Booking Engine Revamp — 3 × Conversions
Scroll, select, and book in 90 seconds: our rebuilt engine turns window‑shoppers into guests three times more often, capturing direct revenue that once leaked to OTAs.
Industry
Hospitality & Travel Tech
Service
Booking‑Flow Strategy · AI Personalisation · Payment Orchestration · Mobile‑PWA Build
Team Setup
1 Product Strategist · 2 UX Designers · 1 Conversion Copywriter · 2 Data Scientists · 6 Full‑Stack Devs · 2 QA · 2 DevOps
Timeline
8 Months
Story
Goal
Create a mobile‑first, one‑page booking flow that would:
- Triple the baseline 1.4 % hotel‑site conversion (industry < 2 % average).
- Cut abandonment—52 % of travellers quit poor booking flows.
- Lift direct‑channel revenue per booking (US$519 vs OTAs $320).
- Deliver sub‑3‑second loads and Apple/Google Pay in every currency.
Challenge
Legacy flows and fierce OTA competition threatened direct conversions:
- Legacy multi‑step checkout—seven pages, 18 form fields.
- Mobile friction—mobile now 35 % of all bookings.
- Rate‑parity gaps—OTAs undercutting by $12 on avg.
- Payment sprawl—AMEX 3‑DS, Klarna, Alipay, 16 tax regimes.
- Inventory lag—PMS sync every 15 min → oversell risk.
- Personalisation void—same static rates for families and solo nomads.
Our Approach
Discover
60 min heuristic teardown + Hotjar heat‑maps; 74 % rage‑clicks on room matrix.
Design
One‑page PWA, scrollable room cards, AI rate + add‑on suggestions; F‑pattern eye‑tracking tests.
Deploy
Node & Next.js micro‑frontends on Cloudflare Workers; blue/green by geo; Edge caching for price JSON.
Key Modules Engineered
Each module tackled the friction points undermining direct bookings—boosting conversions and average booking value.
One‑Page Checkout
Steps 7 → 1; form time −63 %.
Predictive Personaliser
ML matches rate/add‑ons; CR +18 pp.
PWA Turbo Loader
LCP 1.8 s on 3 G; bounce −22 %.
Rate‑Parity Sentinel
Flags OTA undercuts; revenue +11 %.
Flexible Payments Hub
14 wallets + BNPL; mobile CR +27 %.
Live Price Cache
PMS sync every 30 s; oversells 0.2 %.
Loyalty Wallet
Points apply in‑flow; member CR +34 %.
Upsell Carousel
Parking, spa, late‑out; RevPAR +$21.
Cart Recovery Bot
WhatsApp/SMS nudge; recovers 14 % drops.
A/B Test Engine
50+ experiments; only winners ship.
Edge‑Side Render
Geo‑price JSON at CDN; TTFB 90 ms.
AI Chat Concierge
GPT‑4o answers in‑flow Qs; exits −17 %.
User Research Insights
52 % abandon poor UX; 2‑page flows convert 30 % better than 4‑page. Hotel Technology News
Direct site bookings gross US$519 vs 3rd‑party $320. Hospitality.today
Technology Stack
A/B Test Wins
ROI / Business Impact
Outcome
A frictionless, fast, and personalised booking experience that now outperforms OTAs—and cements brand loyalty.
Revenue & Growth
- Conversion 1.4 % → 4.3 % (3 × uplift).
- Direct GMV +62 % YoY.
Guest Experience
- Booking time 4 min → 90 s.
- NPS on booking flow +18 pts.
Operational Efficiency
- Oversells cut 85 %; call‑centre volume −12 %.
- 99.99 % booking API uptime; TTFB 90 ms global.
Brand Impact
- Featured by Hospitality Net as “Top Booking Engine Revamp 2025”.
- Benchmarked above 95th‑percentile conversion in sector.
Feature Highlights
One‑Page Checkout
Predictive Personaliser
PWA Turbo Loader
Rate‑Parity Sentinel
Flexible Payments
Loyalty Wallet
Upsell Carousel
Cart Recovery Bot
Edge Render
AI Concierge
Dynamic Inventory
A/B Engine
Multi‑currency Tax
ADA & WCAG AA
Insight Dashboard
Want 3× more guests to book direct?
Schedule a revenue sprint—we’ll plug into your PMS, deploy the one‑page PWA, and prove conversion lift in 45 days.