Hotel Industry UX Benchmark Study

Webinar:
Hotel Industry UX Benchmark Study
June 29th, 2010

Overview
Introductions (2 min)
Study Background (3 min)
Methodology and Technology (3 min)
Executive Summary (3 min)
Findings and Opportunities (20 min)
Questions and Comments (15 min)

Introductions
Alfonso de la Nuez
Partner & Chief
Marketing Officer
at UserZoom
Ania Rodriguez
Founder and CEO at
Key Lime Interactive

About UserZoom
Leading online (remote) user experience research software company
9 years experience in UX research & consulting
Offices in Sunnyvale (CA), London (UK) and Barcelona (Spain)
Created because traditional UX research methods are great but not enough

About Key Lime Interactive
Experienced market research and usability professionals
Over 12 years of consulting experience testing Internet 500 websites and providing actionable results
Most consultants have Masters in Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Industry Engineering or related field
Cross-Industry Expertise
Ability to scorecard against competition
Ability to suggest cross-industry recommendations to improve ease of use
Independent Third Party
Impartial with no-hidden agenda
Ability to work with business team and developers to “get everyone onboard”
Expert Reviews

Study Background

Today’s Session Goals
What's the most popular hotel brand?
Can users successfully find a room? What matters most to users searching for a hotel room?
Can users successfully find a weekend deal? If they couldn't, why not?
What needs to be improved?
How is the overall user experience?
Would they recommend the site to friends?
What common patterns did we find out with regards to user behavior?

Tasks
Find beach destination hotel: Your task is to find a hotel you would consider booking on the Hotel site for the 4th of July weekend. Make sure that the hotel is within 2 miles from the beach destination of your choice and that it has a fitness center, pool, and high-speed Internet. Your budget is $250/night.
Find parking cost at specific hotel: Your task is to find out how much on-site parking cost at <hotel name> for one night.

Study structure
Introduction:
When planning for a vacation and booking for a hotel to stay at, what is the first hotel that comes to mind?
What type of content do you need to see before making an online reservation?
Based on your experience, how negative or positive is your perception of the following hotel brands?
Are you part of any of the following rewards programs?
Post-task:
Self-reported success
Ease of use
Ease of navigation
Clear where to start
Satisfaction with amount of time to complete task
What content is missing or would make it easier to find what you are looking for?
Wrap-up:
Likelihood to recommend : (Net Promoter Score )
Post-task brand image
Screener
N=200
Introduction
Hilton
Marriott
IHG
Sheraton
Hyatt
n-=50
n-=50
n-=50
n-=50
n-=50
Task 1
Task1:
Task 1
Task 1
Task 1
Task 2
Task 2
Task 2
Task 2
Task 2
Wrap-up

Methodology and Technology

Online Usability Testing Solution
UZ Self-Serve Edition
100% on-demand, web-based software solution
To manage & conduct various types of online UX research projects

How does UserZoom add value?
By allowing you to see the BIG picture
Testing large samples of geographically spread participants
Combining statistically-significant usability + user behavior data
Measuring Customer Experience cost-effectively
Getting actionableinsights
Behavior
Usability Lab Studies
Web Traffic Analysis
Online
UX
Studies
Attitudes
Online Surveys
Focus Groups
Qualitative
Quantitative

How does UserZoom add value?

Our method
Hundreds of users participate in a study
In their natural context
From geographically spread locations
Users try to complete tasks(or goals) + answer questions
No human moderation needed
Our browser bar connects users with our secure servers

User recruitment options
Choose the user
recruitment yourself
Panel*
Intercept
Private mailing list
*Partners of

Participants

Executive Summary

Executive Summary
Hilton and Marriott are the top 2 most popular brands
Hilton ranks #1 using the KLI UX Score
Hilton, Marriott, Intercontinental, and Starwood provide the a significantly better search experience than Hyatt
Hilton has the highest success rate (95%) for an open search for a beach destination
Marriott leads in terms of ease of use (63%) and ease of navigation (64%)
Intercontinental participants were most satisfied with the amount of time it took to find a beach destination that met the requirements and felt it was the most clear to know where to start
Marriott had the highest success rate (71%) for finding the parking rate and participants found it the easiest to navigate, however 72% of Marriott participants were unclear where to start
Intercontinental participants found the site easiest to use and easy to know where to start when looking for a hotel’s parking rate
Nonetheless, after spending about 10 minutes on the site, both brand perception and NPS were low
Hilton leads with a -7% NPS.
Hilton has the highest overall brand perception pre and post, however experienced a 12% drop pre to post experience

Findings and Opportunities

Price, style of room, deals and ratings are the most important content when making an online reservation.

93% typically compare specific dates rather than flexible dates when booking a hotel for a vacation.

Hilton and Marriott are the top 2 brands that are top of mind when users were asked unaided.

Net Promoter Score (NPS®)
After spending about 10 minutes on the site, all hotels had a low NPS score indicating that the user experience for the given tasks adversely affected loyalty. Hilton leads with a -7% NPS.
Detractors
Promoters
-
=
% of Promoters
(9s and 10s)
Detractors
(0 through 6)
NPS
Copyright 2010. Key Lime Interactive and UserZoom. All Rights Reserved.

Hotel Brand Perception*
All hotels had a drop in brand perception pre to post, indicating that none of the sites have optimized the experience to meet expectations for the given tasks.
Nonetheless, Hilton and Marriott have a significantly better brand perception pre and post than Hyatt and Intercontinental at 90% CI
12%
10%
8%
12%
10%
Participants were asked to find parking for a Holiday Inn Express.
** A difference of 17% is significantly worse than Hilton or Marriott.

Task 1 Metrics
Find a hotel given a beach theme on specific dates & budget
Indicates top runner
Indicates significantly worse than top runner

Task 1 Behavior and Time reveals users satisfaction with “perceived” time to completion
Intercontinental (65% were satisfied with amount of time to completion)
Hyatt (44% were satisfied with amount of time to completion)

Task 2 Metrics
Find how much parking is at a specific hotel
Indicates top runner
Indicates significantly worse than top runner

Some IHG started by clicking on the Brand whereas <2% of Marriott participants filtered by Brand
Task 2: Find Parking Details
Task 2: Find Parking Details
15%
52% were clear where to start
44% searched by City/Town
15% searched by Brand
28% were clear where to start
58% searched by City
19% searched by State
<2% searched by Brand

Overall Ranking using KLI score

Thanks so much for your time!
Check out our upcoming events at www.userzoom.com & www.keylimeinteractive.com
UserZoom (USA)
440 N. Wolfe Rd. Sunnyvale,
CA 94085
Phone: +1 (408) 524 7445
Contact: Alfonso de la Nuez
alfonso@userzoom.com
Key Lime Interactive
1221 Brickell Avenue
Miami FL 33131
Phone: 1 (305) 804 2930
Contact: Ania Rodriguez
ania@keylimeinteractive.co

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Hotel Industry UX Benchmark Study

by UserZoom on Jul 02, 2010

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Hotel Industry UX Benchmark Study — Presentation Transcript