EXPEDIA.COM  •   DESIGN LEAD  •  8 WEEKS

Hotel CANCEL

An Expedia.com project to redesign the hotel reservation cancel path and give a unique opportunity to the travelers to get their money back even if it was a non-refundable booking. The system lets our hotel partners waive the cancellation fees as a goodwill gesture and allow travelers to get their money back.

This is a short preview. Read more about the project in the detailed Case Study.

Waiver requests handled by Expedia today are costly, time-intensive and don't provide an effortless experience to the traveler, agent or supplier. Currently, the process is entirely manual with lots of opportunity for automation. 

HYPOTHESIS

Automating the waiver request experience for travelers will remove the need for being on hold with customer service agents and improve supplier relationships by severely reducing calls to them.

WHO IT'S FOR

The travelers who want to cancel their hotel reservation but unfortunately there is a cancellation fee associated with the booking.

HOW IT WORKS

If a fee waiver is pre-approved by the hotel based on certain conditions of the booking, the traveler will be refunded immediately of the full reservation amount.  If it is not pre-approved, the traveler can request to waive the cancellation fee from the hotel using the platform and the hotel can decide whether to approve or deny the request.

OBJECTIVE

Most requests for fee waivers are due to booking mistakes. When there's a quick response and a waived cancelation fee, travelers are more satisfies and 60% more likely to rebook.

Previous Designs

REFUNDABLE BOOKINGS

User can cancel a refundable booking online but the experience is not that optimal. The experience hasn't been redesigned in a while and there are multiple steps in the flow. Some of the pages were not even responsive.

When we tested the flows with our users, they were perceived effortful and users believed Expedia deliberately made it difficult to cancel a booking so that they do not lose the business

INSIDE PENALTY BOOKING

For cancelation, the user needs to contact customer support for an inside penalty booking.  When the traveler calls to cancel and requests a waiver:

• The agent confirms the reason for cancellation
• Puts traveler on hold and calls the hotel to request a fee waiver
• Hotel makes a decision on the basis of various factors like timing, amount, reason, how busy they are, etc. 
• Agent documents the decision and informs the traveler about the hotel's decision
• If approved, agent cancels and issues a refund
• If denied, agent can cancel with the penalty or leave the booking as-is.

Cancel Redesign

Where everything demands effort, Expedia makes the cancel experience effortless by creating an easy, transparent, understandable and fast process. We timely inform you in ways that are understandable and actionable to empower you with the right information so that you can make informed decisions for your next trip.

AUTOMATED WAIVERS

Expedia understands that sometimes plans fall through and works with the hotel partners in advance which saves you time, money and effort. If a waiver is pre-approved by the hotel based on pre-configured rules, then there will be a full refund immediately.

A timer is also shown at the top of the page until when the offer is valid which helps in scenarios if the traveler wants to take some time to consult the traveling partner before making a decision.

I wireframed, prototyped, and designed low and high-fidelity mockups. Worked with cross-functional teams to build the end-to-end experience.

Check out the full story

HOTEL CANCEL

Case Study