiences.

However, families and their children had to carry physical Wolf Passes at all times in order to use the inclusions in their pre-paid packages. Passes were easily lost, damaged, and or left behind in the guest room, and weren't connected to the Great Wolf App in any way.

For customers, this meant having trouble tracking which inclusions they had purchased and used, and wasting time retracing long walks back to their rooms to find passes or waiting at the front desk for a replacement.

For Great Wolf Lodge, this also meant less Wolf Pass sales for returning customers who wanted to reduce hassle on future visits. It was also a missed opportunity to gather app data on which inclusions guests use and increase their awareness of personalized offers.

The Deliverable

affinityUX conducted a Research Sprint to analyze recent guest experiences and validate new designs for the Great Wolf App, exploring a fully digital vs. hybrid approach to the Packages & Passes offered at the lodge.

Highlight

Our team tested and improved a high-fidelity mobile app prototype of a digital Wolf Pass.

Research Readout — complete with interview notes, insights, and recommendations — helping Great Wolf make confident, evidence-based design decisions to support a seamless guest experience for families.

Research Method

Identified key areas of friction

from booking and purchase decisions, to app usage and on-site experience

Tested prototypes with users

revealing 8 usability issues and accelerating 3 iterations of the new app prototypes, saving the team significant effort before and after launch

Collected and analyzed 1000+ data points

supporting 80+ insights for future design and product decisions

great wolf lodge sample

Study Sampling

17 guests who had stayed at a lodge within the last 30 days:

  • Larger families: 10/17 families had 5+ members
  • Young children: 5/17 families included children ages 12+
  • Newer to Great Wolf: the majority of guests had stayed at a lodge 4 times or less

Before

  • Fear of loss and water damage
  • Difficult for large groups
  • Added hassle to remember
  • Manual inclusion tracking and data collection
great wolf lodge before

After

  • Easily manages multiple passes and types
  • Automatically tracks activities for families
  • Data collection
  • Ability to show custom discounts to users
great wolf lodge after

Don't Take Our Word For It

“This would be AMAZING…[to see] when things were completed, started or redeemed…[so I could] know what to focus on next…instead of checking [all our] passes”

with 8 children

Ready to Build Smarter?

Preserving the Legacy, Embracing the Future

Enhancing guest experiences through a new digital event access pass that families found easy and exciting to use.

Client
Great Wolf Lodge
Service
Innovation Sprint
Timeline
5-6 weeks
Method
Interviews
Participants
30+
Outputs
Slidedeck

This Might be relevant to you if...

Your Leads apply too early
customers need education before converting
sales/service teams are triaging the same questions repeatedly
your CRM isn't segmented by real customer needs

What Changed?

and how we measured it

improved qualification
+230%
Increase in prospects reaching "ready-to-apply" stage
Less wasted effort
-64%
reduction in staff time spent on unqualified applications
higher completion
+230%
increase in completion of key readiness steps

The funnel broke at the moment of application

high effort triage
This is some text inside of a div block.
borrower uncertainty
This is some text inside of a div block.
inconsistent nurturing
This is some text inside of a div block.
drop-off / abandonement
This is some text inside of a div block.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

key insights

that informed the plan

INSIGHT #1
readiness confusion-not intent- was the biggest driver of premature applications
evidence

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

what it meant

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

INSIGHT #2
readiness confusion-not intent- was the biggest driver of premature applications
evidence

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

what it meant

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

INSIGHT #3
readiness confusion-not intent- was the biggest driver of premature applications
evidence

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

what it meant

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

the solution

end-end readiness system

Loan Readiness Screener
purpose

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

how it works

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

CRM tagging + workflows
purpose

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

how it works

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

an Education Experience
purpose

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

how it works

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.