UX Case study

Improving price display through clarity

The number a traveller saw when they picked a hotel and the number they were asked for at the checkout page were not the same. This is the work that took the price apart on the page instead of at the end, and the experiment that measured whether saying more about a price sells more stock.

Platforms compared, our own amongst them

Countries, each with its own tax rules

+3.5^%

Conversion, outside the United States

Client

Role UX Designer, sole designer on price display

Team 1 UX designer, 1 product owner, 1 data scientist, 1 copywriter, an external translation agency, a scrum team

Timeline Ongoing when this was written; the benchmark ran in September 2020

Platform The booking funnel, on desktop and mobile web

Tools Figma, Zeplin, FullStory

The key panel in the design. Every line under the room rate is money somebody used to meet for the first time at checkout.

Problem

A price that grew on the way to the till

Findhotel is a smaller player in accommodation. It works the localised markets the largest platforms tend to leave alone, and much of its portfolio is distress inventory: rooms a hotel expects not to sell and cannot list itself without being pushed down the rankings by the bigger sites.

Selling that inventory means winning on price, and the funnel was undermining its own strongest argument. The price shown when somebody chose a room was not the price they were asked for two screens later in the funnel. Data showed a large drop-off of users concentrated in the checkout page.

The gap was widest for travellers outside the United States, because that is where the extra lines live: a city tax collected by the municipality, a resort fee collected by the hotel, other local charges that vary street by street. None of it was hidden on purpose. It simply appeared late, unnamed, and all at once.

Two arguments pointed the same way for once. The business wanted a higher conversion rate. I wanted our users to be able to answer the question what am I paying for and why without opening a second tab.

Deal details, the one screen in the funnel whose entire job is to answer that question.

Goals

What the work had to do

Say the number early: Put what a stay actually costs in front of somebody whilst they are still choosing, not once they have committed.
Name every charge: A fee with a name can be understood and possibly forgiven. An unlabelled sum at the end can only be resented.
Roll it out without betting the funnel: Reach every market eventually, and be able to stop after the first one if the numbers went the wrong way.

Price display sits on the revenue path of every booking the company takes, so a change to it is a change nobody can be relaxed about. Being able to point at a staged rollout was what made the conversation possible at all.

Team & audience

Who did what

The product owner brought the business case and set the priorities. The data scientist supplied the numbers the decisions rested on and designed the A/B tests that measured them. A copywriter owned the wording of every label. A third-party agency translated that wording into the languages the site runs in.

Everything between the problem and the handover was mine: the benchmark, the ideation and scoping sessions, the wireframes and the prototype, the guerrilla tests, the development plan, the high-fidelity screens, the manual testing before release, the watching afterwards, and the write-up that let anybody else in the company follow what had changed.

Audience

Who we aimed at, and in what order

The first release went to American travellers arriving from Google hotel ads onto the room selection page. That was the largest and most valuable group on the site, which made it the audience worth improving and the audience worth being careful with.

Once a hypothesis had survived, the change went out to the rest of the English-speaking markets, and only then to the twenty-six other languages the site supported at the time. Each step was a smaller bet than the one it followed was worth, which is how a team is allowed to touch the revenue path more than once.

The group we aimed at first is not the group the result came from.

Scope and constraints

What we could reach, and what we could not

The company was organised so that the room selection page and everything after it belonged to us, meaning that the search and landing pages did not. That is a hard boundary drawn through the middle of the problem: a traveller forms their expectation of the price on a screen we were not allowed to change, and then meets ours.

There was also no budget for moderated testing. A handful of customers were called, but the purpose of those calls was to collect what they already disliked about the current experience, not to put a prototype in front of them. So the qualitative half of this project is a benchmark and a set of session recordings rather than a study.

Two screens, then more: It started on room selection and payment. As evidence arrived it reached deal details, the confirmation screen, confirmation emails and booking management.
Desk research, not a lab: Eight platforms in seven countries, worked through by hand. No moderated sessions.
Five weeks of live traffic: One A/B test, split evenly, long enough to survive a weekend pattern and short enough to act on.

The first card is the one worth dwelling on, because it is the difference between a change to a screen and a change to a product. A price breakdown that is only fully visible at the moment of payment is not honest; it is a disclosure. So the same rows had to survive past the point where the money moves, into the screen that confirms the booking and the email that follows it.

This wireframe is where that was settled. It is the confirmation screen, carrying the identical breakdown the checkout carries, with two additional lines that checkout did not have: what has already been paid, and what the property is still going to collect. Everything later in this page is downstream of that decision.

Confirmation, wireframed. The breakdown does not stop at the payment, and the currency placeholders in the small print are there because it had to be true in every market too.

