Reviews & Ratings: Building Trust in Hotel Decisions

Research · 2023 · Cologne

**Short Overview** Research initiative to understand how travelers use reviews and ratings on the hotel details page, and how the review experience should evolve to build trust and support faster decisions. **Problem Statement** Reviews were being scrolled past or filtered out, and users expressed distrust about the authenticity and relevance of ratings, especially compared with other platforms they used. **Goals** - Understand what makes reviews trustworthy and useful to different traveler segments - Identify friction in current reading and filtering behavior - Deliver evidence-based recommendations for the review module **Role & Responsibilities** Lead UX Researcher. Owned research plan, moderation, analysis, and recommendation report. **Design Process** - Mixed-method study: 15 interviews, quantitative survey with 400+ respondents, and diary study - Comparative benchmark of review patterns across leading travel platforms - Behavioral analysis of scroll and filter usage on the review section - Synthesis workshop with product and content teams **Key Findings** - Trust is driven by verified stays, recency, and reviewer context (e.g. business vs. leisure) - Users want to filter by topic (breakfast, quietness, cleanliness) more than by score - Summary snapshots reduce cognitive load and speed up decisions **Impact / Expected Outcomes** - Prioritized backlog of design changes for the review module - New guidelines for review content and moderation - Alignment across product, content and support on trust priorities **Skills Demonstrated** Mixed-method research, synthesis, stakeholder alignment, trust and behavioral UX. **Platforms** Web and Mobile