Yotel, increasing mobile bookings
by 183% globally

Our team won the Best User Experience award in the Travel category at the UK Digital Experience Awards for our work with Yotel.

Our Challenge  

YOTEL first approached Fat Media back in 2015, to fully revamp their digital presence. They knew that their existing desktop-first website was not performing well for the many mobile & tablet visitors they had, and as such they were losing both web traffic and direct bookings. It was evident that some of the problems with YOTEL’s site lay deep, which is why extensive user-experience work was needed, including persona development and live user testing.

Another exciting challenge was the integration of Sabre SynXis reservation software. To do this, we were required to pass a very strict development certification process with Sabre. However, it was an extremely valuable process, as integration not only makes booking easier for customers, but also allows YOTEL to create exclusive rate packages. Yotel is a global leading hotel group, boasting uncompromisingly designed rooms for all occasions in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami, London City, London Shoreditch, Manchester Deansgate, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Porto, Istanbul and Singapore.

Visit Yotel.com

The Results?

  • Our work with YOTEL won the Best User Experience award in the Travel category at the UK Digital Experience Awards
  • 183% increase in mobile revenue since launch
Mobile-First Design

Ensuring that every user has a great experience, employing user testing to see real-life examples of how people interact with the site via mobiles.

Conversion Rate Optimisation

We created a fluid, consistent booking method, along with cleaning up the navigation.

Advanced Reporting

To be sure we could measure our progress accurately, extra layers of reporting were added.

Online Game Production

A fun way for YOTEL to engage with their audience and reach new guests.

Booking Integration

Allowing users to see real time availability.

Modal Room Selector

Quick view for users to be able to view snapshot details of the available rooms.

How did we do it?

The Brand

YOTEL’s target audience are independent, design conscious, digitally savvy travellers. So, we aimed to create a site that was as cleverly designed as the YOTEL cabins themselves. The brand also has international appeal, so we made sure a choice of language and currency was easily available.

Creating Comps

To keep YOTEL’s guests engaged with the brand, we created the YOBOT competition. Inspired by YOTEL’s luggage storing robot, the game gave players the chance to win a prize hidden in one of the YOBOT lockers. After supporting marketing activity, the games were played over 28,000 times!

Responsive UI

With almost 50% of YOTEL’s visitors accessing the site from a mobile or tablet, it was vital the site could sell well on any device.

Mobile Design

Since the launch, mobile revenue for YOTEL increased by 183%, which we think constitutes a success! By continually monitoring, testing and amending the new design, we have refined the site even further, and achieved a return on YOTEL’s investment in just 6 months.

Logged-In Area

To keep guests engaged with YOTEL before and after their stay, we added a clock which counts down to the user’s next stay whenever they are logged into their account. An on-site prompt also encourages them to share news of their upcoming stay on social media, in return for a free welcome drink.

User Experience

Using as much ethnographic research and digging through available customer feedback, Fat Media and YOTEL were able to devise several user personas to help target concepts and select test users. By splitting the design into stages, and doing user video testing between each of our new designs, we only proceeded to the next stage if the customer feedback was positive.

The project exceeded both our’s and Yotel’s expectations.

Through the 100% user-centric design, Yotel achieved a 183% increase in mobile revenue, and our work even won the Best User Experience award in the Travel category at the UK Digital Experience Awards.