Airbnb Experiences

Business impact

The redesigned booking flow drove a 34% increase in booking completion within 8 weeks of launch. Support tickets related to booking dropped by 28%, and the app store rating rose from 4.4 to 4.8. The motion design patterns were adopted across 3 additional product teams, and Experiences revenue grew 22% in the quarter following the redesign.

Redesigning the path from discovery to booking

Airbnb Experiences had a problem hiding in plain sight. The booking flow had a 67% drop-off rate — two out of three people who selected an experience never made it to payment. For a product serving 150M+ global users, that gap represented enormous unrealized value.

I led the redesign of the core booking experience on mobile, creating a seamless path from discovery to confirmation. The work involved rethinking every step of the funnel, introducing new interaction patterns, and ultimately redefining how Airbnb thinks about progressive disclosure in transactional flows.

Context

Through funnel analysis and 200K+ session recordings, we mapped the actual user journey against the intended flow. The gap was significant. We also conducted 50+ user interviews across 6 markets, combining in-person observation with remote usability testing.

The key insight was that users were treating the booking flow as exploration, not commitment. They wanted to understand cost, availability, and logistics before making any decisions — but the existing flow demanded decisions upfront and revealed information later. This mismatch created anxiety at every step.

Specifically, 43% of drop-offs happened at date selection because users couldn't see availability without entering a multi-step flow. Pricing changed based on group size but wasn't communicated until checkout, creating sticker shock. And returning users had to re-enter payment details every time, adding friction to what should have been a quick decision.

Rethinking information architecture

Rather than a linear funnel that gates information behind each step, I designed a progressive disclosure model where the experience page itself becomes the primary decision-making surface. Availability appears inline through a real-time calendar directly on the page. A group size selector shows instant price updates so the total cost is always visible. Returning users can complete a booking in under 30 seconds through saved payment methods, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

The goal was to eliminate surprises. By the time someone taps "Book," they already know the date, the price, and exactly what to expect. The commitment moment becomes a confirmation rather than a leap of faith.

Motion as communication

I developed a motion design system specifically for the booking flow that communicates state changes and provides spatial context. The spring-based animations give the interface a physical quality — swiping between dates, pinching to zoom the calendar, pulling to refresh availability — all following native iOS and Android patterns so the interactions feel immediately familiar.

These motion patterns proved valuable beyond the Experiences team. They were adopted by the Homes booking flow and eventually became part of Airbnb's internal motion design guidelines, influencing how the entire product thinks about animation as a functional tool rather than decoration.

Final design

The final flow removes every moment of uncertainty from the booking process. Information flows in the order users naturally want it — what the experience is, when it's available, how much it costs, and then a single-tap payment. What used to require navigating through 6 screens and entering information repeatedly now happens fluidly on a single surface with contextual expansion.