Process

Nine steps, repeated every iteration

This was never one project with an end. It is a loop that has run several times, and each pass leaned on whichever of these steps the product needed most at that moment. The benchmark is the exception: it was done thoroughly once and consulted afterwards.

Mapping where a price appears

A rough diagram of the interactions a traveller can have with a price and what follows from each. It is not a complete account of every state the funnel can be in, and it was never going to be. What it buys is the edge cases you can see in advance rather than the ones a developer finds in a sprint, and a shared object to point at when somebody asks whether we thought about a very specific edge case.

Benchmarking eight platforms in seven countries

It started as one question with a complex answer: what do other platforms include in the nightly price?

Answering it honestly meant deciding who to compare against, where, and under what booking. So: Findhotel against Expedia, Booking, Agoda, Skyscanner, TripAdvisor, Airbnb and Kayak, because those are the ones the company already measured itself against. In the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Belarus, Indonesia and Israel, because those are the markets where our own price display rules already differed.

Comparable results need a control, so every search was the same search: Park Plaza Victoria in Amsterdam, one adult, one room, for the night of 13 October 2020, a hotel chosen precisely because it carries both a city tax and a tourism fee. The searches themselves were run in September, a month out, which is roughly when somebody books a city break. A second pass asked for two nights, 13 to 15 October, in the five markets where the first pass had raised a question. Where a platform did not carry that hotel, the nearest equivalent was used and the substitution written down.

Vendor includes general tax in nightly rate?

Yes, from the search results onwards

No, only at checkout

Names the base rate and the total together

Vendor includes local tax in nightly rate?

Yes, from the search results onwards

No, only at checkout

Names the base rate and the total together

Two questions, asked at every platform

Does the nightly rate include the general tax – the sales tax the platform itself collects?

Does the nightly rate include the local tax – the city or tourist tax the destination collects?

Included from the start
Revealed in checkout
Inconsistent
Stated separately

Two searches, one hotel

Search 1 · 1 night

Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam, 13–14 Oct 2020 · 1 adult, 1 room

Airbnb used a different hotel here; TripAdvisor didn’t carry this one at all.

Search 2 · 2 nights

Same hotel, 13–15 Oct 2020 · 1 adult, 1 room

Airbnb, Skyscanner and TripAdvisor didn’t carry it either; another hotel stood in for all three.

	Local				General
Market	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately
GermanyDE: Germany	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
NetherlandsNL: Netherlands	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
United KingdomUK: United Kingdom	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
AustraliaAU: Australia	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
BelarusBY: Belarus	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IndonesiaID: Indonesia	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IsraelIL: Israel	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately

	Local				General
Market	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately
GermanyDE: Germany	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
NetherlandsNL: Netherlands	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
United KingdomUK: United Kingdom	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
AustraliaAU: Australia	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
BelarusBY: Belarus	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
IndonesiaID: Indonesia	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
IsraelIL: Israel	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately

	Local				General
Market	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately
GermanyDE: Germany	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
NetherlandsNL: Netherlands	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
United KingdomUK: United Kingdom	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
AustraliaAU: Australia	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
BelarusBY: Belarus	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately
IndonesiaID: Indonesia	Not recorded				Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IsraelIL: Israel	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Stated separately

More platforms

	Local				General
Market	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately
GermanyDE: Germany	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
NetherlandsNL: Netherlands	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
United KingdomUK: United Kingdom	^*Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	^*Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
AustraliaAU: Australia	^*Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	^*Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
BelarusBY: Belarus	Not: Included from the start	^*Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	^*Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IndonesiaID: Indonesia	Not: Included from the start	^*Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	^*Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IsraelIL: Israel	Not: Included from the start	^*Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	^*Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately

	Local				General
Market	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately
GermanyDE: Germany	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
NetherlandsNL: Netherlands	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
United KingdomUK: United Kingdom	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
AustraliaAU: Australia	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
BelarusBY: Belarus	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IndonesiaID: Indonesia	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IsraelIL: Israel	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately

	Local				General
Market	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately
GermanyDE: Germany	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
NetherlandsNL: Netherlands	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
United KingdomUK: United Kingdom	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
AustraliaAU: Australia	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
BelarusBY: Belarus	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IndonesiaID: Indonesia	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IsraelIL: Israel	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately

	Local				General
Market	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately
GermanyDE: Germany	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
NetherlandsNL: Netherlands	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
United KingdomUK: United Kingdom	^*Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	^*Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
AustraliaAU: Australia	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
BelarusBY: Belarus	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IndonesiaID: Indonesia	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IsraelIL: Israel	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately

