1 industry analysis

The concept definition of 1. 1

The concept of online hotel reservation refers to the behavior of inquiring, booking, placing orders and evaluating hotel information on hotel groups, OTA platforms, professional hotel reservation platforms and their official WeChat and clients through mobile phones, tablets, PCs and other devices with the help of the Internet/mobile Internet, and making hotel reservations through online payment or front desk payment after successful submission.

The concept of online hotel reservation users: refers to the users who make hotel reservations online, which is different from the offline users who go to the hotel directly without the help of internet media.

1.2 industry

Online travel industry;

Related products in the industry: Ctrip Travel, Meituan Wine Travel, Flying Pig Travel, Qunar.com Travel, etc.

This competing product analysis report only makes a detailed analysis of the "book hotel" function module in the travel APP;

1.3 industry overview

(1) The online hotel market in China is currently in a stage of rapid growth and maturity, as shown below;

(2) Development prospect: China hotel market is in a period of rapid growth, and there is huge market space in the future. It is estimated that the number of online hotel guests will reach 740 million in 20 18, and the transaction scale will exceed15 billion, as shown in the following figure.

(3) Driving force: favorable hotel industry policies, internet plus, consumption upgrading, and strong demand in China tourism market; With the improvement of internet technology, users' online habits have basically formed; Internet giants actively deployed and industrial capital continued to invest, which actively promoted the overall development of the online hotel market.

(4) Market characteristics: the mobile terminal has become a new battlefield in the online hotel market, and the penetration rate has been continuously improved; Mature technologies such as big data and cloud computing provide support for the precise marketing of online hotel market.

(5) Competition: OTA market is still the mainstream of the market. 20 15, the share of OTA platform exceeds 70%, and the position advantage of online hotel reservation entrance is stable. Group buying is only a supplement, and its share is only 10%.

(6) Development trend: OTA platform will still be the mainstream of the market, and group buying platform will only be a supplement; Online hotel platform is gradually developing into a one-stop tourism service platform. The online hotel reservation market is differentiated in product segmentation, and offline products and services are more profound.

1.4 market share

Online hotel reservation platforms are mainly divided into three types:

(1) OTA platform mode: This platform integrates the contents and data of upstream hotel suppliers, and can query and book rooms in real time. Players include: Ctrip, where to travel and so on. Users search by brand, location, price, etc. After understanding the hotel infrastructure, choose the hotel that meets your requirements, make a reservation, fill in the reservation information and personal check-in information, and submit an order.

(2) Group buying platform mode: This platform integrates the contents of upstream hotel suppliers, and an appointment is required before purchasing. Players: Meituan, glutinous rice, etc. Users search by brand, location, price, etc. After understanding the hotel infrastructure, they choose hotels with valid coupons that meet their own requirements, determine the check-in time and room type, then buy coupons, enter their mobile phones, submit orders, and check in with the password of mobile phone group purchase coupons.

(3) Direct selling platform mode: Hotel official website or official APP, no agent, data updated in time, users can directly inquire and book. Players: Zhu Hua, Home Inns, etc. Users can search by brand, location, price, etc. After understanding the hotel infrastructure, they can choose the room type that meets their requirements according to their membership types, make reservations, fill in reservation information and personal check-in information, and submit orders.

The market share of the above three platforms in 20 15 years is as follows:

As can be seen from the above figure, OTA platform is the mainstream of the market, accounting for 70% of the market share;

Ctrip has long occupied the first position in the online hotel reservation market. Where to travel, which was originally ranked second, was overtaken by the US Mission, followed by Ali Travel.

Now the order should be: Ctrip, Meituan, Where to Travel, Flying Pig (Ali Travel).

1.5 market characteristics

(1) The mobile terminal has become a new battlefield in the online hotel reservation market, and its penetration rate has been continuously improved.

(2) The maturity of technologies such as big data and cloud computing provides support for the precise marketing of online hotel market.

(3)OTA platform is still the mainstream of online hotel market, with obvious advantages in entry position.

(4) The development potential of the high-end hotel market is constantly being tapped by the new generation of consumers such as the post-80s and post-90s.

