Case Study 02
Group
Bookings
The Problem
No transparency, no control.
Travelers looking to book more than 8 rooms, or stay longer than 28 days, were not able to do so directly on our platform.
The current manual process forced users to submit a basic form online and hope our project services team got it. There was no transparency into the status of their project and clients were forced to track down emails to hopefully pick the right hotel for their trip.
Project Goals
The Team
Who built it.
My Role
As the lead product designer for our Groups Booking team I held meetings with stakeholders to understand our business goals, the opportunities in the market and the current gaps our product had. I then got to work designing the Group Booking experience that would grow into a key pillar for the company’s overall success.
I designed brand new solutions on both sides of the service with focus on the customer as well as the internal workforce. The initial results have been tremendous with all of our key metrics being met or exceeded and record growth for the business in the Group Booking space.
In addition, I also worked with our design system team to craft new components and ensured all of my designs were fully ADA accessible.
Design Timeline
Three versions, phased.
Working with my product partners we put together a phased approach that brought value to the consumers while we fully built out the entire solution. I designed 3 initial versions that each brought tremendous lift to the Groups experience.
Legacy Experience Critique
- Very little guidance for users for the group RFP process and what to expect on this form.
- Old form design with usability concerns such as no search ahead and options hidden in dropdowns.
- Complete lack of transparency into what to expect next and how to track multiple group trips.
Design Process
Learning the journey.
User Interviews
To begin the design process I focused on getting to know the current platform and pain points it had. I talked to numerous Project Service managers, sourcing managers, and contract specialists. I dug into the end to end journey, what was expected from the customer along the way and what gaps we had. The interviews were very illuminating and I knew we had a great opportunity to not only improve the current designs but truly deliver an entire experience clients would love using.
User Journey
After the user interviews and design sprints, I created a detailed view of the user journey for both the internal Project Services team as well as the consumer facing users. There are numerous touch points in the end to end process and we highlighted what areas we could bring to the platform and how they would fit into our design system.
Competitive Analysis
There are not many players in the group booking space and even fewer who did it well. I noticed many platforms were just white-labeled versions of the same experience. The leader in the market from our research was Groups360 and their new partnership with Marriott. Their solution was solid but I knew we could do better.
Research
Findings &
Opportunities
Findings
- User interviews revealed clients were frustrated and confused with the lack of transparency into the process.
- Project services was having to do double work sourcing hotels on third party sites and sending it to consumers on another.
- Users wanted that white glove experience with group bookings, as they often needed help with details and negotiated rates.
- Our current timeline was too long. Users felt we never got their request or were not able to find any hotels that matched.
- Leadership saw Groups as a Big Rock and made it a top priority for the company in 2023 and beyond, with revenue projections of over $50M.
Opportunities
- Design a platform that allowed users to enter their info, track the status of their trip and manage their upcoming stays.
- Integrate the platform sourcing tools with the consumer facing experience to improve efficiency and offer automated solutions.
- Keep users connected to their project managers with key contact info and messages inside the platform.
- Inform users of the current timeline while building a solution that provided hotel options immediately after submitting.
- Identified key metrics to improve: Conversion rate, Win Rate, Weekly Revenue and Weekly Bookings.
Design Iterations
Sketches to system.
I created numerous sketches, wireframes and user flows to find the best flow that not only worked with our design system, but also gave users the UI they needed to manage their group travel. I experimented with a list view, dashboard, and card layout, plus a step by step form flow that gave users more guidance.
I ultimately decided to tweak our current card components instead of creating a brand new dashboard UI. This allowed the experience to feel connected with the rest of the app and made our design system easier to maintain.
The Solution
The whole trip,
on platform
No more emails to dig through and no more guessing which projects were on track. Users had the insight and tools they needed to manage their group travel.
Legacy Experience
Intake Form Redesign
- Redesigned intake form built with usability in mind converted 8% more leads.
- Simplified the required fields and guided users through each step.
- Side navigation allowed users to save drafts and submit their forms at their own pace.
- Clear confirmation screen gave users a heads up on next steps.
Group Trip Dashboard
- One central location to track all of their trips.
- Provided transparency into the status of each group request.
- Brought hotel options directly onto the platform, no more searching through emails.
- Allowed users to decline hotels they didn’t like or accept the perfect hotel for their trip.
- Added payments and contracts right into the experience.
Results
A company Big Rock.
Leadership identified Groups as a “Big Rock” — a key pillar for the company’s growth — during our winter summit with lofty goals for the business.
The initial response has been tremendous with positive feedback and solid metrics. The team continues to meet not only their monthly revenue goals, but has hit all of their stretch goals since the new Groups experience launched.
More leads converted with the redesigned intake form
Revenue projection that made Groups a company priority
Of monthly revenue and stretch goals hit since launch
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