Google A Room with a View: Understanding Users Stages in Picking a Hotel Online User Manual

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users not familiar with an area, highlighting busy areas
vs. residential ones. Location / Price / Quality: An
editable polygon allows filtering on location without
requiring detailed knowledge of neighborhood names or
boundaries. Due diligence: The shortlist allows
earmarking for due diligence in Stage 3, without having
to re-execute the search.

Figure 2: Google hotel finder showing map view

Conclusions

We’ve illustrated how a research project, relatively
small in scope (9 users, lab sessions only) but carefully
executed and analyzed, can provide a blueprint for
innovative product development. Such a tight
integration between development and user research is
not typical and we thus thought it important to share
our experiences in this case study.

It helped that we communicated findings from the
outset as a visually represented framework; that we
had evidence for each stage in form of a series of 2-5

second video snippets; and that the model was
grounded in our own qualitative work, as well as
established published research.

In terms of substantive findings, we want to emphasize
that hotel search may bear some resemblance to
established models of consumer decision-making, but
differs significantly in important aspects, namely
fluctuating availability and price; complex trade-offs
between quality, price, and location; and finally the
nature and availability of information online: user
reviews, prices, etc. In terms of future work, we hope
to use this model to guide quantitative research.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to Alex Diaz, Amar Sagoo, Andrew
McCarthy, Emmett Connolly, Emma Burrows, Anne
Espiritu, Margaret Lee, Daniel Russell, Avni Shah and
the Hotel Finder team.

References

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Consumer Decision Journey, McKinsey Quarterly
(2009). http://goo.gl/nWWYT
[2] Google Insights for Search. Relative Query Volume
for ‘hotel’, ‘restaurant’, ‘shop’, ‘gas’, ‘bar’ in the US in

2010. http://goo.gl/el2Qe (Retrieved on 26 Sep 2011)
[3] Kotler, K. & Keller, K. L., Marketing Management,

edition, Prentice Hall, Boston, MA, US (2009)

[4] PhocusWright, European Consumer Travel Report

(2010). http://goo.gl/AJ8Fg
[5] Underhill, P., Why We Buy: The Science of

Shopping, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, US (2000)