2 Competitive product selection

2. 1 Classification of competing products

Core competing products: group buying platform (Baidu glutinous rice-hotel, Meituan hotel reservation)

Meituan and Baidu glutinous rice are both group buying apps, and the hotel module is part of them. They are located in the same market segment, and their user behaviors and usage scenarios are highly similar.

Important competing products: OTA platform (Ctrip travel, where to travel, E Long travel, Ali travel)

The same market segment-online hotel booking occupies a very high market share, ranking the top 4 in transaction volume;

General competing products: official hotel APP (Zhu Hua, Home Inn, etc. ); UGC tourism service platform: hornet's nest;

Other competing products: non-standard hotel reservations: Tujia (apartment), Airbnb (homestay), etc.

2.2 reasons for choosing competitive products

According to the product form and classification, the most direct and core competitive product of Meituan Hotel should be glutinous rice hotel, but the market share of glutinous rice hotel is low, which is not of great analytical significance.

Therefore, the OTA platform with the largest market share in the market segment is selected for analysis.

Ctrip is chosen because it has the first market share, has worked hard in the industry for many years, and has rich resources and experience.

Although the market share of Ali Travel is not as good as that of E Long Travel, Ali's e-commerce background makes the user behavior and usage scenarios of Ali Travel more similar to those of Meituan. Ali Travel inherited Taobao's C2C model, which is different from the previous OTA agent.

2.3 competitive version

3 demand analysis

3. 1 user analysis

The following are the statistical analysis results of online hotel reservation users in China in 20 15 years:

As can be seen from the above picture, mobile phone booking is the most important booking method for online hotels. Users under the age of 29 are the most important user groups. Among the users who use mobile phones to make reservations, 67% are users under the age of 29 and 49% are users aged 30-39.

As can be seen from the above figure, the comprehensive travel reservation (OTA) platform is the most commonly used channel for users to know hotel information when booking hotels, accounting for 48%.

As can be seen from the above figure, the details that users are most concerned about are experiential consumption, hotel cleanliness and wireless Internet access.

In terms of user experience, users have the highest satisfaction with WIFI signals; The hotel's warm and comfortable experience has the highest pleasure value.

As can be seen from the above figure, users' demand for hotel accommodation is generally concentrated on the hotel environment and services, and the reservation platform can better meet this demand because it can update the hotel room price and room status in real time, and the corresponding users are more satisfied (as shown below); However, due to the price factors and product form restrictions, the hotel can not provide high-quality services, so the customer satisfaction is low, only 2.58 (out of 5).

As can be seen from the above figure, the real-time update of house price and room status, convenient and fast payment/various payment methods and flexible reservation methods are the main reasons for users' satisfaction with OTA platform.

High price proofreading and poor one-stop life service experience are the main factors that users are dissatisfied with OTA platform.

As can be seen from the above figure, preferential price/low price is the main reason why users are satisfied with the group buying platform;

The main reason why users are dissatisfied with the group buying platform is that they need to make an appointment in advance, but they don't necessarily make an appointment. The number of group buying rooms is relatively small, and the group buying shows that the hotel pictures are inconsistent with the facts.

As can be seen from the above figure, tickets are the products that users book the most at the same time when booking hotels online;

Online payment and in-store payment are users' favorite payment methods.

3.2 Use scenario analysis

Demand analysis often needs to be analyzed by analyzing usage scenarios.

We subdivide the main needs of target users according to different purchase stages as follows:

According to the data analysis of job funnel:

1 The stages that users are most likely to lose are before purchase and during purchase. The content and quality of information will affect the retention of users because of the convenience of the purchase process, so the structure and presentation of product information are particularly important.

The key of word-of-mouth marketing is the sharing mechanism and the construction of UGC community. A good sharing mechanism can save a lot of marketing costs, while a benign UGC community will further transform browsing users into trading users.