	Local				General
Market	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately	Incl.: Included from the start	Held: Revealed in checkout	Mix: Inconsistent	Split: Stated separately
GermanyDE: Germany	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
NetherlandsNL: Netherlands	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
United KingdomUK: United Kingdom	^*Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	^*Included from the start	Not: Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
AustraliaAU: Australia	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
BelarusBY: Belarus	Did not appear to sell into Belarus that month.
IndonesiaID: Indonesia	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately
IsraelIL: Israel	Not: Included from the start	^*Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately	Not: Included from the start	^*Revealed in checkout	Not: Inconsistent	Not: Stated separately

^* Added the nights together only at checkout – search and room selection still quoted them one at a time.

The finding is in the two starred rows. Airbnb and Expedia were the only platforms that answered both questions the same way in every market, and the answer they gave was neither yes nor no: they name the base rate and the total at the same time. Everyone else, Findhotel included, picked one number and hoped it was the right one for that country.

The board also records what did not work. Skyscanner's figures did not add up, and TripAdvisor did not appear to sell in Belarus at all.

The table below displayed their prices in November 2020 for a single and multiple rooms.

Single room

Multiple rooms

Single room

Price details

1 room x 1 night$123.37

You saved 20% ⓘ

Taxes and fees ⓘ$11.10

Local taxPayable at property$7.06

Local taxPayable at property$8.64

Total$150.17

Pay now$134.47

Pay at property$15.70

Use a coupon, credit, or promotion code

Rates are quoted in US dollars. Taxes and/or property imposed fees of $15.70 will be collected by the property in the local currency (€13.34). Taxes and/or fees due at the property are based on current exchange rates, which may vary at time of travel.

Multiple rooms

Price details

2 rooms x 1 night$663.44

🏷 You saved 30% ⓘ

Taxes and fees ⓘ$59.72

Local taxPayable at property$14.12

Local taxPayable at property$46.44

Total$783.72

Pay now$723.16

Pay at property$60.56

Use a coupon, credit, or promotion code

Rates are quoted in US dollars. Taxes and/or property imposed fees of $60.56 will be collected by the property in the local currency (€51.47). Taxes and/or fees due at the property are based on current exchange rates, which may vary at time of travel.

Single room

Your Genius Price Summary

Small Double RoomIncludes Genius benefit€ 58.83

9 % VAT€ 5.29

Tourism fee€ 3

7 % City tax€ 4.12

Price € 71.24 (for 1 guest)

Multiple rooms

Check-in
Thu 22 Oct 2020Check-out
Fri 23 Oct 2020

1 night, 2 roomsChange dates

FREE cancellation before 23:59 on 20 October 2020

2 rooms€ 249.36

9 % VAT€ 22.44

Tourism fee€ 12

7 % City tax€ 17.46

Total price due at stay:€ 301.26

Now you’ll pay€ 0

No payment needed now. You’ll pay at the property.

Single room

Original price (1 room x 1 night)€ 413.76

Price (1 room x 1 night)€ 60.00

Booking feesFREE

Price ⓘ€ 60.00

Included in price: Hotel tax and service fees € 4.95

Not included in price (collected by the property): City Tax € 3.85

YOU SAVED € 353.76 ON THIS BOOKING!

Multiple rooms

14% OFF TODAY

Original price (2 rooms x 1 night)€ 139.36

Our price€ 135.00

✓ 24HOURSALE Coupon applied-€ 15.96

Price (2 rooms x 1 night)€ 119.04

Booking feesFREE

Price ⓘ€ 119.04

Included in price: VAT 9%

Not included in price (collected by the property): City Tax € 12.50

YOU SAVED € 15.96 ON THIS BOOKING!

Single room

1 night£205.25

Taxes and fees£36.06

Value Added Tax£18.66

Local tax (Pay on arrival)£17.40

Total£241.31

Pay now £223.91

Pay on arrival £17.40 (19.22 EUR) ⓘ

The price shown in GBP is for reference only and it may change. Payment at check-in must be in EUR. Reference exchange rate: 1.00 GBP=1.1046028974 EUR

🚗 Free cancellation

Multiple rooms

Single room

Budget Twin Room Shared Bathroom

📅 Tue, 10/20 - Wed, 10/21Change Dates

Nightly Rate€55.05

Rooms1

Nights1

Guests2

Subtotal€55.05

Taxes and Fees€14.80

Total:€69.85

Book now. Pay later when you stay.

