case study: hotel booking website

Competitive benchmarkingCase study: Hotel booking website

Katarzyna Lewsza Dias

Objectives• Review 4 competitive hotel booking websites.• Learn how the best-in class websites solve their problems.• Recognise what competitors are doing well, so that it can be emulated when designing a new website.• Identify what these competitors are doing not so well and learn from it. • Comprehend what conventions have been established that should be followed.• Highlight best practices.

Research dateThe research was conducted on June 19th 2021.

Competitive benchmarking | Katarzyna Lewsza Dias 02|28

• Homepage – what do competitors say about themselves (overall message), is the proposition clear, is the key functionality easy to access, how many functionalities do they offer on the homepage?

• Search & select (key functionality) – finding accommodation is the main problem – how do they solve it, are there any similarities or conventions apparent, what seems to be the most efficient way of doing it?

• Entering details – how users enter the details, how the website encourages them to register & what the process is like, how the payment is taken & confirmed?

Chosen websites• Airbnb• booking.com• intercontinental.com• trip.com

Legend

Analysed aspects

Positive points/experienceStandard for chosen industryNegative points/experience


HomepageAirbnb

• Overall, Airbnb presents a beautiful, “artsy”, elegant and clean design.• Latest update about Airbnb’s COVID-19 response (1)• Search bar (the key functionality) easy to access, placed in the centre of the website (2)• More functionalities (e.g. becoming a host, changing language & currency, singing up/logging in) easy to access (3)• Outdoors stays suggestion with a Call To Action draws attention due to big font size (4)• Beautiful watercolour picture evokes feelings of calm and relaxation (5)

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HomepageAirbnb

• Search & other functionalities bar always available at the top when scrolling down (6)• Nearby attractions suggestions with beautiful drawings (7)• More types of stays/experiences suggestions with beautiful romantic pictures (8)• More detailed menu at the bottom (9)

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Homepagebooking.com

• Overall, booking.com presents rather a simple, corporate, not surprising, design with a lot of pictures and information in view• Functionalities like changing language & currency, listing own property, registering/signing visible and in easy to access (10)• Services offered on the website (e.g. stays, flights, attractions) easy to access (11)• COVID-19 Support easy to access (12)• Search bar (the key functionality) visible and easy to access (13)• Unique Selling Proposition with a CTA available, but can be turned off (14)• An option of browsing by property type with nice pictures available (15)

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Homepagebooking.com

• Search bar disappears when scrolling down (16)• Destinations suggestions with attractive, but rather typical ‘touristic’ pictures of places (17)• Full menu and any other relevant information at the bottom (18)

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Homepageintercontinental.com

• Overall impression is that the website is quite simple, but due to the photographs and videos chosen, it evokes feelings of luxury and elegance.• “NEED HELP” option visible as the first thing in the top left-hand corner (19)• More functionalities (e.g. changing country/language, singing in/joining) easy to access (20)• Hotel’s response to COVID-19 information visible (21)• Additional functionalities (explore, events etc.) available in the centre of the website (22)• “BOOK NOW” button available, but could be presented in a more obvious, eye-catching way (e.g. with an option to insert dates) (23)• Astonishing photography of the beautifully located Intercontinental hotel in Vietnam (24)

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Homepageintercontinental.com

• “BOOK NOW” and additional functionalities bar always available at the top when scrolling down (25)• Information about dealbreakers with elegant pictures (26)• More detailed menu and information about partner hotels at the bottom (27)

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• Overall vibe is fresh, but a bit messy, overloaded with information, “screaming” about promotions, with an annoying pop-up CTA window to become a member.• Too many additional functionalities at once (search bar, hotel, flights etc., an option to change language/currency, to sing in/register, deals and more) (28)• COVID-19 update Search bar (29)• Search bar (the key functionality) easy to access, placed in the centre of the website (30)• Information about deals, membership seems a bit messy (31)

Homepagetrip.com

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Homepagetrip.com

• Additional information about deals, recommendations etc. (32)• More detailed menu & payment methods at the bottom (33)

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Search & selectAirbnb

• Main search bar consists of: location, check in & check out dates with a calendar (34) and a number of guests (adults, children, infants) (35)• Nice “Explore nearby destinations” option (36)• If flexible, there is a possibility to search with no specific dates, indicating month and length of stay (37)

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• Possibility to update location/dates/guests at this stage (38)• Filter by price with average price per night (39)• Detailed filter by type of place (40)• More filters available: cancellation, beachfront, air-conditioning etc. (41)• Search results appear on the left with a picture, most relevant information (number of rooms, amenities), price per night and punctuation/number of reviews (in case

there are any) (42)• Possibility of searching by location on the map with prices (43)

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• Plenty of pictures with a possibility to see more (44)• More detailed information about the accommodation with exact price & info about date of free cancellation (45)• Exact info about amenities & view at accommodation’s availability in the calendar (46)• Exact location on the map & extra information about host, house rules, cancellation policy (47)

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Search & selectbooking.com

• Main search bar consists of: location, check in & check out dates with a calendar, a number of guests (adults, children) and number of rooms (48)• Option to mark trip as a work trip (49) to have visibility of business travel features (50).

