HotelRunner - Base prices

Challenge

Users had a lot of trouble understanding how to use base prices. With few signposts, the UI was also difficult to use.

Solution

Adding clear subtitles and labels explaining how base prices work, and simplifying the UI to make the flow easy to follow.

Top issues:

1. There’s no subtitle explaining what base prices are.

2. Why are there sections for two separate adults?

3. Why are there 3 different prices listed?

4. What does “Child rate options (free by default)” mean?

Basically, what is going on here?

What is going on here:

When a user creates a room, they set a default price for that room. In the hotel industry, that’s called a base price.

On the live site, guests always have the option to book rooms at their base price, so it’s important that hotel owners understand how to use the feature.

What we changed

1. The new subtitle explains base price’s functionality, giving users a starting point. The title’s also a call to action now.

2. The new section title helps guide users through the flow. Paired with new field labels (“1 adult in the room”), users now know they can set different prices based on how full the room is.

3. It’s now clearer that these prices are based on the fullness of the room.

4. We shortened the label and replaced the toggle with a detailed radio button, resulting in a cleaner section that’s easy to understand.

Results
Usability sessions for the new flow showed that users were able to understand this feature much easier. They set various pricing based on how full the room was and experimented with charging extra fees for children.

What we learned

Some users still couldn’t understand why we showed multiple prices. Based on this feedback, in the next version we’re adding a “total” label above those additional prices.