3.3 User Pain Points

The following figure shows the survey results of online hotel users' dissatisfaction with hotel reservation and group purchase:

The data shows that users' pain points for hotel reservation mainly focus on price, while those for hotel group purchase mainly focus on information symmetry. In order to solve these two pain points, mainstream hotel reservation platforms generally provide hotel reservation and group purchase products. Reservation products guarantee information symmetry but the price is relatively high, while group purchase products can't guarantee information symmetry but the price is cheap, giving users more rights to choose independently.

4 competitive product analysis

4. 1 Comparison of basic functions

The above table lists the functions of the latest version of each app in detail.

4.2 Analysis of competitive products

4.2. 1 business type difference

Meituan, Ctrip and Zhufei all include various types of hotels at home and abroad;

In addition, the US Mission chose the "hourly room"; Flying pig chose "Inn Apartment";

The bottom column of Ctrip.com shows the widest business scope, including: hourly rooms, conference rooms, folk inn, characteristic hotel and characteristic hotel.

4.2.2 Differences in business models

The business model of Meituan is mainly B2C model. Direct integration of upstream hotel supplier resources is conducive to the control of service quality and more reliable booking data; Moreover, the hotel source is consistent, the page structure is clearer, and the user experience is better in the browsing process; However, the disadvantage is that the richness of resources will be limited (under the same screening conditions, the number of hotels in Ctrip and Zhu Fei far exceeds the number of hotels traveled by the US delegation), and the cost is relatively high.

The business model adopted by Ctrip is the agent model. The platform integrates Ctrip's self-operated and agent products, the agent is responsible for providing products and the platform is responsible for providing services. The user does not contact the agent directly. This mode is a typical traditional OTA mode (Ctrip's air ticket business also follows this mode). The advantages are that a large number of houses can be obtained, which is easy to popularize in various cities and has low cost; But the disadvantage is that the agents' control over the quality of housing is uneven, and the turnover time of the capital chain in the hands of agents is too long.

Flying pig travel is C2C mode. Users can contact sellers directly when purchasing products other than self-operated products, and the platform is only used as a bridge to communicate buyers and sellers (somewhat similar to Taobao). This model is similar to Taobao's C2C model, and it is the best model of Ali. This model further magnifies the advantages and disadvantages of OTA model, which is more relaxed for sellers, but stricter for the quality control of the platform.

4.2.3 Differences in recommended functions

At present, Meituan, Ctrip and Zhu Fei all recommend nearby hotels, and recommend the nearest hotel for users to browse, so as to facilitate users to compare hotel prices and services. This helps users to focus on choosing hotels and make it easier to choose the most ideal hotel. But the disadvantage is that it can't drive the traffic and sales of other products through hotel sales, and users need to jump out of the hotel selection page when they need to buy other supporting products.

Ctrip packages travel service related products (tickets, etc.). ) into a preferential package, automatically recommend content for users, but if the recommendation does not fully meet the user's preferences, it is easy to cause users' disgust; Moreover, the recommended products can not be purchased because of insufficient quantity, and the user experience is poor.

On the details page of the hotel, Meituan has a label of "Mercer Hotel" to recommend nearby food information to users.

Differences in payment types

Meituan's reservation and group purchase only support online submission of orders to complete payment. The payment method is relatively simple, but the operation process is simpler and more consistent, and the user experience is better.

Ctrip's booking business is mainly free booking, but the guarantee fee needs to be paid in advance and can be refunded. The guarantee fee is only used for locking the house and can be refunded. Pay the room rate to the hotel after arriving at the store. Users only need to spend a little money to book a hotel online, but after the guarantee, they have to wait for a certain time for the hotel to confirm, which leads to the real-time reservation is not very good. In addition, Ctrip supports tourists to book, and users can book without logging in, which is easy to cause false reports and waste business resources. Orders cannot be queried on other devices, which is not conducive to user behavior data analysis and precise marketing.

Hotels that fly pigs travel mainly focus on "credit accommodation". Users can check in directly after booking online. After checking out, deduct the consumption amount from the bound Alipay account or Ant Flower Garden. Users guarantee online in advance without paying any fees, which solves the pain of paying a deposit and getting a room card when checking in. It is a new payment method for online hotel reservation. The promotion of this model is closely related to Ali's credit rating system and is not easy to be copied by competitors.