Free Cancellation until Oct 18, 2020 ⓘ

Multiple rooms

Standaard driepersoonskamer, 3 eenpersoonsbedden

📅 Wed, 10/21 - Thu, 10/22Change Dates

Nightly Rate€57.80

Rooms2

Nights1

Adults4

Children1

Subtotal€115.60

Taxes and Fees€30.50

Total:€146.10

Non Refundable ⓘ

Single room

Summary

1 room, 2 guests, 2 nights
Fri 09-11-2020 - Sun 09-13-2020

Charges

Standard Double Room$281.39

Taxes, Fees & Surcharges$25.31

City taxPayable at hotel.$33.86

Total ⓘ$340.56
€288.70

Multiple rooms

Summary

2 rooms, 4 guests, 2 nights
Fri 09-11-2020 - Sun 09-13-2020

Charges

Standard Queen Room$389.61

Taxes, Fees & Surcharges$35.05

City taxPayable at hotel.$55.59

Total ⓘ$480.25
€407.12

Single room

Price

Room Subtotal:USD 105.60
USD 88.00

(US$44.00/night x 2 nights)

Taxes & Fees:USD 19.97

Total Price:USD 107.97

You Saved:USD 17.60

Cancellation Policy:
Learn moreRefundable until Oct 02, 2020

Promo Code ▾ Credits ▾

Multiple rooms

1 Night, 4 GuestsChange Dates

☐ VIP Package for $2.99 ⓘ Included: Free upgrade call, 24hr Concierge, Priority Support line

Price

Room Subtotal:USD 87.92
USD 79.29

(US$79.29/night x 1 night)

Tips:USD 1.00

Taxes & Fees:USD 14.27

Total Price:USD 94.56

You Saved:USD 8.63

Tip $1 for saving you $8.63? ⓘ Your support helps us deliver the best in hotel deals.

No Tip$10

Cancellation Policy:
Learn moreNon Refundable

Single room

1 room x 1 night€61.98

Taxes & fees€5.26

VAT€5.26

Special Discount- €3.60

Subtotal (Pay to Trip.com)€63.64

Additional Fees (Pay at Hotel)

City Tax€4.09

City Fee€6.00

Total€73.73

Taxes and fees may vary upon arrival

Multiple rooms

Check-in: Tue, Oct 13
Check-out: Wed, Oct 141 night

Rooms: 2›

Prepay Online €138.04›

Taxes due at hotel: ≈ €53.72

×Price Summary

Prepay Online
An online prepayment of €138.04 is required to book this room.

Included in the price: Breakfast not included

2 rooms x 1 night€140.63

Taxes & fees ⓘ€11.41

Silver Tier Deal-€14

Subtotal (Pay to Trip.com)approx. €138.04

Additional Fees (Pay at Hotel)€53.72

other tax and fee

Totalapprox. €191.76
(Local currency: US$225.58)

Taxes and fees may vary upon arrival

Receive after stay:★ 130

130 Trip Coins = €1.11

Best stay with free cancellation

Single room

Summary

🔒 Price Guarantee

Friday, September 11, 202070,18€

Taxes and fees6,31€

City tax10,91€

Includes Your Secret Price: You’re saving 9% as a member

Total price87,40€

for 1 room, 2 guests, 1 night
including taxes and fees

Payment schedule

Due now76,49€

Due at property10,91€

Multiple rooms

Summary

🔒 Price Guarantee

Average nightly rate$204.14 CAD

Superior Twin Room 👤👤

Free cancellation

Wednesday, October 14, 2020$189.13 CAD

Executive Double Room 👤👤👤

Free cancellation

Wednesday, October 14, 2020$219.15 CAD

Taxes and fees$36.74 CAD

City tax$47.28 CAD

Includes Your Secret Price:

Total price$492.30 CAD*

for 2 rooms, 5 guests, 1 night
including taxes and fees

Payment schedule

Due now$445.02 CAD

Due at property$47.28 CAD
(30,34€)

*Prices are quoted in CAD based on the current exchange rate. The amount due at the property is payable in EUR.

Those seven images represent the raw material the matrix was read off. Each is one country's whole landscape captured in a single pass, which is also why the study has a date on it: this is what these sites looked like in September 2020.

Ideation, then scoping it down

I ran the ideation sessions, and the benchmark is what made them worth running. Walking a team through what eight competitors do to the same booking is a faster way to establish what is possible than any opinion. It moves the conversation from opinions about price to observations about prices.

Scoping followed each session, with the product owner and the data scientist. Two questions, always in this order: "What would the right answer look like if nothing were in the way of development?", and "What is the smallest piece we could develop to put in real traffic?". The gap between those two answers made the roadmap.

