Hotel booking process design & usability

Travel UCD - consultants in travel and hospitality website design 
http://www.travelucd.com 

© Travel UCD Limited 2003. All Rights Reserved.

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Hotel booking process design & usability 
Travel UCD – February 2003 
What is in the report? 
• An explanation of the key concepts behind online hotel booking process design,
including screen flow, multi-room bookings and occupancy level issues
• An analysis of the popular booking-process styles in general use today
• Results and analysis of usability testing conducted by Travel UCD
• 25 guidelines that define the best industry practice
What are the key issues highlighted in the report? 
Only 48% of rates displayed on results pages explain whether the price is for a room — the hotel
industry standard — or for a person — the holiday industry standard — which leads to customer
confusion on the likely cost of their stay.
The report also discovers that less than 20% of websites can handle all the common types of
room occupancy offered by hotels; for example, reserving two rooms for three adults, or booking
one superior and one standard double room for two couples.
Families also lose out, with many hotel websites unable to offer rooms for child occupancy, or,
conversely, accepting bookings for child occupancy when legal regulations forbid the
reservation.
Information sources 
This report is based on an analysis of the following:
• A functionality evaluation of 87 hotel booking websites (16 travel agencies, 43 hotel
booking agencies, 28 hotel chains)
• The summary of two 12-user usability tests, each conducted on four leading hotel
booking websites
The full list of websites and tasks used in the usability tests can be found in the Appendix.