Competitive benchmarking
Case 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 date
The research was conducted on June 19th2021.
• 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/experience Standard for chosen industry Negative points/experience
Homepage
Airbnb
• 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) 1
2 3
4
5
Homepage
Airbnb
• 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) 6
7
8 9
Homepage
booking.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)
10 11
12 13
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15
Homepage
booking.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) 17
16
18
Homepage
intercontinental.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)
19 20
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22 23
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Homepage
intercontinental.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) 25
27
26
• 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)
Homepage
trip.com
28 29
30
31
Homepage
trip.com
• Additional information about deals, recommendations etc. (32)
• More detailed menu & payment methods at the bottom (33) 32
33
8
Search & select
Airbnb
• 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)
34 35 36
37
Search & select
Airbnb
• 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) 38
41
39 40
42 43
Search & select
Airbnb
• 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) 46
44
45
47
Search & select
booking.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).
48
49
50
Search & select
booking.com
• 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)
51
53 52
54
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57
Search & select
booking.com
• 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)
58 59 60
61
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63
Search & select
intercontinental.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
64
65
66
Search & select
intercontinental.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) 67
70 69
68
71
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73 74
Search & select
trip.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) 75
77 78
76
Search & select
trip.com
• 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 79
80
81
82
83
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85
Search & select
trip.com
• 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)
86 87
89
90
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88
Search & select
trip.com
• Booking.com reviews at the bottom of the page (92)
• Hotel rules and detailed services described (93)
92 93
Entering details
Airbnb
• 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)
94 95
97
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Entering details
booking.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)
98 100
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Entering details
intercontinental.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)
105 106 107 108
109
110
Entering details
trip.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) 111
112
113
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115
Entering details
trip.com
• Payment with credit/debit card (116)
• Free cancellation policy information repeated (117)
• Payment summary – full prepayment online (118) 116
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