A prototype cheap enough to argue with

The wireframes became a clickable prototype, kept deliberately rough. The audience was stakeholders and anybody in the company with a stake in the outcome, and a finished-looking screen invites a conversation about how finished it looks. A grey one invites a conversation about the price.

Then guerrilla testing, which here means grabbing whoever was available and watching them try. It does not replace a study and it was never offered as one. It catches the obvious, and it generates the questions that go back to the team as real research: what happens when the currency of the traveller is not the currency of the provider, what happens across several rooms, what happens when the fee is larger than the room.

The whole flow on a phone, banded by stage, in the form it was first argued about. It runs past checkout into the emails, booking management and cancellation.

Turning it into tickets

A diagram of the happy path and the edge cases that matter, each branch carrying the screen it produces. That drawing is what a product owner writes tickets from. It is also the artefact I go back to in step seven, when the question is whether the build does what was agreed.

Handing it to the front end

High fidelity screens, designed with the company's style guide and component library so that a developer is assembling known parts rather than interpreting a picture. The key screens went into Zeplin in both desktop and mobile, which is where the padding, the colour and the icon come from.

Checking the build against the scenarios

Once developers had something unreleased, I worked back through the scenarios agreed for that sprint by hand. This is where the map from step one and the diagram from step five pay for themselves, because otherwise the answer to whether everything was covered is somebody's memory of a conversation.

Two recordings from production

Once it was live the question changes from whether it works to what people do with it. FullStory records real sessions and lets you segment by behaviour or by where somebody is, and anything I found worth keeping, a bug or an idea or a habit nobody had predicted, went into a document.

Two of those sessions are here because each shows something a conversion rate cannot. One is an American traveller on the B side going from room selection through to checkout. The other is a traveller in Japan opening the price breakdown on a room, which is the exact gesture this project existed to make worth making.

United States, room selection through to checkout, on the B side of the test

Japan, opening the price breakdown from the room selection page

Making the change legible to colleagues

The last step is the one that decides whether any of the others travel. The product owner and the data scientist wrote the readable account; my part was to draw the two sides against each other so that somebody who had never been in a single meeting about this could scroll once and see what moved.

Both boards below run the same journey twice, room selection on the left and checkout on the right, with the decision points presented in questions and the resulting panel under each branch. Put them side by side and the whole change is three things: the fee gets its name back, what you pay now is separated from what you pay there, and a sentence says who collects it.

Room selection

More than one night, or more than one room?

1 night, 1 room

You found the best deal

FH FindHotel

CLP 59,803CLP 51,381

Resort Tower Two Queen …

14% off Partially refundable rate

Deal details

Compared with 2 other sites No changes

Hotels
Resort Tower Two Queen …

Non-refundable rate

Booking
Resort Tower Two Queen …

Non-refundable rate

Nightly price including taxes and fees

CLP 59,803

CLP 51,381 Nightly price including taxes and fees

Price details 14% off

1 night x 1 room: CLP 17,540.28
Taxes and fees: CLP 2,699.71
Due at property: CLP 31,140.86
Resort fee: CLP 31,109.12

Total

CLP 51,380.86

Total

CLP 51,328.48

2 nights, 2 rooms

You found the best deal

FH FindHotel

CLP 74,531CLP 62,031

Resort Tower Two Queen …

17% off Partially refundable rate

Deal details

Compared with 2 other sites No changes

Hotels
Resort Tower Two Queen …
CLP 74,507
Non-refundable rate

Booking
Resort Tower Two Queen …
CLP 74,531
Non-refundable rate

Nightly price per room including taxes and fees

CLP 74,531

CLP 62,031 Nightly price per room including taxes and fees

Price details 17% off

2 nights x 2 rooms CLP 26,773.45 average per night per room: CLP 107,093.81
Taxes and fees CLP 4,116.28 average per night per room: CLP 16,465.10
Due at property: CLP 124,563.46
Resort fee CLP 31,109.12 average per night per room: CLP 124,436.48

Total

CLP 248,122.37

Total

CLP 247,869.44

Checkout

Is the guest’s currency different from the property’s?

Nothing tells the guest which currency they will pay in at the property.

Pay now

$25.79

Pay at property

$39.68

Pay at property amount will be collected by the property in the local currency.

Is anything due at the property?

More than one night, or more than one room?

1 night, 1 room

1 King Bed, Nonsmoking

Non-refundable rate

Price details 5% off

1 night x 1 room: CLP 41,437.44
Taxes and fees: CLP 12,690.22

Total price
with taxes & fees

CLP 54,127.66
($68.97)

Total

CLP 54,127.66

Total saving

CLP 2,862.46

Total saving

CLP 2,862.46

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in CLP. You’ll pay in USD.

