HotelTravel

Context

HotelTravel.com was a global hotel booking platform based in Thailand, serving travellers across multiple international markets.

At the time of the redesign, the platform handled around 1,000-1,500 daily reservations and supported 11 languages, including Arabic with right-to-left layout requirements.

A large share of traffic came through partner and travel discovery platforms such as TripAdvisor and KAYAK. Many users arrived directly on hotel detail pages with strong intent to verify information and complete a booking.

This made the hotel detail page one of the most important decision points in the booking journey.

The Challenge

Traffic was strong, but conversion performance showed clear friction across the booking journey.

The hotel detail page had gradually evolved into a content-heavy browsing experience, while a large portion of users were arriving with high intent - ready to verify and book. The experience didn't match their mindset.

At the same time, the scale of the platform introduced additional complexity.

The website included 300,000+ pages, heavily driven by SEO and dynamic content generation. A full redesign was not feasible without risking traffic, revenue, and search visibility.

Several constraints shaped the approach:

• The platform supported 11 languages, including RTL layouts
• Content structure and hierarchy varied across markets
• A large portion of traffic landed directly on hotel detail pages from partner platforms
• Pricing, room options, cancellation details, and location information needed to be easier to compare
• The system relied on large-scale dynamic page generation, impacting performance and rollout speed

In parallel, performance became a critical factor. Improving page generation time required close collaboration with engineering, influencing both design decisions and rollout strategy.

Rather than a single redesign effort, the challenge became one of prioritisation and sequencing - identifying where UX improvements would create the most business impact and rolling them out safely over time.

The goal was to reduce friction at critical decision points, improve clarity for high-intent users, and introduce scalable improvements without compromising performance or ongoing operations.

The Real Problem

The brief framed it as a conversion issue. The data told a different story.

Users coming from partner platforms weren't browsing - they were verifying.

They checked a few key details: price, room type, cancellation, location - then decided fast.

But the page was built for exploration. That mismatch was the real problem.

My Role

As Team Lead UX/UI, I owned the redesign end-to-end - from problem framing to delivery.

• Led problem framing using a mix of quantitative and qualitative insights (analytics, usability testing, and user interviews)
• Identified key behavioral patterns in partner traffic that shifted the product direction
• Defined the experience beyond PDP, considering pre-sales funnels and post-booking journeys
• Worked closely with stakeholders and product owners to align on business goals and priorities
• Collaborated with SEO/Content teams to ensure visibility and performance were maintained throughout the redesign
• Coordinated with cross-functional teams (sales, call center, marketing) to understand real user pain points
• Partnered with engineering to ensure high-quality implementation

Design Approach

This wasn't a typical redesign.

At this scale - with over 300,000 pages and a live booking system - a full rebuild wasn't realistic. Every change had to be introduced carefully, validated with data, and aligned with ongoing business performance.

The approach was not about designing a better interface.

It was about reshaping a live system without breaking it.

1. Start from behaviour, not assumptions

We didn't begin with personas or ideal journeys. We started with what users were actually doing.

We analysed real user behaviour across the journey:

• Where users entered
• How quickly they acted
• Where they dropped off

2. Redesign the page around decision-making

The existing page was built for browsing.

We restructured it around verification.

Instead of leading with imagery and long descriptions, the page prioritised:

• clear and comparable pricing
• Structured room options
• Location and ratings in context

Everything else was pushed below the decision zone.

This was a deliberate trade-off.

Marketing content didn't disappear - it just stopped competing with decision-making.

3. Validate through phased rollout

With 1,000+ daily bookings, we couldn't afford to “launch and hope”.

Every meaningful change was tested through controlled A/B experiments:

• two-week test cycles
• Segmented user groups
• Clear success criteria

Only validated improvements were rolled out globally.

This approach did two things:

• reduced risk on a live revenue system
• shifted stakeholder conversations from opinion → evidence

4. Design within system and technical constraints

The challenge wasn't just UX - it was system complexity.

• 300,000+ dynamically generated pages
• Multi-language support (including RTL)
• Performance constraints affecting page generation

Improving UX required close collaboration with engineering.

We worked together to:

• Prioritise high-impact pages (starting with PDP)
• Improve generation performance where possible
• Design patterns that could scale across markets

The redesign became as much about system design as interface design.

5. Extend beyond the booking moment

The original focus was conversion. But support data (call center and sales) told a bigger story.

Users didn't just struggle before booking - they struggled after.

So we extended the scope into:

• Manage booking experience
• Post-booking email communication

This reduced support dependency and improved overall user confidence.

Impact

The phased approach allowed impact to be measured continuously.

While exact figures are no longer available, the pattern was clear: better clarity led to better conversion.

Reflection

This project fundamentally changed how I approach UX.

I learned that entry context matters more than persona.

A user arriving from TripAdvisor behaves differently from one arriving via search — even if they are the same person. One is verifying. The other is exploring.

Since then, I anchor my design thinking in three core questions:

• Where users come from
• Why they arrived
• What they need to decide

The second lesson was about execution.

On live revenue systems, ideas don't build trust — outcomes do. Trust is earned through validated changes.

The first successful A/B tests didn't just improve the product. They changed how the team made decisions.