Project
Introducing split payments to Airbnb’s booking experience for groups
Workflow
UX Research
Synthesis
UI/UX Design
Usability Testing
My Role
UX Researcher
UI/UX Designer
Team
Will Rose, UX Researcher
Timeline
10 weeks
Context
It is common to split expenses when traveling as a group. Currently, Airbnb only allows individuals to book accommodations for themselves and other members of their group. The onus is thus upon that person to encourage their friends or colleagues to pay them back after the payment is made. The goal was to make it easier for groups of people to split the cost of an Airbnb when traveling together.
This feature was aimed at travelers who plan trips in groups of 2 or more, with family, friends, or co-workers. By addressing their specific needs, the aim was to improve their booking experience, boost user satisfaction, and tap into an underexplored market to drive higher revenue and gain a competitive edge.
This project was done as part of my UI/UX design bootcamp at Memorisely.
KPIs
Given that this was a hypothetical project, there was nothing tangible to measure, but if this were a real project pushed into production, these would be the measures of success:
Increase in Group Booking Conversion Rate
Increase in Average Booking Value for Group Reservations
Increased User Engagement with Group Booking Features
Higher Repeat Bookings for Group Travel
How might we make it easier for groups to plan out their trip expenses and split the costs in a way that works for their dynamics?
Solution
Split payments that work for your group dynamics
Introducing split payments in the booking process to reserve an accommodation
Providing multiple options to split payments to benefit every kind of group dynamic
Includes the option to pay in full to book the accommodation and request payouts from fellow guests afterwards
Enhanced search options to ease payment splitting for group booking
Introducing a new price-per-room filter in home rentals
Allows guests to select rooms as a basis to split payments
Gives hosts more flexibility in their rental options
Taking the awkwardness out of following up for payments
Automated messaging from Airbnb to guests to remind them to complete payments
Messages from the business remove the discomfort of asking family, friends, or coworkers for money
Option to send personalized messages if desired
Brings more users onto the platform
Option to important contacts onto the app or add additional guests manually before trip organizer checks out
Guests who are not already Airbnb users would be notified by email to complete their booking, bringing new users onto the app
A database called ‘My friends’ on the user profile provides a list of all fellow travelers
Research
User Research Surveys
My research partner and I put together a brief survey and got 47 replies. We gathered data regarding people’s travel habits and the challenges they face when splitting payments when booking with one or more other people.
Several insights from this exercise stood out to us, including the following:
A lot of people have trouble tracking individual expenses and the method of splitting the bill is very dependent on their fellow travelers and the group dynamic.
Many people struggle to ask for money from fellow travelers, even when they are owed, either due to awkwardness or simply being forgetful.
Synthesis
We analyzed the data on Dovetail and used affinity mapping to gain a picture of what our typical user experiences when traveling in a group and splits their expenses.
This led to us crafting our complete problem statement:
People who travel in groups need an effective system to plan their trips and split their payments. Currently, they have trouble setting expectations, tracking expenses, and following up to ensure fair payment. This leads to frustration and friction in their relationships.
Competitive Analysis
We couldn’t find any services on the market that combined group travel services as well as payment splitting, so we decided to analyze our competitors on each aspect separately. We analyzed Splitwise and Notion for tracking expenses, and Tripadvisor and Vrbo for group travel booking.
Ideation & User Flows
We used mind maps to ideate on possible way to add to or improve upon Airbnb’s existing booking flow to answer two questions:
How might we make it easier for groups to plan out their trips within Airbnb?, and
How might we make it easier for groups to plan out their trip expenses and split the costs in a way that works for their dynamics?
We compiled and ranked our ideas and used methods like Crazy 8’s to turn these into actionable features. These ideas were implemented into user flows and low-fidelity wireframes. Upon several rounds of iteration, we had our final set of low-fidelity wireframes.
Design
Early explorations considered expanding Airbnb's Wishlist feature to enable group trip planning, incorporating features like itinerary planning, internal chat with polls and linking capabilities, and enhancing the recommendation engine for group accommodations. However, I decided to prioritize adding split payments as the primary new feature to expedite development and production. Based on the response to this enhancement, we would assess whether to invest in further development of these features.
The final design gives trip organizers the means to split their payment before or after reserving the accommodation in whatever way works for their group dynamic.
Multiple Split Methods
Trip organizers can initiate a booking with their group by deciding the split method and paying their share. The default method is an equal split, with options to split by the value of each room or a custom split.
Completing the Booking
Other guests would be notified via their Airbnb app or by email to complete their shares of the payment in order to complete the booking. They would be required to complete this within 48 hours of initiating the booking in order to reserve the accommodation.
Splitting after Reservation
The design also allows trip organizers to book the accommodation by paying in full, and then requesting a split from their fellow travelers. They can also follow up via messaging.
User Testing
Learnings
This project taught me how to iterate quickly and effectively at the early low-fidelity stages of design in order to ensure a faster turnaround time with the high fidelity design. This ensured more effective testing and in turn, a better design.