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in CLP. You’ll pay now in USD ($68.97).

2 nights, 2 rooms

1 King Bed, Nonsmoking

Non-refundable rate

Price details 5% off

2 nights x 2 rooms CLP 41,437.44 per night per room: CLP 165,749.76
Taxes and fees CLP 12,643.13 per night per room: CLP 50,572.51

Total price
with taxes & fees

CLP 216,322.27
($275.64)

Total

CLP 216,322.27

Total saving

CLP 11,633.11

Total saving

CLP 11,633.11

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in CLP. You’ll pay in USD.

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in CLP. You’ll pay now in USD ($275.64).

More than one night, or more than one room?

1 night, 1 room

Resort Tower Two Queen Room

Partially refundable rate

Price details 14% off

1 night x 1 room: CLP 17,540.28
Taxes and fees: CLP 2,699.71
Due now: CLP 20,239.99
Due at property: CLP 31,109.12
Resort fee: CLP 31,109.12

Total price
with taxes & fees

CLP 51,380.86
($65.47)

Total

CLP 51,328.48

Total saving

CLP 8,422.44

Total saving

CLP 8,474.82

Pay now

CLP 20,219.36

Pay at property

CLP 31,109.12

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in CLP. You’ll pay in USD.

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in CLP. You’ll pay now in USD ($25.79). Pay at property amount will be collected by the property in the local currency.

2 nights, 2 rooms

Resort Tower Two Queen Room

Partially refundable rate

Price details 17% off

2 nights x 2 rooms CLP 26,773.45 per night per room: CLP 107,093.81
Taxes and fees CLP 4,112.08 per night per room: CLP 16,465.10
Due now: CLP 123,558.91
Due at property: CLP 124,436.48
Resort fee CLP 31,109.12 per night per room: CLP 124,436.48

Total price
with taxes & fees

CLP 248,122.37
($316.16)

Total

CLP 247,869.44

Total saving

CLP 50,001.57

Total saving

CLP 50,254.50

Pay now

CLP 123,432.96

Pay at property

CLP 124,436.48

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in CLP. You’ll pay in USD.

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in CLP. You’ll pay now in USD ($157.44). Pay at property amount will be collected by the property in the local currency.

Prototype

The prototype itself

The scenario selector, offering a one night one room stay and choice of World, French or American user

Search results for the world scenario, with the price shown per night

One flow, three locales: the same shared figure that runs the X-ray planner’s prototype, pointed at this file instead. Pick a locale to see how the total price is put together for it.

Prototype

The Figma prototype the concept was tested on, one flow shown for three locales. Click anywhere off a control to see what can be clicked.

Conclusion

What five weeks of traffic said

+3.5^%

Conversion, for travellers outside the United States, over a five-week test.

Taxes-included markets moved most

The effect was sharpest where people already expect a displayed price to contain the tax. What we had folded in was not tax at all: it was the accommodation fees sitting beside it.

Desktop up, mobile down

Desktop traffic converted better. Mobile traffic converted slightly worse, on the same change, in the same weeks.

A week ahead, better

Bookings made about a week in advance improved. Last-minute bookings were slightly worse off, which is the pattern you would expect if reading takes time somebody does not have.

We aimed this at American travellers arriving from Google hotel ads, on the argument that they were the largest and most valuable group on the site. The gain came from everywhere else.

That is not a failure, but it is a result about the target rather than about the change, and it deserves to be read as one. A market where the displayed price already contains the tax has trained its travellers to expect the number on the tile to be the number they pay. Break that expectation and the correction is worth a lot. A market where tax is added at the end has trained the opposite expectation, and there was less to correct.

Every charge given its own line is another line, and a phone is where a line costs the most. Nobody measured which of the two effects was doing the work, so what the result really says is that clarity is not free everywhere and this project never found out where it stops paying.

What came next

By December 2020 the work had become a document rather than a screen: one map of how a price should be stated at each stage of the funnel, from the search results through room selection and deal details to checkout. Four boards, one per stage, each of them the rule rather than an example of it.

This is also where the two Findhotel projects on this site meet. The bottom of that checkout board is a choice between paying now and paying at the property, and giving somebody that choice properly is its own case study. Naming what the property collects is what made it possible to offer.

