Guides / Case study
Casana: a phone-first membership platform for Cancún households
Domus Design Team · Updated October 8, 2026 · 4 min read
Casana connects households in Cancún with domestic workers and tradespeople who have been verified. Both sides live on their phones and most of them use WhatsApp more than email, so the platform had to work like an app without asking anyone to install one.
The challenge
- Two kinds of members with different needs: households looking for help, and workers building a reputation.
- Trust. A verified badge, ratings and identity checks had to be visible without exposing anyone's private details.
- Sign-up friction. Many workers don't use email, so email-only registration would have excluded the people the platform is for.
What we built
- A phone-first platform in Spanish, built as a web app that installs from the browser, so there's no store download in the way.
- Member profiles with verification levels, ratings and service areas, plus a matching system to find the right fit.
- Private messaging between members, and a live map for verified households.
- Sign-up by WhatsApp: the worker messages Casana's number, gets a code back and is in, with no email required.
- Memberships and Casana's own system of keys, with payments and account management built in.
The result
Casana runs as a real marketplace: workers register in a minute from the phone they already use, households find verified help by area and rating, and everyone talks inside the platform. It's the same stack and process we use for client apps, which is why we show it: it's proof the method works under real load, not a mock-up.
Building a marketplace or a members' platform? Tell us who the members are and what they do each week, and we'll propose the right shape, web app or store app.