Airbnb Installment Booking User Research & Design

Primary Research

According to previous user research from colleagues, we learned Airbnb is a fast growing company (YoY increase rate 120%+). On the other hand, we also learned some obstacles bother users to use our product. Travel budget & safety concerns are the most important issues affect users when they decide trip stay between hotel and Airbnb.  

Cluster topics

We initiated idea that installment travel pay may eliminate users' budget concerns in order to attract potential or retention users to use Airbnb. Another concern we had is installment's negative influence to our existing users. Since we don't want to hurt exiting users, we want to understand their feeling and ideas about travel installment objectively.

User Segment Analysis

I used SQL and R for user segment analysis. According to the user demographics, we learned the main Airbnb users are 18 - 34 age group. 

From user segment analysis, I also learned the travel preference is highly related to their demographic information, such as region, gender, age and etc. Therefore, we separated users as four different groups for focus group research in later.

Focus Group Research

The focus group research is to find out the potential Airbnb users booking blocks and if the installment solution reduce these blocks or not. Here are the summary of our research goals:

• Figure out the potential booking blocks for different user groups.
• Leverage installment to find out if it is possible to reduce these blocks.
• Understand user real needs and provide appropriate solutions for them.

User Research Insights

Host trustworthiness, quality of host service, convenience of check-in/out, and cancellation policy are the main booking blockers of potential users that installment or insurance products can address.

Live first and pay later (pay at checkout time) was more appreciated compare with check-in time because it can increase guest confidence in receiving high quality service from the host

Payment installments is appreciated is that it allows users to increase their travel budget, even making trips possible that would otherwise not be

Cancellation insurance is generally appreciated because it simplifies users’ mental model of how cancellation works on Airbnb. However, the terms of general cancellation insurance) should be made clearer and easily-distinguished from that for hotels.

Design Process

Design Evaluation

When we embedded the installment ideas to product design , we noticed that installment may influence users' decisions in any steps during booking. Meanwhile, the whole Guest team was re-designing the booking process in order to make it smoother and easier for new users. Therefore, we started from the mobile app design to determine which page should be embedded installment features and then gradually extended to responsive web design.

After we finished the workflow analysis, we cut all the redundant pages with sticky notes. 

Design Ideations

We wrote all ideas we collected from user research on the whiteboard and highlighted the useful information for out installment booking design.

Because the team planed to release the installment features with Explore 2.0 version, we followed the Airbnb Visual Language System for our design prototype. For more details about Airbnb visual design, you can find the article in here..

Final Evaluated Prototype

After we finished the first prototype, we asked some participants to come for design evaluation  (NDA). Based on the evaluation findings, we made some small change and finished the book process in our latest App version.