Case study · Les Clefs d'Or USA

A site as polished as the people who wear the keys — and a portal that runs their membership.

Les Clefs d'Or USA is the national association of the country's most accomplished hotel concierges — the ones who wear the golden keys. We rebuilt their public website to match that caliber, and built the member portal where the whole association searches each other, re-certifies, reads news, and orders their pins.

790+ concierge members served by one portal
247 hotels searchable across the country
1 platform for the public site and member life
The challenge

Look the part — and do the work a national association actually needs.

Les Clefs d'Or USA stands for a standard of hospitality that takes years to earn — and membership is earned, not bought, through a rigorous candidacy the association vets closely. Their old site didn't reflect that standard, and it couldn't carry the weight of a national membership. The association needed two things at once: a public face refined enough to sit alongside the concierges who represent it, and a real platform behind it — one that could run the whole candidacy process end to end, help members find each other, keep their credentials current, and handle the everyday business of belonging. No off-the-shelf product did any of it.

The build

A public face worthy of the keys.

We rebuilt lcdusa.org from the ground up — a more polished, more refined site that finally looks the way its members set the standard for, and holds that standard on every screen a hotelier or guest reaches for.

  • A refined design system aligned to the association's brand and prestige
  • A hotel search built to surface the properties members serve
  • Fully responsive across desktop, tablet, and phone
lcdusa.org
The Les Clefs d'Or USA homepage we built, shown on desktop
The same homepage rendered on a tablet
The Find a Les Clefs d'Or Hotel search on a phone
The member portal

One portal for the whole association.

Behind the public site, we built the member portal where the whole association logs in to one place — so belonging to Les Clefs d'Or USA is something members actively use, not just a badge they earned.

  • A full candidacy pipeline that carries new members from application to vote
  • A member directory to search and connect with concierges nationwide
  • Re-certification handled online, on the member's schedule
  • Association news and the store to order official keys and pins
lcdusa.org/members
The Les Clefs d'Or USA members area on desktop
The members area on a tablet
The members area on a phone

A refined site out front, a working portal behind the login.

Phase 1 · The website

A site that matches the caliber

We rebuilt the public site to be more polished and more refined — better aligned to the Les Clefs d'Or brand, and a fitting representation of the concierges who wear the keys. A hotel search lets visitors surface the properties members serve across the country.

Phase 2 · Member directory

A association that can find itself

Members log in to search and connect with other concierges nationwide — turning a national roster into a network they can actually reach, whether they're placing a guest across the country or asking a peer for a favor.

Phase 3 · Membership, self-served

Everything a member needs, in one place

Re-certification, association news, and the official store all live in the portal — so members keep their credentials current, stay in the loop, and order their keys and pins without an email chain or a form in the mail.

Member management

The path to the keys, managed end to end.

Candidacy for Les Clefs d'Or is rigorous by design, and it used to live in paperwork and email threads. We built the whole system that runs it — from a candidate's first application, through the boards' research and review, to the moment a new member is voted in and onboarded.

Step 1 · Candidates apply

A structured application, online

Aspiring members submit their candidacy through the portal — a guided application that captures everything the association needs to begin its review, replacing the paper forms and email chains it used to run on.

Step 2 · Boards research & review

Every candidate, vetted in one place

Review boards work each candidate through the association's vetting steps inside the system — research, evaluation, and sign-offs tracked together, so nothing slips between reviewers or gets lost in an inbox.

Step 3 · Voted in & onboarded

From candidate to member, seamlessly

Once a candidate is voted in, the system onboards them into full membership — their profile, credentials, and directory listing created and activated without re-keying a thing.

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