Best UX features for travel websites
The best user experience for online bookings on hotel or travel websites is to have a seamless and easy process that the user can follow. The user should be able to search for the hotel they want, check availability, and make their booking without any problems.
The hotel should also have a mobile friendly website that works on all devices and browsers. This will enable users to book their hotels from anywhere at any time.
Accessibility filters
Good hotel websites have filter categories, such as star ratings, preferred budget, choice of hotel chains, distance from nearby landmarks and more.
The number of accessibility options are important too. Unfortunately they are still rare on hotel or travel websites. Booking.com is perfect example of great filter options.
Considerate cross-selling
User experience must be designed with the end user’s needs in mind. Balancing this with upselling, good conversion rates and high order values can be a delicate task.
Skyscanner demonstrates clear consideration for its customers by placing ad-style images on the right-hand side bar of its desktop website. These ads promote Skyscanner hotels and car hire in a way that’s genuinely useful for the customer whilst also not intruding on or distracting from their current booking activity.
Cookie choices
While cookies can be a bother, they can be great time savers upon returning to a website.
Most of the travel websites save customer searches and automatically apply this to the search bar so customers could pick up where they previously left off. It’s a very useful feature that reduces the need for users to input search terms, filters and dates repeatedly over time.
Loyalty programme
Loyalty schemes can encourage long-term brand loyalty by offering perks and discounts to their most engaged customers. Customer feel special when they see their loyalty status displayed upon logging in. Booking.com offers genius levels including discounts, free breakfast and the occasional free room upgrade on selected properties.
Social proof
Reviews and other user generated content can capture truthful and transparent opinions, photographs and ratings from verified travellers on which others can base their purchase decisions.
EasyJet integrates TripAdvisor reviews into its interface. Users can view a summary of a hotel’s TripAdvisor rating straight from the search results. It allows customers to access social proof without needing to leave the page.