Hilton Rewards Program
Overview
The objective of this research study was to identify Hilton Rewards Loyalty member’s motivations for joining loyalty programs and the deciding factors that influence the hotel selection process.
Timeline: 8 weeks
My Roles: User Research
Actions
A project plan was created outlining the project goals and research themes. Interview questions and a moderator’s guide was developed after meeting with the project stakeholder.
A total of nine participants were recruited through userinterviews.com. for one-on-one, remote interviews. A screener survey was created to help segment participants into to two groups — business travelers and leisure travelers.
Segmenting our participants into two target groups permitted my team to explore any unique characteristics or overlap between the two.
The following UX artifacts were created as a result of the research:
Research plan
Affinity map and diagram
User personas
UX research report
Research Plan
A research plan outlining key business goals for Hilton Hotels & Resorts was developed in order to conduct user research on loyalty program member’s motivations for joining loyalty programs.
Business goals were determined based on discussions with stakeholders from the Product, Marketing, and Software Development teams. The goal of my team’s research was to deepen our knowledge of user and customer experience and gather actionable insight to help achieve the identified goals listed below:
Why (and why don’t) people sign up for the loyalty program?
What do business travelers look for, want, and need when evaluating properties and choosing a room to book, and why.
What do leisure travelers look for, want, and need when evaluating properties and choosing a room to book, and why.
Data Collection Results
Each moderator compiled their individual interview notes into a group compilation of session notes that was later analyzed to create an affinity diagram that identified the common themes amongst the six participants.
Affinity Diagram
An affinity diagram was created by our three moderators during a group working session. During the session our moderators identified the following series of themes:
1. Free Nights and Discounts Drive Loyalty
Free nights and restaurant discounts are valuable perks that build trust and create brand loyalty.
2. Business Travelers Want to Take Care of Business
Business amenities such as reliable, high-speed Wi-Fi and a dedicated work space enables business travelers to stay productive after hours.
3. Comfort and Safety are Key When at Play
Leisure travelers want hotels that have a reputation for safety and comfort so they can enjoy piece-of-mind while they explore new cities.
User Persona
User personas were developed from the data collected in the 1:1 interviews with participants who were loyalty program members.
Person 1 believes free nights and discounts drive loyalty
Person 2 wants to be able to focus on business when traveling
Person 3 believes comfort and safety create a sense of “home”
Results
5 out of 6 loyalty members indicated that an easy sign up process was a key factor in deciding whether or not to join a loyalty program
5 out of 6 loyalty members indicated that aggressive marketing would deter them from joining a loyalty program
4 out of 6 loyalty members rate free nights/discounts as the most important perk
5 out of 6 business travelers indicated that proximity to conference centers was their highest priority when booking a stay
5 out of 6 leisure travelers indicated that safety and cleanliness created a sense of comfort that they equated with “Home”
4 out of 6 participants indicated that free nights and restaurant discounts are
Lessons Learned
Segmenting our participants by the type of travel (i.e., business, leisure) enabled our team to explore any unique characteristics or overlap between the two groups.
Utilizing a screener survey enabled our team to quickly qualify and schedule participants for our study. This allowed our team time to schedule an additional round of interviews to supplement our initial research.
Utilizing an affinity diagram was critical to analyzing and synthesizing our data, which produced actionable insights that we documented in our final stakeholder report.