THE HUB
The Hub is a first-of-its-kind product KOALA created specifically for timeshare owners to monetize their points (think airline points).
THE PROBLEM
Before The Hub, the majority of feedback we were receiving from timeshare points owners was: ‘I can book any location at any time with my points. What will travelers rent from me?’ At the time, their only recourse was:
Book a reservation they thought someone might want (dates, unit type, resort)
List that reservation on KOALA
Cross their fingers and hope someone wants that reservation
THE SOLUTION
The Hub turned this entire dynamic on its head. Instead of hosts booking and listing a random reservation, we developed a product that would be traveler-led.
A traveler books their dates at a resort, just as they would on any other travel site
The booking details (dates, unit type, location) load onto The Hub, where owners with points select which booking(s) they want to fulfill with their points
The owner books that exact reservation in their brand’s system for the traveler
The owner passes the reservation to the traveler
The significance of this product cannot be overstated in the world of timeshare rentals. Points owners, which make up the majority of timeshare owners, now have a way to get guaranteed bookings, something that was not possible before The Hub.
THE DESIGN
We started the design process for this product with research. Because this was a brand new concept being introduced to our users, we knew the design would need to be straightforward, contain explicit instructions, set expectations and next steps.
MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT
The H1 clearly stated the purpose of the product and the H2 provides a brief overview
Social proof beneath that injects a level of trustworthiness
During UAT, it became clear immediately that there wasn’t a complete understanding of the process, so we added ‘clear’ rules and expectations to go through before interacting with the product itself.
Below that is the list of bookings that need to be fulfilled with all relevant information.
LATER ITERATION
Further iterations after launch of the Hub focused on increasing trust and simplifying the instructions. In addition to the social proof, we included a testimonial video, reviews, tool-tips, and a ribbon, reminding the host of the insurance that they receive with every booking.
We also learned quickly that people were not stopping to read the bulleted instructions, so we pivoted to a simple cartoon explaining the steps.
Finally, to improve general usability, we added sort buttons to the columns. This allowed users to view bookings by the factor that was most important to them, be it, total number of points, payout rate, proximity to check-in, etc.
CONCLUSION