World

France

United States

1 room × 1 night

🌎🌍🌏 World

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

€380 €100

Nightly price including taxes

🇫🇷 France

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

€380 €99

Nightly price including taxes

🇺🇸 United States

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

$380 $90

Nightly price

2 rooms × 1 night

🌎🌍🌏 World

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

€380 €100

Nightly price per room including taxes

🇫🇷 France

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

€380 €99

Nightly price per room including taxes

🇺🇸 United States

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

$380 $90

Nightly price per room

1 room × 3 nights

🌎🌍🌏 World

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

€380 €100

Nightly price including taxes

🇫🇷 France

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

€380 €99

Nightly price including taxes

🇺🇸 United States

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

$380 $90

Nightly price

2 rooms × 2 nights

🌎🌍🌏 World

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

€580 €100

Nightly price per room including taxes

🇫🇷 France

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

€580 €99

Nightly price per room including taxes

🇺🇸 United States

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony
Free cancellation

$580 $90

Nightly price per room

World

France

United States

1 room × 1 night

🌎🌍🌏 World

17% off

Free cancellation
before 14 Sep 2020

€380 €100 a night

Nightly price including taxes and fees

🇫🇷 France

17% off

Free cancellation
before 14 Sep 2020

€380 €99 a night excl. fees

Nightly price including taxes

🇺🇸 United States

17% off

Free cancellation
before Sep 14, 2020

$380 $90 a night

Nightly price

2 rooms × 1 night

🌎🌍🌏 World

17% off

Free cancellation
before 14 Sep 2020

€380 €100 a night per room

Nightly price per room including taxes and fees

🇫🇷 France

17% off

Free cancellation
before 14 Sep 2020

€380 €99 a night per room excl. fees

Nightly price per room including taxes

🇺🇸 United States

17% off

Free cancellation
before Sep 14, 2020

$380 $90 a night per room

Nightly price per room

1 room × 3 nights

🌎🌍🌏 World

17% off

Free cancellation
before 14 Sep 2020

€380 €100 a night

Nightly price including taxes and fees

🇫🇷 France

17% off

Free cancellation
before 14 Sep 2020

€380 €99 a night excl. fees

Nightly price including taxes

🇺🇸 United States

17% off

Free cancellation
before Sep 14, 2020

$380 $90 a night

Nightly price

2 rooms × 2 nights

🌎🌍🌏 World

17% off

Free cancellation
before 14 Sep 2020

€580 €100 a night per room

Nightly price per room including taxes and fees

🇫🇷 France

17% off

Free cancellation
before 14 Sep 2020

€580 €99 a night per room excl. fees

Nightly price per room including taxes

🇺🇸 United States

17% off

Free cancellation
before Sep 14, 2020

$580 $90 a night per room

Nightly price per room

World

France

United States

1 room × 1 night

🌎🌍🌏 World

Price details 17% off

1 night × 1 room: €90
Taxes and fees: €9
Local tax: €1
Total: €100

🇫🇷 France

Price details 17% off

1 night × 1 room: €90
Taxes and fees: €9
Subtotal: €99
Local tax fee: €1
Total: €100

🇺🇸 United States

Price details 17% off

1 night × 1 room: $90
Taxes and fees: $9
Local tax: $1
Total: $100

2 rooms × 1 night

🌎🌍🌏 World

Price details 17% off

1 night × 2 rooms: €180
Taxes and fees: €18
Local tax: €2
Total
Average nightly price per room €100: €200

🇫🇷 France

Price details 17% off

1 night × 2 rooms: €180
Taxes and fees: €18
Subtotal
Average nightly price per room €99: €198
Local tax fee: €2
Total: €200

🇺🇸 United States

Price details 17% off

1 night × 2 rooms: $180
Taxes and fees: $18
Local tax: $2
Total
Average nightly price per room $90: $200

1 room × 3 nights

🌎🌍🌏 World

Price details 17% off

3 nights × 1 room: €270
Taxes and fees: €27
Local tax: €3
Total
Average nightly price €100: €300

🇫🇷 France

Price details 17% off

3 nights × 1 room: €270
Taxes and fees: €27
Subtotal
Average nightly price €99: €297
Local tax fee: €3
Total: €300

🇺🇸 United States

Price details 17% off

3 nights × 1 room: $270
Taxes and fees: $27
Local tax: $3
Total
Average nightly price $90: $300

2 rooms × 2 nights

🌎🌍🌏 World

Price details 17% off

2 nights × 2 rooms: €360
Taxes and fees: €36
Local tax: €4
Total
Average nightly price per room €100: €400

🇫🇷 France

Price details 17% off

2 nights × 2 rooms: €360
Taxes and fees: €36
Subtotal
Average nightly price per room €99: €396
Local tax fee: €4
Total: €400

🇺🇸 United States

Price details 17% off

2 nights × 2 rooms: $360
Taxes and fees: $36
Local tax: $4
Total
Average nightly price per room $90: $400

World

France

United States

1 room × 1 night

🌎🌍🌏 World

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before 14 Sep 2020

Price details 17% off

1 night × 1 room: €90
Taxes and fees: €9
Local tax: €1
Total: €100

Pay now: €99
Pay at property: €1

The price is converted to show you the approximate cost in {userCurrencyCode}. You’ll pay now in {chargeableCurrencyCode} {CurrencySymbol}{Amount}. Local taxes or resort fees will be collected by the property in the local currency.

