Express booking: Book again

Hilton WORLDWIDE • new feature design FOR MOBILE APPS

Book again screens- display.png

Problem

  • The booking flow in 2019 was facing more drop-out rates than the previous year

  • Variations of qualitative testing tell us that our loyal users are looking for recognition and a more tailored experience

  • Loyalists expect us to know more about them and their preferences, improving their search and booking experiences

Solution

To learn about our loyalist users’ reoccur-ing travel behaviors to create an expedited and release a customized booking experience.

Role

As the lead UX architect, I was in charge of identifying problems and designing UX solutions for our users that align with our current logic.

I worked with a UI designer, a copy writer, a product owner, and our dev / QA team.

Process

STEP 1: DEFINE THE PROBLEM

  • Distribute surveys to learn about our returning users and how they prefer to book

  • Understand the logic and technical limitations

STEP 2: create solutions

  • Brainstorm and design different options

  • User test with varied flow options to validate and iterate

STEP 3: RELEASE & LEARN

  • Release new feature in the app

  • Learn and adjust as needed

Defining the Problem

User Surveys

LEARNING Objective

Since many of our loyalists travel for business, surveys were distributed to a sample of Hilton loyalists under the condition that they travel for business more than once a year.

Our goal was to understand their travel behaviors, and identify how we can tailor their booking experiences.

SURVEY Results

  • About 46% travel three-six times a year for work, while 35% travel more than seven times a year for work

  • 69% travel to the same two cities consistently for work, and 31% travel to three or more cities a year

  • 72% travel to the same two hotels, while 28% will switch between three or more

  • 58% say they pick the same room every single time, while 68% say they pick from the same two rooms every time

Results overview

  • Most business travelers repeatedly travel to the same two or three cities for their business trips.

  • Those travelers prefer to pick the same hotel(s) and room type(s) when traveling to a city they have before, and will go through the same booking process multiple times a year.

Creating Solutions

The New Feature

With a goal to design the experience of an expedited booking process for returning users.

They will be able to quickly book using the below information from past bookings:

  • Same hotel

  • Same room

  • Same rate

The Flow

STandard Booking Flow

ORIGINAL BOOK FLOW.png

Express booking flowS

Path 1

  • User will be able to book directly from a “Book again” tab in the search screen

  • The user would skip: Location entry, Search review, Hotel search results, Hotel selection, Room selection, Rate selection

Path 2

  • Users searching for hotels will be able to see their booking history (room and rate) on each hotel that they’ve stayed at, and book directly from there

  • The user would skip: Room selection, Rate selection

Wireframes

path 1

  • From the initial search

Path 2

  • From the search flow

Next Steps & Considerations

CONSIDERATIONS

  • The wireframes and comps displayed demonstrate the happy path, and are for a single room booking.

    The below flows were also a part of our learning and design process

    • Error states

    • Multi room bookings

    • Booking with points

    • Booking with a special rate

NEXT STEPS

Two variations of the “Book again” flows will be released, and learnings will help us iterate those designs.