4.3 Application Architecture

4.3. 1 Meituan Liquor Brigade

Note: the picture is too dense, please enlarge it and browse it manually;

Summary and analysis:

1 meituan's information structure is clear, hierarchical and clear;

2 Meituan has added a group purchase mode on the basis of ordinary orders, and there are two ways to book. Although there are two booking methods, the ordering method and process are basically the same, which is conducive to cultivating users' habits and is simple to use and operate.

In addition to the standard domestic and international full-time rooms, Meituan highlighted the types of hourly rooms; Different types of hotel list pages, details pages, order pages and payment pages are basically the same, with the same framework and smooth user experience;

Compared with Ctrip and Zhu Fei, Meituan's map page has an obvious defect. First of all, it lacks the screening function of the map page, does not display the number of merchants within the current map range, and cannot narrow down the hotel screening within the current designated range. I think this is a place where the US Mission can consider improving.

4.3.2 Ctrip Travel

Note: the picture is too dense, please enlarge it and browse it manually;

Summary and analysis:

1 The hotel business types displayed at the bottom of Ctrip Hotel's homepage are comprehensive, including five modules: hourly room, conference room, group room, hotel, inn, characteristic hotel and discovery. Compared with the US Mission and Flying Pig, this is a great advantage.

2 Ctrip's conference and team room module has a very user-friendly function, which can customize the requirements and improve the user experience.

Because Ctrip has integrated coupons and tickets for local attractions. , it adds a package order, and you need to choose a package. The advantage is that it can meet the needs of customers to visit scenic spots in one stop, but the disadvantage is that the system process is relatively complex, with many levels, and the use difficulty is greatly increased.

4.3.3 Flying Pig Travel

Note: the picture is too dense, please enlarge it and browse it manually;

Summary and analysis:

1 is C2C mode. Due to the different positioning of Flying Pig's hotel business, it corresponds to C2C sales mode adopted by Taobao. Therefore, the seller list will be added to the reservation list.

2. In the payment page, the overall credit rating of Alibaba is connected. The flying pig hotel module adopts the method of credit residence, which supports customers to check in without deposit, check out without queuing, and automatically check out with Alipay after leaving the hotel. This way is unique, which greatly improves the convenience of travel and accommodation, and it is difficult for other enterprises to copy this way.

4.4 interaction

With the development of the travel market and the continuous trial and error and improvement of various products, a more general framework and model will eventually be formed. This is also the reason why the homogenization of tourism products is more serious.

Reasonable interaction paradigm can make consumers form a good user experience, improve user stickiness and help cultivate user habits.

4.4. 1 date selection

The above is a screenshot of Ctrip's date selection.

1 Click the check-in time box to jump to the calendar, select the check-in time and then jump out to return to the main page;

2 Click the departure time box to jump to the calendar, select the departure time, and jump back to the main page again;

3 the choice of check-in time and monthly departure time is independent of each other and not connected;

4 completion time selection, * * * has experienced 4 page jumps and 4 clicks, which is more complicated, not very intelligent, and the experience is slightly poor.

The above is a screenshot of the date selection of the US Mission.

1 Click the time box and the page will jump to the calendar. After selecting the check-in time, the page will not jump, but a prompt "Please select the check-out time" will be given. Then the user selects the departure time, clicks the "Finish" button and the page jumps back to the main page;

There are only 2 page jumps and 4 clicks in the whole process, and there are tips and process instructions in the process, which is better than Ctrip.

When the departure time is finally selected, the user needs to manually confirm the completion, which is more complicated than the system automatically jumping out.

But it may also be to reduce the situation that the user jumps out because of the wrong point, and to ensure the correctness of the choice.

The above is a screenshot of the date selection of Flying Pig Hotel.