🇫🇷 France

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before 14 Sep 2020

Price details 17% off

1 night × 1 room: €90
Taxes and fees: €9
Subtotal: €99
Local tax: €1
Total: €100

Pay now: €99
Pay at property: €1

🇺🇸 United States

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before Sep 14, 2020

Price details 17% off

1 night × 1 room: $90
Taxes and fees: $9
Local tax: $1
Total: $100

Pay now: $99
Pay at property: $1

2 rooms × 1 night

🌎🌍🌏 World

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before 14 Sep 2020

Price details 17% off

1 night × 2 rooms: €180
Taxes and fees: €18
Local tax: €2
Total
Average nightly price per room €100: €200

Pay now: €198
Pay at property: €2

🇫🇷 France

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before 14 Sep 2020

Price details 17% off

1 night × 2 rooms: €180
Taxes and fees: €18
Subtotal
Average nightly price per room €99: €198
Local tax: €2
Total: €200

Pay now: €198
Pay at property: €2

🇺🇸 United States

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before Sep 14, 2020

Price details 17% off

1 night × 2 rooms: $180
Taxes and fees: $18
Local tax: $2
Total
Average nightly price per room $90: $200

Pay now: $198
Pay at property: $2

1 room × 3 nights

🌎🌍🌏 World

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before 14 Sep 2020

Price details 17% off

3 nights × 1 room: €270
Taxes and fees: €27
Local tax: €3
Total
Average nightly price €100: €300

Pay now: €297
Pay at property: €3

🇫🇷 France

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before 14 Sep 2020

Price details 17% off

3 nights × 1 room: €270
Taxes and fees: €27
Subtotal
Average nightly price €99: €297
Local tax: €3
Total: €300

Pay now: €297
Pay at property: €3

🇺🇸 United States

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before Sep 14, 2020

Price details 17% off

3 nights × 1 room: $270
Taxes and fees: $27
Local tax: $3
Total
Average nightly price $90: $300

Pay now: $297
Pay at property: $3

2 rooms × 2 nights

🌎🌍🌏 World

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before 14 Sep 2020

Price details 17% off

2 nights × 2 rooms: €360
Taxes and fees: €36
Local tax: €4
Total
Average nightly price per room €100: €400

Pay now: €396
Pay at property: €4

🇫🇷 France

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before 14 Sep 2020

Price details 17% off

2 nights × 2 rooms: €360
Taxes and fees: €36
Subtotal
Average nightly price per room €99: €396
Local tax: €4
Total: €400

Pay now: €396
Pay at property: €4

🇺🇸 United States

Studio Suite, One King Bed, No Balcony

Free cancellation before Sep 14, 2020

Price details 17% off

2 nights × 2 rooms: $360
Taxes and fees: $36
Local tax: $4
Total
Average nightly price per room $90: $400

Pay now: $396
Pay at property: $4

Those boards are the rules. What the original page offered next was the thing itself: a clickable prototype of the three price display logics the site was running at once, so that a reader could try them instead of reading about them.

Lessons

The winners refused the question: Two platforms out of eight answered both questions identically in every market, and their answer was to show the base rate and the total together rather than choosing between them. I had built the study around a binary and the best result in it was a third option. Worth remembering the next time a research instrument only offers the answers I thought of.
A name is the cheapest fix on the page: The measurable part of this change is one word. An amount due at the property became a resort fee, and the same money became something a traveller could reason about. No layout, no component, no sprint of engineering did as much as the copywriter renaming a row.
Clarity has a screen size: Desktop went up and mobile went down on the same release. An itemised price is more information, and more information is cheap on a wide screen and expensive on a narrow one. I would now treat a breakdown as something that has to be designed twice rather than reflowed once.

A price that grew on the way to the till

What the work had to do

Who did what

Who we aimed at, and in what order

What we could reach, and what we could not

Nine steps, repeated every iteration

Mapping where a price appears

Benchmarking eight platforms in seven countries

Ideation, then scoping it down

A prototype cheap enough to argue with

Turning it into tickets

Handing it to the front end

Checking the build against the scenarios

Two recordings from production

Making the change legible to colleagues

The prototype itself

Prototype

What five weeks of traffic said

What came next

Lessons

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