Car Rental Feature Design for Airbnb

Add Value and Increase Spending with One Feature
Project Type
App Feature Design
Duration
2 Weeks
Scope of Work
UX Research
Feature Design
Interaction Design
Project Background

Airbnb is a global lodging and travel service marketplace. Despite its popularity, Airbnb is not a one-stop shop for travelers. Most travelers still need to visit a slew of sites in order to purchase every service they need to complete a single trip booking, from flights to local tour bus tickets. To improve users’ travel experiences, Airbnb decided to add a car rental feature to make travel booking more convenient.

‍Please note that this is a student project, the concept and prototypes are not commissioned by Airbnb.

View Prototype
I assume that current car rental solutions are too complicated and negatively affect users’ travel experiences.

My Approach

In order to identify the specific pain points that users experience when renting a car, I started the project with multiple angles of research.

The research helped define the problem and outlined the steps users expect to take to complete the task of renting a car. Since the goal of this new feature is to simplify the car rental process, I focused on creating a flow that could be seamlessly integrated with the existing Airbnb experience.
Empathize Through Research
The survey focused on gathering quantitive data to discover common problems users have when renting a car. The interviews dove deeper into uncovering unmet needs and user expectations.
Survey Findings
Through analyzing 20 survey responses, I confirmed that people had multiple complaints with existing car rental services. Most users would consider renting a car as a service bundled with their lodging.
The biggest pain point for users is the pick up and drop off experience, it's confusing and time consuming. In fact, the process of picking up and returning a car is the most time consuming part of the entire car rental experience, and later interviews further stressed this point.
This validates our asusmption. Allowing users to rent a car directly with their Airbnb stay means that the pick up and drop off process is part of check in. A rental car can be ready the second the user arrives, which saves users time.

Interview Findings

Using interviews I was able to look into the process of how users rent a car and identify the steps that cause problems or lead to complaints.

Although most users say price is one of their top concerns when it comes to choosing a rental car, they will rarely compromise their desired car model for price. This is because specific models might be needed to carry equipment or accommodate a trip with a big family. The fact that car rental services do not seem to follow “you get what you pay for” causes a lot of frustration.
Jennifer, working mom
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I always book (rental cars) in advance, because I don’t trust them to have what I want available.
Cindy, designer from LA
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My family went to Canada, and we rented a car. We waited for like 2 hours or something ridiculous at the airport. After layovers and a long flight, this is the last thing we wanna do.
Rouba, frequent traveler
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Car rental companies will only say it's a "Nissan or similar", so I never know if I will have the right charger, or if my phone's GPS can connect to the car's dashboard.
Karina, designer from NY
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Trying to figure out all their (car rental companies) policies is just irritating, especially if they use a lot of insurance jargon.
Define the Problem to Solve
The research validated my assumption and I am confident that the concept of this car rental feature could help solve users' problems. Together with a simplified pick up and drop off process, the ability to choose a car model that fits the user's needs can also be addressed with the car rental feature we want to build.
I believe that if users can rent a car directly from their hosts on Airbnb, it will make their travel experiences more convenient.

The comparison between the task flow a user needs to go through to complete a car rental task on Airbnb versus a generic service platform paints a clear picture of how many steps and how much time we can save with this feature.

Adding this feature means the most time-consuming step of the car rental process can be cut out . In addition, this feature also tackles another major problem users have. Users can filter their search for the exact car model they want and view images and descriptions of each specific car.

Click to view full image
Create an Experience that Blends In
While the idea of adding a car rental service seemed straightforward, the key is to integrate it seamlessly with the existing Airbnb booking experience that users know and love. In order to improve users’ overall travel experiences, we must avoid disruption and friction. The new feature must follow users’ logical next steps, allowing them to smoothly add a service without leaving the main task, which is booking a stay.

The design focused on finding answers to the following questions:
Where should the new feature be located?

I came up with two versions for where this new feature could be displayed. Usability testing later helped decide a winner.

The one on the left lists "Car Rental" as an independant filter. It is promoted and put front and center to gain more visibility.

The location shown on the right, however, has minimal UI change and puts "Car Rental" under the broader filter umbrella - "Amenities". This version creates no distraction for users to achieve their primary goal on Airbnb, and that is to book a stay.

Where should users see the info about the car?

To address the concern revealed in the research about users not being able to choose their preferred car model, I wanted to make sure the specifications of the car could be found easily.
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However, I also wanted to make sure that the car information doesn't distract users from the primary task which is booking a place to stay. I decided to include car details within the stay's detail page to create a seamless experience.

Choose Delivery Options & Review Order

Users can choose deliery or pickup before checkout starts, giving them more opportunity to click and make changes without any consequences.
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Review order with a summary and a breakdown before checkout starts.

Where should the button be placed?

Since the primary fucntion of Airbnb is booking a place to stay, the car rental CTA button should not take users away from this goal.

To reduce confusion, I decided to go with a toggle button, which also signals users that the rental car service is an option for them.

Where should we add insurance charges?

Through our research, we can confirm that most users do want insurance for their rental car, but not all of them would buy it with the rental company. Therefore, we decided to provide users with an option to add basic insurance coverage at checkout.

This pattern is common among travel booking websites.

Test, Iterate, Repeat
I made 2 versions of the feature display and determined a winner based on users' preference in A/B testing.

There was some confusion among the "Amenities" group when asked to find a place to stay with a rental car available. The main confusion revolved around the understanding of the word "amenities", as some users disagreed with categorizing car rental service as such. Therefore, I decided to use "Car rental" as an independant filter for the final design.

In addition to the A/B test, I also collected feedback on general usability of this new feature. One comment that stood out was about the little tag on the list of "Stays". If a place has both "Superhost" and "Car rental" tags, it does not make sense to some users that "Car rental" took priority. As a result, we decided to replace the "Car rental" tag with an icon.
A/B test winner goes to "Car rental" as an independant filter
The "Superhost" statusshould take priority over the new feature
Final Thoughts
Although this is a hypothetical feature design project, the process allowed me to exercise both my design thinking skills and my ability to create within an existing design system.

The fact that Airbnb is a widely popular app also made the usability testing more realistic. Participants are familiar with the app, know what to expect, and are able to provide concrete feedback.
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