1 Click the time box and the page will jump. At the same time, the system will give a prompt of "Please select the check-in date", and the user will select the check-in information;

2 After selecting the check-in information, the system will automatically jump out "Please select the departure date", and the system will automatically jump out after the user selects the departure date;

3 The whole process * * * has experienced 3 clicks and 2 jumps, which is the most concise process and the smoothest user experience among competing products;

To sum up, before analyzing the interactive function of date selection in detail, I have experienced three competing products first, and it is true that flying pigs are smoother when choosing; After the comparative analysis of three apps, I realized that subtle interaction differences will bring different user experiences to users. Details determine success or failure.

Therefore, when you choose this function module on the date, you should choose more "automatic confirmation" interaction methods. Both Ctrip and Meituan can further improve.

4.4.2 Screening function

The above is a screenshot of Ctrip Hotel Reservation Screening Module.

1 Ctrip's filtering function is placed at the bottom of the page, probably to cater to users' daily habits of using social software, such as WeChat and QQ, and they are used to clicking at the bottom of the page. But I'm not used to it. So whether this method really works depends on the analysis of operational data.

When you click "Filter" in the lower left corner, the picture on the right will pop up, occupying the whole page and generating a brand-new page.

3 After making a choice, the user basically needs to confirm (except for the automatic refresh of the praise priority module).

After filtering, the number of attributes will be marked in the upper right corner of the word "filter", which is a good user experience.

The above is a screenshot of the Flying Pig Hotel Reservation Screening Module.

1 The filtering function is all placed at the top of the page, below the search box; In this way, the visual order is consistent with the operation order, and the experience is smoother;

2 When filtering, different filtering conditions appear in the form of a drop-down box or a right box. After filtering, the total number of filtered results will be displayed at the bottom of the page.

3 All the filter conditions except "Recommended Sorting" need to be confirmed by the user.

4 After filtering, the appearance of the filter bar will not change, and the number of selected filter conditions will not be displayed in real time.

1 Meituan's screening column is similar to a flying pig and is placed under the search box.

2 Click "City" and a new page will pop up at the bottom of the page, which is different from flying pig from top to bottom and from right to left;

3 "whole city" and "intelligent sorting" automatically jump;

4 "Price Star" and "Filter" need to be manually clicked, and confirmed after selection.

To sum up, for interaction, it is to improve the user experience.

However, it is not simple simplification or complexity that can enhance the user experience; Although too few functions are simple and easy to operate, the user experience will be reduced if the user's concerns are not covered. Too much interaction leads to the responsibility of operation flow and visual flow. Some interactions are not the core information that users pay attention to, but will reduce the user experience.

So I think whether some specific interactive functions work or not depends on analyzing users' clickstream data and purchase data to verify their practicability.

5 discussion

This research report analyzes the hotel reservation modules of the above three travel apps, and talks about my own ideas and suggestions from the perspective of Ctrip hotel reservation.

(1) Because Ctrip has the largest number of business travel users, in order to meet the huge user base, Ctrip has the most complete functions and the richest product categories, which can be said to be "big and complete", and it is a giant of online travel hotel reservation, occupying a strong resource advantage; However, Ctrip's product process needs to be further polished, and more efforts should be made to improve the interactive experience.

(2) For Meituan, its resources are not as good as Ctrip's, but it focuses on two modules: "ordinary reservation" and "group purchase reservation"; The complexity is not high, the natural process is relatively clear, the page is more concise and the user experience is better. However, Meituan is an upstream supplier with satisfactory business model and lack of innovation. The group buying model is also easy to copy.

(3) Flying Pig Travel Hotel Reservation applies Ali's typical C2C model to hotel reservation, giving full play to its own advantages, which is also a business model different from traditional hotel reservation. Moreover, the promotion of credit residence in Feizhu Hotel runs through the credit rating system of Ali products, and it is difficult to be copied by similar products in the near future. The user experience of flying pigs is greater. For example, if the user clicks on the hotel details page, only the flying pig will display the word "how many people are also browsing the hotel"; When screening hotels, only Zhu Fei will display several hotels that meet the screening criteria at the bottom of the page. All kinds of situations show that Zhu Fei's interaction and experience are more delicate, and the details are handled better, which is the best user experience among the three apps.

The data involved in this report are all from the statistics of 20 15 compared with the consulting website.