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Budgets: Hotel city budgets

Corporate travel managers require precise city-level budget controls in their booking platforms

Team size directly correlates with booking volume - companies with 100+ users generate 156 bookings/month vs 2.7 for single users. However, our team management experience is plagued by friction, confusion, and legacy technical debt. This initiative modernizes the entire team management experience to drive organic growth through easier team expansion.

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Goals & Objectives

Lack of efficiency in managing teams, “clunky” processes

Unexplained errors which cannot be overcome

Lack of clear information on how to use the tool

Out of date UI reduces confidence

 

research
dashboard

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Data & Insights

Improve Team Management functionality we will improve use of these functions and retention and activation of customers who use them, making B4B the obvious choice for team management for business travel.

abtesting
registration
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3

Questions

Release 1 Goal: Improve navigation, remove redundant functions, and improve consistency with the rest of app to improve Administrators’ trust and engagement with the product. Upgrade OBP navigation infrastructure from the old OBP app to the new Eos platform.

Release 2 Goal: Simplify team and guest management, increasing trust and engagement with Administration functions. Upgrade OBP team management page and services to the new Eos platform.

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Based on the data collected, the country-level budget has low usage, and feedback suggests it is too high-level. While a city-level budget could work, data shows that business travellers on Booking for Business travel to over 10+ cities per year (some over 100), which may require significant effort to set budgets for each city.An AI-powered prototype was created for this feature and ran with real customers.

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Usability test results

All participants used the budget controls quickly, easily, and without any issues. All participants thought budget controls would be strict and not allow a booker to continue or complete bookings for rooms that are out of budget.

 

One participant was interested in an approval process that would allow someone to seek permission to book a room out of budget.

 

No one was confused that you could have multiple rooms at the same hotel be either in or over budget.

 

Travel locations was split evenly between ‘it always varies’, and ‘the countries are the same but the cities vary’.

 

Most participants wanted to see both local and destination currencies shown.

 

Most participants expected prices shown to include taxes and fees but there was mention that this isn't consistent amongst all regions in the world.

 

As all participants were from UK, including VAT in prices is standard practice.

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Design

budgets-mobile

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Logo

Budgets: Hotel city budgets

Corporate travel managers require precise city-level budget controls in their booking platforms

Team size directly correlates with booking volume - companies with 100+ users generate 156 bookings/month vs 2.7 for single users. However, our team management experience is plagued by friction, confusion, and legacy technical debt. This initiative modernizes the entire team management experience to drive organic growth through easier team expansion.

1

Goals & Objectives

Lack of efficiency in managing teams, “clunky” processes

Unexplained errors which cannot be overcome

Lack of clear information on how to use the tool

Out of date UI reduces confidence

 

research
dashboard

2

Data & Insights

Improve Team Management functionality we will improve use of these functions and retention and activation of customers who use them, making B4B the obvious choice for team management for business travel.

abtesting
registration
Arrow

3

Questions

Release 1 Goal: Improve navigation, remove redundant functions, and improve consistency with the rest of app to improve Administrators’ trust and engagement with the product. Upgrade OBP navigation infrastructure from the old OBP app to the new Eos platform.

Release 2 Goal: Simplify team and guest management, increasing trust and engagement with Administration functions. Upgrade OBP team management page and services to the new Eos platform.

popup
Arrow down

Based on the data collected, the country-level budget has low usage, and feedback suggests it is too high-level. While a city-level budget could work, data shows that business travellers on Booking for Business travel to over 10+ cities per year (some over 100), which may require significant effort to set budgets for each city.An AI-powered prototype was created for this feature and ran with real customers.

Divider

Usability test results

All participants used the budget controls quickly, easily, and without any issues. All participants thought budget controls would be strict and not allow a booker to continue or complete bookings for rooms that are out of budget.

 

One participant was interested in an approval process that would allow someone to seek permission to book a room out of budget.

 

No one was confused that you could have multiple rooms at the same hotel be either in or over budget.

 

Travel locations was split evenly between ‘it always varies’, and ‘the countries are the same but the cities vary’.

 

Most participants wanted to see both local and destination currencies shown.

 

Most participants expected prices shown to include taxes and fees but there was mention that this isn't consistent amongst all regions in the world.

 

As all participants were from UK, including VAT in prices is standard practice.

Divider

Design

1

2

3

4

Logo

Budgets: Hotel city budgets

Corporate travel managers require precise city-level budget controls in their booking platforms

Businesses with frequent corporate travel need accurate city-level hotel budget controls within their travel booking platforms to manage expenses effectively. Without predefined budget guidelines tailored to different cities, companies risk overspending due to fluctuating hotel prices, varying cost-of-living standards, and inconsistent travel policies. This lack of control leads to budget overruns, compliance issues, and administrative inefficiencies in expense reporting. By offering city level hotel budgets, we create differentiation of our product, win market-share, and encourage adoption.

research
dashboard

1

Goals & Objectives

Improve the existing country budget control feature, and create differentiation of our product through business travel features at the city level - which enables organisations to set and communicate budget preferences to travellers.

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Data & Insights

Based on the data collected, the country-level budget has low usage, and feedback suggests it is too high-level. While a city-level budget could work, data shows that business travellers on Booking for Business travel to over 10+ cities per year (some over 100), which may require significant effort to set budgets for each city.

abtesting
registration
Arrow
popup

3

Questions

What benefit, if any, do you think there is of adding hotel budgets to your organisation's travel booking tool?Do you currently have nightly hotel budgets set for the travellers in your organisation?If yes, how are travellers made aware of those budgets?

Arrow down

Based on the data collected, the country-level budget has low usage, and feedback suggests it is too high-level. While a city-level budget could work, data shows that business travellers on Booking for Business travel to over 10+ cities per year (some over 100), which may require significant effort to set budgets for each city.An AI-powered prototype was created for this feature and ran with real customers.

divider

Usability test results

All participants used the budget controls quickly, easily, and without any issues. All participants thought budget controls would be strict and not allow a booker to continue or complete bookings for rooms that are out of budget.

 

One participant was interested in an approval process that would allow someone to seek permission to book a room out of budget.

 

No one was confused that you could have multiple rooms at the same hotel be either in or over budget.

 

Travel locations was split evenly between ‘it always varies’, and ‘the countries are the same but the cities vary’.

 

Most participants wanted to see both local and destination currencies shown.

 

Most participants expected prices shown to include taxes and fees but there was mention that this isn't consistent amongst all regions in the world.

 

As all participants were from UK, including VAT in prices is standard practice.

divider

Design

1

2

3

4