Andrew Harper

Andrew Harper is a luxury travel editorial and membership brand, best known for the Hideaway Report and the Harper Collection, reviewing exceptional hotels, resorts, and travel experiences since 1979. What sets the brand apart is that its editors travel incognito, which guarantees unbiased reviews that cannot be influenced by the properties themselves.

The business is built around an exclusive membership model. Members pay for access to curated content: the Hideaway Report, the Harper Collection portfolio of recommended hotels and resorts, plus guides, newsletters, and travel articles offering insider knowledge. The value proposition is prestige, trust, and exclusivity, and the audience is a high-net-worth, discerning group of travelers who want honest, refined recommendations rather than mass-market travel content.

In 2017, Andrew Harper was acquired by Internova Travel Group.

Andrew Harper's editorial legacy is world-class, but its digital delivery was not. Members consumed content through print editions, downloadable PDFs, and a web experience that was not built for mobile. There was no offline reading, no way to save recommendations for a future trip, and no reliable insight into what members actually read. New issues were announced by email, which meant every announcement competed with a full inbox and led back to a desktop-oriented website rather than to the content itself.

For a brand whose entire proposition rests on premium experience, this created real friction:

• Content locked in print and PDF, not usable on the go
• No offline access, exactly when travelers need it most
• No saving, bookmarking, or personal library
• New issue announcements limited to email, with no direct-to-device delivery
• Limited analytics, and therefore limited understanding of member behavior

JetRockets designed and built the Andrew Harper mobile app, a cross-platform application for iOS and Android that turns the brand's editorial archive into a premium, member-only mobile product. The app is integrated with the client's WoodWing CMS, so the editorial team keeps working in the tools they already use and decides what reaches the app and when.

• Membership authentication with the existing paywall. Members sign in with their existing Andrew Harper credentials. Authentication is handled through an API integration with the client's membership system, with no member data stored on the JetRockets side. Profile, membership status, member number, and expiration date are fetched and displayed in the app
• WoodWing CMS integration. All content comes from WoodWing, where the Andrew Harper editorial team already works. The team chooses what goes into the app and when, and reviews content before members see it
• Hideaway Report. The brand's flagship publication, restructured for mobile: issues grouped and browsable, articles readable in a layout built around the Andrew Harper typography and photography
• Harper Collection. The curated portfolio of recommended hotels, resorts, and restaurants, organized by a multi-level destination hierarchy (country, region, city) that follows the logic of the Andrew Harper website, streamlined for mobile navigation so members reach a destination in fewer steps, with internal linking between articles and collection entries

Members can search across reviews, articles, and recommendations, and filter by destination and content type to plan a specific trip rather than browse aimlessly.

• Push notifications. Members are notified about new issues, articles, and recommendations. Delivery runs through Klaviyo as the primary notification platform, with Firebase Cloud Messaging as the Android delivery channel, so the marketing team can target communication to member segments
• Accessibility and reading comfort. Image and text zoom, adaptive typography, and a reading experience tuned for long-form editorial content on a phone
• Product analytics. A defined event taxonomy implemented with PostHog: logins, screen views, content views, saves, downloads, and shares, giving Andrew Harper the first real data on how members engage with their content

• Bookmarks and offline downloads. Any article or recommendation can be saved to a personal library or downloaded for offline reading, so content is available in flight, abroad, and anywhere without connectivity. Downloads and favorites are stored locally on the device
• Direct path to booking and travel itineraries. Booking is not built into the app; it stays on the Andrew Harper booking platform, where member benefits are applied. A single entry point in the app menu takes a member to that platform, already signed in thanks to SSO, with no second login
• Invite a Friend and sharing. Members can share articles and recommendations and extend the Andrew Harper experience to friends and family, supporting the brand's referral and lead-generation goals
• Settings, profile, and membership management. A structured settings area with profile and membership details, renewal, member benefits, FAQ, contact options, and legal pages

The project started with UX research, user flows, and information architecture, then wireframes, a UI kit, and full high-fidelity designs, delivered as interactive prototypes for stakeholder review. The visual language deliberately follows the restraint and elegance of the print publications rather than a generic content-app aesthetic.

A project manager, head of mobile development, UX/UI designer, backend developer, frontend developer, QA engineer, and DevOps engineer, working as one team from research through release.

Our partnership with Andrew Harper is ongoing. Current and upcoming areas of focus:

• Public launch support. Store approval, release coordination, member launch communication, and post-launch monitoring of login success, crashes, and engagement
• Content rollout. Supporting the editorial team as the full Hideaway Report archive and Harper Collection regions are published to production
• Extending SSO across the web experience (in progress). SSO already carries members from the app into the booking platform; the same seamless transition is being rolled out to the remaining Andrew Harper web pages, such as membership renewal
• Phase 2 roadmap. Prioritized from real member behavior and feedback collected in the first weeks after launch rather than from assumptions

For a brand that has spent nearly five decades building trust in print, the app is not a side channel. It is the first time the Andrew Harper experience travels with the member: the same independent editorial judgment, available offline, in the pocket of the person standing in the hotel lobby.