Redesigning the Hotel Booking Journey: A User-Centered Approach
Some things—like booking a trip—are familiar yet still strangely daunting. Speaking from personal experience, I think it’s partly because we load the whole journey with so many expectations. We picture the flight, the accommodation, the food, the plans… all the little moments we want to get just right.
That anticipation can definitely be exciting, but it can just as easily tip into anxiety, overthinking, and overplanning—sometimes to the point where we forget to enjoy the experience itself.
With this project, I set out to recreate the process of booking a hotel to better understand where people get stuck, what frustrates them, and how those pain points might be smoothed out to create a more effortless, enjoyable experience.
Role
Junior UX/UI designer
Improving the Project Page UX including the integration of the AI in the workflow
Context
The project focused on reimagining the hotel booking journey through a user-centered approach. While the process of planning a trip is familiar, it often becomes overwhelming due to the many expectations users place on each step. To understand where frustration builds and how the experience could be improved, I analyzed existing hospitality platforms, explored user behavior, and identified key moments that shape decision-making.
The project aimed to understand the emotional and practical challenges users face when selecting a hotel and to redesign the experience so it feels intuitive, trustworthy, and enjoyable from start to finish.
Constraints
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Reevaluating initial concepts: Many early design ideas had to be dismantled or rethought to create space for more effective solutions grounded in user insights.
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Technical limitations: Feasible design decisions had to align with existing platform capabilities and development constraints.
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Iterative and evolving priorities: As user research progressed, new findings continuously reshaped the direction of the project, requiring flexibility and ongoing refinement.
Goals
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Create a more intuitive booking flow by clarifying available actions, simplifying navigation, and reducing moments of confusion throughout the journey.
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Design interactions that feel “natural,” especially where users engage with dynamic elements such as calendars, room options, or contextual information.
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Support smoother decision-making by presenting essential details—photos, amenities, pricing, policies—clearly and at the right moments.
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Strengthen trust and comfort so users feel confident while moving through the process without unexpected friction or information overload.
Results
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Enhanced workflow clarity by introducing familiar interaction patterns, such as selectable cards, clearer categorization, and consistent placement of key information.
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More intuitive user interactions: The redesigned flow addressed pain points identified in usability testing, making essential information easier to find and understand.
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Improved handling of dynamic elements: Interactions such as date selection, photo browsing, and room comparison became smoother and more user-friendly.
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Reduced cognitive load by simplifying descriptions, restructuring the layout, and presenting add-ons at more appropriate moments—making the entire booking experience feel more transparent and trustworthy.
The Research Phase
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To familiarise myself with the context of booking and hospitality websites, I run a competitive benchmarking, researching what other business were doing.
I looked at how they structured their website, what kind of informations they provided and where, how they showed their booking system.
Exotica Boutique Hotel & Restaurant - Homepage
Hotel delle Muse -
Homepage
Portugal Boutique City Hotel - Homepage
Hotel Casa Amterdam East - Homepage
Once I had familiarised myself with the environments, I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the experience from the users’ perspective—where they encountered pain points, what challenges they faced, and how we might address them. To explore this further, I conducted a series of usability tests.
The usability tests revealed the following key findings:
1. Flexibility & User Control
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Users rely on different methods to complete tasks (e.g., typing dates vs. using a calendar), highlighting the need for multiple pathways to achieve the same action.
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The system should retain the user’s previous selections during navigation to prevent unnecessary repetition.
2. Information Clarity & Hierarchy
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Users expect essential information—such as price, free cancellation, breakfast availability—to be clearly visible early in the flow.
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Long room descriptions discourage reading, risking missed details. Instead, users prefer concise, scannable descriptions.
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Visual aids (e.g., icons) help simplify amenity and room information.
3. Visual Content & Decision Support
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Photos, maps, and reviews are key decision-making tools and strongly influence trust.
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Photos also help users understand the scale and layout of a room.
4. Add-ons & Transparency
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Add-ons should appear after the room selection, as showing them earlier feels pushy or misleading.
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Users respond better to thoughtful, relevant add-ons rather than generic options.
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A clear summary page is essential for reassurance, helping users verify all important details before confirming.
Affinity Diagram
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To make sense of the usability testing and research findings, I organized the observations into an affinity diagram. This method helped me identify patterns, highlight pain points, and uncover opportunities to improve the hotel booking experience.
Key Insight Clusters:
1. User Flexibility & Control
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Users approach tasks differently (e.g., typing dates vs. using a calendar).
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Systems that remember user choices prevent frustration when navigating back and forth.
2. Clarity & Information Hierarchy
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Essential information (price, free cancellation, breakfast) must be visible early.
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Room descriptions should be concise and scannable.
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Icons or visual cues improve comprehension of amenities and room features.
3. Visual Content & First Impression
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Photos, reviews, and maps strongly influence trust and decision-making.
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Visuals help users gauge room size and quality before booking.
4. Adds-on & Transparency
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Add-ons should appear after the room is selected to avoid feeling pushy.
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Presenting relevant, personalized add-ons enhances user satisfaction.
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A clear booking summary reassures users and confirms choices.
User Journey
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Designing the user journey has been quite insightful in getting a full picture of the experience users go through while booking a hotel room.
What I found fascinating, was that eventhough the pick pain point happened ad the "Adds-on" stage, the frustration was already building from before.
In fact, it is at the room and rates stage that the seeds of confusion on what it is happening started to fluorish.
A lot of scrolling, room description unnecessarily long, important information placed in "not-obvious" places. All these factors happening before the "Adds-on" page, helped creating a hostile environment, in which the user doesn't feel safe because of the confusion.
Sadly, in the end, the feeling is that even though the reservation has gone through, there might be something happening last minute.
Sketches
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Prototype
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This portfolio was designed and coded by Mor Shmueli. It is open-sourced and hosted on Netlify