My client was a new hotel. They were looking to create an online booking experience that was simple and based on a deep understanding of their target users. My task was to focus on the booking process for their new website.
THE CHALLENGE
Booking a hotel room online should be a simple process but, sometimes, it can feel complex. I needed to design a booking process that would be less complex, reduce user friction and increase user confidence and successfully avoid pitfalls that other competitors may be been encountering which could result in a loss of bookings.
MY ROLE
I led this booking process project from the initial research stage through to a medium/high fidelity prototype. I defined the problem areas and designed solutions from collated research.
THE GOAL
I wanted to create a short, simple and effective booking process which allowed all key information to be present within one main flow. I wanted to generate user confidence which I believed would help increase conversion rates on the site.
MY JOURNEY
Looking at the industry
Premier Inn and The Sheraton Marriott*, (bigger hotelier chains) Hotel Du Vin, and Alexander House. (boutique and bespoke)
* The Sheraton Marriott website has been redesigned post my research
Early insights revealed...
that sites chose different ways to access the initial search. The Premier Inn made their search bar immediately obvious.
This was found in the centre of the screen high up in the view port.
The other hotel sites used CTA style bookable buttons within their top main navigational bars or at the bottom of the viewport which then revealed an off screen search field.
What’s working well?
The booking search bars all followed a common format with all key information you would expect to be asked when entering in your check in details. Some had useful additional features such as auto save results so that you could return to them later. A indication that customers could be leaving the site and then returning to the booking process later.
Hotel Du Vin had a really simple search form field. The form was top aligned and stacked as a vertical list, with drop down selection field. It was accessible off screen via a BOOK A ROOM CTA.
Another observation I made was that most sites have a progress bar of the booking journey.
I felt this was an important feature and would generate an increase of confidence from the customer.
After completing the details in the booking field, Hotel Du Vin provided an informative booking summary panel which was present at each stage of the booking process, allowing the customer to view or edit their search at any point during the booking process.
And where things got tricky...
The room selection pages became more complex with the larger brands, Premier Inn and The Sheraton.
The Premier Inn did contained a lot of useful information. Main sections were clearly divided into four sections; hotel information, location, room type and restaurant. However the additional options within these sections became confusing. The hierarchy of information began to lose clarity, some clickable links with pop out boxes were small and could easily be missed despite being underlined.
The Sheraton did the same. Within the page there were options you could select to enhance your stay, however these were accessible under small understated drop down menus and upon my first visit I missed these.
So in comparison...
The boutique hotels Alexander House and Hotel Du Vin took a different approach.
Although sectioned in a similar way, it was the hierarchy of the content that worked well. The size and placement of headlines. The description and language within each section that brought an instant clarity
to the process.
Additional information was clearly highlighted as a button or a coloured link, and the links used helpful language such as ‘MORE DETAILS’ or ‘SHOW ROOM RATES’ to indicate you needed to click them.
The overall layout of the pages were more digestible. Both sites contained a progress bar so you could see where you were in the journey.
On both these hotels you could also edit your search details, these options were easily found within their own sections on the page.
And what I discovered?
From this research it was obvious to me that the boutique hotels had a much simpler booking system with a clearer user flow. They used language effectively to communicate to customers allowing them to navigate through their site. They also gave the customer control to easily amend and change their details without interrupting the flow of their booking.
After an initial exploration of the hotel industry, I chose to focus and compare four particular hotel chains.
I wanted to compare well known hoteliers against some smaller boutique hotels. I was hoping this would give me a broader perspective of what others are doing. I wanted to know what similarities there might be between the sites. What differences would there be from a site which contained a lot of content compared to a smaller site that might delivery a more bespoke service.
By obtaining qualitative data I was able to delve deeper into discovering where common issues laid within the booking process. It was good way to understand what customers were looking for and how they went about the booking process.
