Staycation [quick-win] Case study

About

Context

As I was looking for a new opportunity in Product Design, a particular company caught my attention: Staycation.

So I decided to add a little use case to my application.

Objective

As there will be a real use case in the recruitment process, I want to offer a quick-win UX optimization. Something impactful, crafted in a short time (around 2hours).

General questions:

• What are the business position of Staycation compared to big competitors like Booking or Hotels.com?
• What are the common pain points that users encounter using hotel booking apps or websites?
• Are there features that users expect to see on a hotel booking apps/websites that Staycation has not?
• Are there any userflow where competitors are bad and so Staycation could shine?
• Finally, what problem can I solve to make Staycation better ?

Steps:

• Secondary research boosted with AI using Perplexity Pro and its focus feature (prompts available below)
• Identify a specific problem to solve from the secondary research
• Design a solution
• And later: test the solution with real users (not AI 🙅‍♂️)

Secondary research

Identify major competitors

First of all to be completly immersed in the hotel booking industry I need to know the biggest competitors and how they differ from each other.

Perplexity - Pro Search - All

I’m a Product Designer for Staycation and would like to conduct some competitor research. Can you identify the top ten competitors in this space (the most popular hotel booking apps or websites on the market) along with their key features and value propositions? Please present the results in a table.

Here is the copetitors identifed with Perplexity:

“These competitors offer a range of features and value propositions to attract and retain users in the highly competitive hotel booking market. Each platform has its unique strengths, whether it's the sheer volume of listings, rewards programs, user reviews, or innovative booking features. As a Product Designer for Staycation, you can use this information to identify gaps in the market and potential areas for differentiation or improvement in your own product.”

Identify main competitors features vs Staycation

Perplexity - Pro Search - All

Please can you create a detailed feature matrix, comparing what each competitor offers in terms of functionality and features?

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Include Staycation in the matrix

Key Insights:

1. Staycation specializes in offering luxury hotel stays and unique 24-hour experiences, making it distinct from other platforms that focus on a broader range of property types and longer stays.
2. Booking.com, Expedia, and Priceline offer the most comprehensive set of features across various travel needs, including bundle deals and extensive property types.
3. Airbnb stands out for its unique stays and local experiences, catering to travelers looking for non-traditional accommodations.
4. Tripadvisor excels in user-generated content and reviews, providing a wealth of information for travelers.
5. Kayak and Hopper differentiate themselves with strong price prediction and metasearch capabilities.
6. HotelTonight specializes in last-minute hotel bookings with a curated selection, ideal for spontaneous travelers.
7. Staycation offers exclusive deals and curated luxury experiences, making it a niche player in the market focused on high-end, short-term getaways.

This matrix provides a comprehensive overview of the key features offered by each platform, helping you understand how Staycation compares with its competitors in the hotel booking space.

Reviews on the stores

Perplexity - Pro Search - All

Please can you analyse app store reviews for Booking, Airbnb and Hotels.com and summarise the main positives and negatives that users mention?

Booking.com

Airbnb

Hotels.com

In summary, all three platforms offer a wide range of accommodation options and user-friendly interfaces. However, they all face challenges with customer service, particularly regarding refunds and cancellations. Booking.com stands out for its extensive language support and free cancellation options, Airbnb for its unique local experiences, and Hotels.com for its rewards program. The main areas for improvement across all platforms appear to be consistency in pricing, reliability of bookings, and responsiveness of customer support.

Staycation:

Perplexity - Pro Search - All

Please can you analyse app store reviews for Staycation and summarise the main positives and negatives that users mention?

Based on the available information and user reviews, here's a summary of the main positives and negatives mentioned about the Staycation app:

It's worth noting that while the app has generally positive feedback for its concept and deals, there is room for improvement in areas such as customer service and providing more comprehensive information about the properties and experiences offered. The app's success in different markets (like its established presence in France and recent expansion to London) suggests that it's addressing a real demand for luxury local experiences.

Comments on Reddit

Perplexity - Pro Search - Social

What people say about booking attraction options ? AirBnb, Booking, Hotels.com, Staycation

Here's a summary of the positives and negatives mentioned for each platform:

Booking.com:

Airbnb:

Hotels.com:

Staycation:

“It's worth noting that experiences can vary greatly between users, and these summaries are based on the limited information provided in the search results.”

Problem to solve

Ok, now what?

You might say that this is a lot of information and you don’t know what to do with all this AI data.

Based on user feedback from store reviews and Reddit, there are a few elements that can impact user retention:

• Not feeling like a “real” vacation / limited change of scenery
• Lack of information about properties or local attractions
• Expanding beyond luxury

When looking at the competitors' matrix, I see two features with limited deployment across competitors that could be a first step in solving this problem:

• Loyalty programs
• Enhanced local attractions

With these new features, I hypothesize that they could increase user retention and satisfaction in the long term.

Design a solution

Now I’m designing:

• A loyalty program integrated into the current user flow to increase user retention
• An improvement in the booking of local activities directly within the hotel booking process. This could enhance the feeling of a more "real" vacation and a change of scenery

The only thing I changed is that I moved the profile account to the top app bar for two main reasons:

• This is what you see on native iOS/Android apps, and I prefer to stick with these guidelines.
• I personally prefer bottom navigation/navbars with a minimum of entries.

On the hotel screen, I have added a block for the local activities available.This allows users to:

• Discover activities while booking a hotel (and not in a separate user flow)
• Enhance the vacation experience

When the user taps on an activity, a bottom sheet is displayed. The user can read more details about it and choose to add the activity to their booking.

This is done without leaving the booking flow.

When the user taps on the CTA "Add to my booking," the bottom sheet closes, and the user can see a check icon indicating that the activity has been added. The user can then continue to book their hotel.

I wanted to improve the profile screen by enhancing the loyalty program feature.On their profile, users can see:

• How many stays they have already booked in the past
• How many loyalty points they have earned
• How many points they need to earn the next reward

Users can also access the list of available rewards.They have direct access to their next booking.Finally, users will find all the settings.

Conclusion

The problems that I have identified from the secondary research were:

• Not feeling like a "real" vacation / limited change of scenery
• Lack of information about properties or local attractions
• Expanding beyond luxury

So I designed a solution centered around a loyalty program and a highlight of local attractions during the booking process. Both of these features are limitedly available among competitors (see competitors' features matrix).

Next step

Now, I want to get feedback from users on my design. I'm planning to conduct usability test sessions on the booking process and assess the comprehension of the local attraction booking and the use and benefits of the loyalty program