friends tripping together

A new feature to enable group collaboration



TEAM

Team and methods information

METHODS

Team and methods information

OVERVIEW

This new feature to the Airbnb mobile app enables renters to communicate with each other and split payments in-app.

a gif of recover together

THE PROBLEM

"Switching back and forth between Airbnb, Facebook, and Venmo is so annoying!"

Although most Airbnb renters like to travel in groups, the Airbnb mobile app is currently lacking ways for friends to plan together and split payments without leaving the app.

PERSONA

Alex, the group planner

a woman
  • 27 years old
  • Lives in Somerville, MA
  • Software engineer at a health tech startup during the week and ambient noise artist on weekends

Alice and her friends are going to Austin for SXSW. Their schedules are flexible and would like to plan their Airbnb together.



a graph depicting the original user journey

PROCESS

Research, User flows, Wireframes


MARKET RESEARCH

After doing some user interviews, I found that people used Facebook, Google Sheets, Grup Trip, and SMS for group trip planning. For bill splitting, people used KittySplit, Splitwise, Tab, WeChat Wallet, Venmo.


USER FLOWS

The current Airbnb flow only has two points of group communication and it both involves leaving the app to email (indicated with the star):


original user flow

For the new flow, I added a new path for group collaboration that can be accessed through the standard flow as well as the new tab, called "Social:"


new user flow

WIREFRAMES

I hijacked the Inbox tab and changed it to Social. This way, it can be split up into a section for inbox and a section for travel groups.


screens showing the new social tab

For the group screen, I first went with a Facebook model of communication but then realized that the listings can still get lost so I changed it to a Gruptrip style where members can only add to the list and comment on list items.


screens showing the collaboration section

I changed the calendar slightly to include a "flexible" date search, inspired by Kayak.


screens showing new calendar

From the original flow, after choosing multiple travelers, a modal will appear asking if they would like to get onto the group flow or continue planning alone.


screen to add travelers to a group

For the homes listing, I added an additional button that allows sharing directly to the group tab.


home screen

At the end of the payment flow, an additional modal will pop up (if they are in group mode) to split the bill. Afterwards, every member will receive a link to pay their share.


payment screens

NEW GROUP JOURNEY

By allowing users to plan in-app, they will no longer be frustrated by switching apps and be more organized.


graph of the new user journey

NEXT STEPS

Airbnb: the future of travel planning

  • Build a prototype using Flinto
  • Do some usability testing to evaluate effectiveness
  • Evaluate impact on business
  • Include experiences, restaurants, and other activities to make Airbnb the all-in-one group travel/planning tool