Bringing the hotel industry into the digital world

Designing a beautiful and intuitive digital solution for hotel check-in

CLIENT

Concept Project

TIMELINE

2 weeks

SERVICES

App design

CHALLENGE

Design a digital solution for guest check-in.

Keep in mind:
Delight guests with a great experience
Emerge as a leader in the hospitality space
Utilize technology to bring the industry into the digital world

SOLUTION

I completed a thorough research-based iPhone app design that provides an intuitive, beautiful, and smooth check-in experience targeted to the hotel chain’s main users.

RESULT

While this design was just a concept, I would have measured key KPIs such as check-in duration, customer satisfaction ratings, check-in inquiries, and room upgrades.

Problem Definition

Who am I designing for?

Who is traveling in 2021?

What problems does this solve?

What are the potential pain points?

Why does this matter?

How will this impact a hotel guest’s overall satisfaction?

Research Goals

Who would actually want or use a product like this?

What are their pain points, needs, wants, and goals?

To what extent do demographics, and purpose of travel play a role?

What products and methods (digital and physical) exist today for checking into hotels?

Who are the direct or indirect competitors?

What works well, and what could be improved in the current landscape?

Native app?

Website?

Digital kiosk?

Not just for the sake of implementing cutting-edge tech, but to actually improve the user experience (simplify tasks, delight, reduce friction and manual work, etc.) 

Secondary Research Findings

Who is traveling now?

  • Digital nomads: Since Covid-19, over a third of travelers have considered booking stays in order to work from a different destination (aka take a workcation), and over half of travelers would extend their stays to add leisure time to a business trip
  • Over the last 2 years, searches for the word “workcation” increased 5,600%!

How do travelers relate to technology?

  • A mobile phone is the number one travel accessory among travelers
  • Over 70% of US travelers agree that they “always” use their smartphones when traveling, up from 41% in 2015
  • Travelers most frequently use their mobile devices to:
    • Research activities or attractions
    • Locate shopping areas and restaurants
    • Look up directions

Data from Think with Google

What does the current market research say about contactless check-in?

  • Keyless entry leads to an average increase of 7% in guest satisfaction scores
  • Guest satisfaction scores drop by 50% when there’s a 5-minute wait at check-in
    46% of travelers say a mobile key solution is an important on-property feature for them
  • 49% of travelers say “their hotel selection is influenced by high-tech features in the hotel room, i.e., mobile key.”

Data from Hotel Tech Report

Competitive Analysis

Primary Research Findings

I had time for a few phone interviews (more like conversations), but most of my data collection came from surveying users via Google Forms.

I posted the survey in WhatsApp and Slack groups and shared with friends and former classmates asking for feedback. I tried to keep my questions open-ended, except when collecting basic demographic information.

Response breakdown:

10 responses

30% male
70% female

Ages 22-31

60% remote
10% in-person
30% hybrid

Key Qualitative Insights

Emphasis on immediate entry

“After traveling for hours, it’s nice to be greeted by a clean, prepared room and just crash”

Unawareness of contactless check-in

70% of users had never used contactless check-in

Require easy access to support

“What if the room is not what I requested? Who can I turn to?”

How will we measure success?

Check-in duration

Does it save time compared to in-person check-in?

Customer satisfaction

How does the customer satisfaction compare to in-person experiences?

Staff inquiries

How many inquiries does the hotel staff receive related to helping guests check in digitally or use their digital keys?

Room upgrades

How often does a guest upgrade their room upon checking in, digitally vs. in-person?

User Flow

Wireframes

When working on my wireframes, I kept in mind my 3 main pillars:

  1. Memorable

    Pleasing experience

  2. Convenient
    Within an app

  3. Streamlined
    Each element should be broken down step-by-step, and users should understand the process