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• Information about the level of availability in selected dates and alternative dates suggestions (51)• Possibility to change dates at this point (52)• CTA “Explore beaches” – redundant at this stage of booking (53)• Filter by price, breakfast, star rating, free cancellation, facilities and much more (54)• Search results appear on the right with a picture, most relevant information (number of beds, cancellation policy), full price, punctuation and number of reviews (55)• Option to search by location on the map (56)• Filters available in map view (57)

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• Detailed info about facilities, house rules, plenty of reviews (58)• Exact address with an option to see it on the map (59)• Plenty of pictures with a possibility to see more (60)• Description (61)• Detailed info about rooms available (62)• Too many alerts about limited availability (63)

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Search & selectintercontinental.com

• After clicking on „BOOK NOW” button (64), a search bar opens, which consists of: location, check in & check out dates with a calendar, number of guests (adults, children) & rooms. Rate Preference for members (65)

• Option to insert company ID for corporate members (66)• No map available, so user would need to check the location in Google maps

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Search & selectintercontinental.com

• Option to change search at this point (67)• Option to mark a possibility of a room for a disabled person (68), however when trying to clich on this option, there are no such rooms available (69)• Option to change currency at this stage (70)• Selection of one-bed, two-bed, suite and standard rooms with pictures, description and price (71)• After clicking on „SELECT ROOM”, more room options appear with different rates, which might be confusing (72)• However, there is always information if it is a free cancellation booking, which is good (73)• Free cancellation rooms result to be more expensive than the rates given at first search• CTA to become a member to get the cheapest, previously indicated rate (74)

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Search & selecttrip.com

• Main search bar consists of: location, check in & check out dates with a calendar, number of rooms & guests (adults, children) (75)• No word „SEARCH” on a search buton, just a symbol of magnifier (76)• Option to mark „I’m travelling for work” (77) and to search by star rating (78)

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• Possibility to change dates at this point (79)• Option to search by location on the map (80)• Many options to filter by star rating, price, guest rating, bed type etc. (81)• Search results appear on the right with a picture, star rating, most relevant information (number of beds, breakfast, cancellation policy), full price, punctuation and number of

reviews (82)• CTA to filter hotels with free cancellation (83)• CTA to become a member (84)• After clicking on „Show on map”, map search possible with a price view on the map directly & many filters (guest rating, payment, meals, cancellation, amenities etc.) (85)

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• After clicking on „Select” buton, exact address with an option to see it on the map shows, description, pictures, punctuation, amenities (86)• Now I can see the location is another town (Monchique), when I was searching for Aljezur (87). This information was on the previous page (“20 km from selected

location”), but I did not pay any special attention to this info.• CTA to sign in/register to earn trip coins (88)• Recommendation to book with free cancellation (89)• Lowest price option suggested (90)• Detailed info about available rooms, each room with pictures (91)

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• Booking.com reviews at the bottom of the page (92)• Hotel rules and detailed services described (93)

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Entering detailsAirbnb

• After clicking on “Reserve” button, the website asks user to register by phone/Facebook/Google/Apple/email (94)• On payment site, price summary & option to pay in full or partially (95)• Option to mark trip as a work trip (96)• Option to pay with credit/debit card, info about cancellation policy appear again & price summary always available on the right when scrolling (97)

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Entering detailsbooking.com

• After clicking on “I’ll reserve” button, we can see price summary and cancellation policy (98)• The website encourages user to sign in/register, but it is not indispensable (99)• Enter details section (100)• Special requests & arrival/check-in time (101)• To proceed with the booking, it is indispensable to provide a phone number and card number (102)• Another call to register as a member (103)• There are some properties that can guarantee reservation without a card, but no info how to search them (104)

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Entering detailsintercontinental.com

• After clicking on “Select Rate” button, the website asks user to give personal details, but does not make us necesarilly sign in/register (105)• Itemised payment description available (106)• Payment by credit/debit card (107)• Additional information about other charges (108)• CTA to become a member (109)• Deatiled cancellation policy (110)

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Entering detailstrip.com

• After clicking on “Book” button, we can see description, cancellation policy and price summary (111)• Repetitive alerts to book soon, last room etc. (112)• The website encourages user to sign in/register by offering “trip coins”, but it is not indispensable (113)• Guest info section (114)• Arrival time & special requests (115)

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Entering detailstrip.com

• Payment with credit/debit card (116)• Free cancellation policy information repeated (117)• Payment summary – full prepayment online (118)

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case study: hotel booking website

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