Airbnb
Choosing a Pet Friendly Stay | UX Research Study
Overview
As a frequent user of Airbnb and a dog lover, my husband and I often travel with our Great Pyrenees mix and need pet friendly Airbnbs for our trips. Today on Airbnb’s site, you can filter using a “Pets allowed” house rule to accommodate users like myself. Airbnb’s pet friendly feature falls short of supporting all of the requirements that some hosts have for their specific properties including fees, rules, and useful information like displaying which homes have a fenced in yard for your pet. There is no way to filter pet type, pet weight, or number of pets you’re planning to bring. Therefore, any useful information related to pets is often buried in each host’s description of the home.
The goal of this study was to uncover customer needs when searching and deciding which pet friendly home to book in order to recommend an easier, more efficient way of choosing the best stay based off of customer feedback.
Research Methods
IA Analysis | Current Experience Navigating to “Pet’s Allowed”
Quantitative User Survey
Secondary Research
Tools Used: Whimsical | Typeform
Information Architecture Analysis
Current Experience Navigating to “Pet’s Allowed”
The current way of filtering down to view pet friendly homes leaves much to be desired.
In addition, once you filter down to view pet friendly homes, you have to search through each description for information like rules, fees, and weight restrictions for your pet.
Quantitative User Survey
In order to better understand from the customers’ point of view what’s working well and what could be improved when searching for a pet friendly stay on Airbnb, I released a survey asking users to tell me more about their experience.
Customers who have traveled with their pet(s) Information
What has your experience been like booking a stay that allowed pets? Were you able to find any additional restrictions or fees easily?
31.25% said they were able to find the restrictions & fees information easily and that they were clearly defined.
68.75% said they had trouble finding all of the restrictions and fees information when booking.
“The restrictions or additional fees were typically hidden discreetly in the “rules” section. Some rentals only started “pets allowed” without any additional info and I had to inquire directly...”
Is there anything specific you’d like Airbnb to tell you about each pet friendly home?
25% of customers said they would love for Airbnb hosts to specify whether there is a fenced in yard or not.
Information regarding whether there is a crate provided or if the pet owner should bring their own.
House rules such as whether pets are allowed on the beds and furniture or not.
Pet limitations listed related to weight, breed, & number of dogs allowed during stay.
Clearly listed pet related fees. One user even mentioned the concept of filtering by homes that required a fee vs. those that don’t.
Info. on the best pet friendly parks and restaurants nearby.
Whether or not non-pet friendly homes have pets that reside sometimes.
“Fenced in yard would be good to know. Maybe whether there are pet friendly stores and restaurants close by.”
“Yes. I'd like to know right off the bat if a place is pet friendly or not and what are all the fees associated with having the pet there. Some places are not ok with bigger dogs, specific breeds/species, etc. I also sleep with my dog, so I need to know if they're OK with that.”
“It would be great if the property owner indicated whether crates/kennels were already provided and best places to walk/relieve dogs.”
“Having specific towels or what not to clean their paws or them if they’re taken out on an adventure to ensure the cleanliness of the home and prevent tenants from having to pack that stuff.”
Secondary Research
Airbnb Forum Posts related to “Pet’s Allowed” Stays
UX Recommendations
I created a pet-specific filter with options that allow users to input their pet’s description(s) in order to more quickly narrow down their search results. This saves users time by not having to read through every listing to find each owners individual restrictions, limitations, or fees. “Pets allowed” would be removed from the “House Rules” section of Airbnb’s filters, instead showing a Pet Friendly section with the property owner’s requirements.
Add a “Pet Friendly” option under the More Options section of the filters.
Upon clicking the the new “Pet Friendly” filter option, users will be presented with the options that matter most such as specifying the size of the dog, whether or not there is a fenced in yard or kennel available, and so on.
