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Airbnb has the benefit of a much better UI and UX compared to several over hotel aggregators like booking.com or expedia, or even domestic ones here in Japan li

Airbnb has the benefit of a much better UI and UX compared to several over hotel aggregators like booking.com or expedia, or even domestic ones here in Japan like rakuten or jalan. The only thing that annoys me the Airbnb booking experience, is that it's not really a booking, it's putting in a booking request and then waiting for the owners to approve. Compared to regular hotels.

random42 7y ago
> Airbnb has the benefit of a much better UI and UX compared to several over hotel aggregators like booking.com While AirBnB might be pleasing on the eyes, Booking's UI is optimised for conversion. The benefit of "better UI and UX" is arguable here if it does not result in more $ for the business. Specially if they want to compete in the public market. Disclaimer - Ex-Booking.com employee
- alephnan 7y ago
  I don’t discredit Booking’s priority on conversion, but Airbnb is also known for prolific A/B experimentation, atleast in the first booking funnel
  - random42 7y ago
    My point about how do we define "benefit of UI and UX"? If the criteria is conversion/revenue/profit - as arguably it should be for a publicly trading business - Booking and Expedia are no slouches.
- puranjay 7y ago
  I genuinely like Booking.com's interface. I've learned to read the dark patterns so I don't get forced into a bad deal. But once you go past that, they offer all the information you actually need to make a decision
  - jfk13 7y ago
    The fact that you feel the need to mention that "I've learned to read the dark patterns" speaks volumes about booking.com. And not in a positive sense.
    - random42 7y ago
      I believe their point was that the "UX is good (conditions applied"). Also, If you have not tried, I'd recommend giving the (android) app a go, bias aside, its one of the smoothest look-to-book experience I've had.
    - puranjay 7y ago
      It gets the job done. But maybe that's not the UX itself but Booking.com's usual "no payment, free cancellation" deals. I often just find a hotel that looks okay and book it straight away. I check out the reviews later and cancel if something doesn't look right.
dec0dedab0de 7y ago
I used Airbnb for the first time a few months ago, and I was surprised they were able to stay in business with the current interface. I the prices kept changing at different views, I couldnt save a search, even active searches would just go away if i tapped back, they pushed me to link to a third party auth, but when I did they created a separate account and i could no longer reach the one that had my reservations. It was a mess all the way around. The only thing I did like was all the weird places to stay.
randomsearch 7y ago
I actually think Airbnb’s UI is awful, and the website is very slow so poor UX.
toast0 7y ago
> The only thing that annoys me the Airbnb booking experience, is that it's not really a booking, it's putting in a booking request and then waiting for the owners to approve. Compared to regular hotels. Regular hotels might not always be a live booking either. Every once in a while, someone misses a fax. Usually a real hotel has some slack to fix things when some one comes in with a reservation that didn't get booked.

random42 7y ago

> Airbnb has the benefit of a much better UI and UX compared to several over hotel aggregators like booking.com While AirBnB might be pleasing on the eyes, Booking's UI is optimised for conversion. The benefit of "better UI and UX" is arguable here if it does not result in more $ for the business. Specially if they want to compete in the public market. Disclaimer - Ex-Booking.com employee

alephnan 7y ago
I don’t discredit Booking’s priority on conversion, but Airbnb is also known for prolific A/B experimentation, atleast in the first booking funnel
- random42 7y ago
  My point about how do we define "benefit of UI and UX"? If the criteria is conversion/revenue/profit - as arguably it should be for a publicly trading business - Booking and Expedia are no slouches.
puranjay 7y ago
I genuinely like Booking.com's interface. I've learned to read the dark patterns so I don't get forced into a bad deal. But once you go past that, they offer all the information you actually need to make a decision
- jfk13 7y ago
  The fact that you feel the need to mention that "I've learned to read the dark patterns" speaks volumes about booking.com. And not in a positive sense.
  - random42 7y ago
    I believe their point was that the "UX is good (conditions applied"). Also, If you have not tried, I'd recommend giving the (android) app a go, bias aside, its one of the smoothest look-to-book experience I've had.
  - puranjay 7y ago
    It gets the job done. But maybe that's not the UX itself but Booking.com's usual "no payment, free cancellation" deals. I often just find a hotel that looks okay and book it straight away. I check out the reviews later and cancel if something doesn't look right.

dec0dedab0de 7y ago

I used Airbnb for the first time a few months ago, and I was surprised they were able to stay in business with the current interface. I the prices kept changing at different views, I couldnt save a search, even active searches would just go away if i tapped back, they pushed me to link to a third party auth, but when I did they created a separate account and i could no longer reach the one that had my reservations. It was a mess all the way around. The only thing I did like was all the weird places to stay.

randomsearch 7y ago

I actually think Airbnb’s UI is awful, and the website is very slow so poor UX.

toast0 7y ago

> The only thing that annoys me the Airbnb booking experience, is that it's not really a booking, it's putting in a booking request and then waiting for the owners to approve. Compared to regular hotels. Regular hotels might not always be a live booking either. Every once in a while, someone misses a fax. Usually a real hotel has some slack to fix things when some one comes in with a reservation that didn't get booked.