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”

Customer Experience Management

Lab Testing

Remote Usability Testing

Focus Groups

Expert Reviews

Study Background

Study Background

• Competitive benchmark of leading U.S. hotelsGoals

Websites analyzed

• Must have booked hotel online in last 12 months• 60% female, 40% malePanel

• Find a hotel given a beach theme on specific dates & budget• Find how much parking is at a specific hotel Tasks

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

IntroductionIntroduction

ScreenerScreener

N=200

HiltonHilton

n-=50

Marriott

Marriott

Wrap-upWrap-up

Task 1Task 1

Task 2Task 2

IHGIHG Sheraton

Sheraton

Task1:Task1:

Task 2Task 2

Task 1Task 1

Task 2Task 2

Task 1Task 1

Task 2Task 2

n-=50 n-=50 n-=50

HyattHyatt

Task 1Task 1

Task 2Task 2

n-=50

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 actionable insights

Usability Lab Studies

Web Traffic Analysis

Online UX

Studies

Online SurveysFocus

Groups

Qualitative

Quantitative

Behavio

rA

ttit

ude

s

How does UserZoom add value?

• 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

Our method

User recruitment options

Choose the user

recruitment yourself

Panel*

Intercept

Private mailing list

*Partners of

Participants

Gender

MaleFemale60%

18-2526-3536-4546-5455-6061-6465 and over

Age Range

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

Intercontinental had the highest success rate (73%) for finding the parking rate Intercontinental participants found the site easiest to use and easy to know where to

start when looking for a hotel’s parking rate

Marriott participants found it the easiest to navigate, however 72% of Marriott participants were unclear where to start

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 Marriott

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

Net Promoter Score (NPS®)

  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NPS

Marriott (n=50) 2% 2% 0% 6% 6% 12% 16% 14% 20% 12% 12% -20%

Hyatt (n=50)12% 6% 0% 8% 10% 14% 8% 8% 16% 14% 2% -40%

Starwood (n=50)12% 0% 6% 6% 8% 10% 8% 24% 10% 12% 6% -31%

Hilton (n=50) 4% 0% 2% 4% 4% 14% 7% 18% 21% 13% 14% -7%

InterContinental(n=50)

10% 4% 0% 4% 12% 18% 6% 10% 12% 12% 12% -30%

Detractors Promoters

NPS% of Promoters

(9s and 10s)Detractors

(0 through 6)= -Copyright 2010. Key Lime Interactive and UserZoom. All Rights Reserved.

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.

Hotel Brand Perception*

Starwood(Sheraton)

Marriott

InterContinental(Holiday Inn Express*)

Hyatt Place

Hilton

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

43%

55%

36%

38%

56%

53%

67%

44%

48%

68%

PrePost

12%

10%

8%

12%

10%

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

• Participants were asked to find parking for a Holiday Inn Express. ** A difference of 17% is significantly worse than Hilton or Marriott.

Find a hotel given a beach theme on specific dates & budget

Success Ease of Use Ease of Navigation

Clear where to start

Satisfaction with Time

KLIScore

1 Hilton 95% 62% 53% 47% 64% 77%

2 Marriott 80% 63% 64% 56% 54% 70%

3 Intercontinental 74% 59% 60% 65% 65% 68%

4 Starwood 75% 48% 53% 55% 58% 63%

5 Hyatt 64% 41% 56% 50% 44% 55%

Task 1 Metrics

Indicates significantly worse than top runner

Indicates top runner

Intercontinental (65% were satisfied with amount of time to completion)

Hyatt (44% were satisfied with amount of time to completion)

Task 1 Behavior and Time reveals users satisfaction with “perceived” time to completion

Sites (n=50 per site)

Success Ease of Use Ease of Navigation

Clear where to start

Satisfaction with Time KLI Score

1 Marriott 71% 53% 61% 28% 53% 61%

2 Hilton 70% 51% 57% 41% 48% 60%

3 Intercontinental 54% 56% 48% 52% 67% 55%

4 Starwood 73% 30% 25% 19% 35% 51%

5 Hyatt 62% 29% 36% 12% 23% 44%

Task 2 MetricsFind how much parking is at a specific hotel

Indicates significantly worse than top runner

Indicates top runner

52% were clear where to start- 44% searched by City/Town- 15% searched by Brand

Task 2: Find Parking Details

28% were clear where to start- 58% searched by City- 19% searched by State<2% searched by Brand

Some IHG started by clicking on the Brand whereas <2% of Marriott participants filtered by Brand

15%

Task 2: Find Parking Details

Overall Ranking using KLI score

Task 1 Task 2 KLI UX Score

1 Hilton 77% 60% 72%

2 Marriott 70% 61% 67%

3 Intercontinental 68% 55% 64%

4 Starwood 63% 51% 60%

5 Hyatt 55% 44% 52%

Q&A

UserZoom (USA)

440 N. Wolfe Rd. Sunnyvale,CA 94085 Phone: +1 (408) 524 7445 Contact: Alfonso de la Nuezalfonso@userzoom.com

Key Lime Interactive

1221 Brickell AvenueMiami FL 33131Phone: 1 (305) 804 2930

Contact: Ania Rodriguezania@keylimeinteractive.co

Thanks so much for your time!

Check out our upcoming events at www.userzoom.com & www.keylimeinteractive.com