All-in-One Trip Planning
For this personal project, I redesigned Airbnb's post-booking experience to solve the planning gap that drives users away after booking. Grounded in research with 20 users, this self-initiated AI concept introduces a four-step onboarding flow that asks about arrival time, group size, trip vibe, and pace, then instantly generates a fully customizable itinerary that keeps users inside Airbnb from booking all the way to arrival.
Personal Project
Feature Design / Interaction Design / UX Research
09.2024 - 10.2024
Context
Airbnb: The Global Standard for Modern Stays
Airbnb is the world's #1 travel platform with a 44% market share of all home rentals. As of 2024, Airbnb has over 8.1 million homes in 220+ countries and records 491 million bookings a year. Even with this remarkable success, the platform still requires users to spend too much time and effort manually searching and planning their trips.
Problem
Users Feel Overwhelmed, Undersupported, and Unheard
In the paradigm shift from manual search to AI-guided curation, users want a "one-stop" solution but are limited by a disconnected experience. Airbnb is not yet a complete travel solution. Users often ignore “Experiences” because they feel irrelevant, and the stress of switching between multiple apps makes planning too time-consuming. This disconnected journey hurts both user satisfaction and retention. Therefore, the goal of this project is to use AI to turn these fragmented steps into one seamless, automated flow.
of travelers abandon online booking due to poor experiences according to SiteMinder's 2025 report.
"How might we help users plan their entire trip within Airbnb to increase engagement and retention?"
Solution
01. Tailored Travel Questions Powered by AI
My new feature suggests personalized activities, and local tips in one cohesive, editable plan. Every recommendation is based on the traveler’s preferences, group size, and travel goals. Unlike anything currently offered by major booking platforms, this feature holds potential to puts Airbnb back in a leadership position by offering both intelligence and flexibility in one place.
02. AI-Generated, Customizable Trip Plan Tailored to You
Based on just a few questions above, the AI-powered system instantly creates a complete, personalized trip plan, from stays to experiences. Every element is fully editable for guarantee users' autonomy to adjust pace, swap activities, or fine-tune details to match their travel style.
User Research
Airbnb Is Losing Trust and Its Competitive Edge
To identify gaps in Airbnb’s current experience, I conducted a survey of 20 users who had booked travel in the past year. Many said planning trips was hard and tiring, mainly after booking accommodations. It was obvious that users felt they didn't have enough help during this part. It was clear that users felt unsupported during this key phase.
To get better insights, I conducted follow-up interviews with four of the survey participants. In this phase, I focused on uncovering their travel values, including flexibility, trust, timing, and autonomy. The core insight I got was that users simply wanted smarter, better-timed support that adapts to their intent without creating extra work.
"Post-booking planning as difficult or time-consuming."
"Experience feature is confusing and still time-consuming"
"Too many options without proper guidance makes me give it up."
Possible Constraints
Designing Within Real-World Limitations
Based on user research, I initially considered a full redesign to address the fragmented user experience. However, after speaking with users and reflecting on business feasibility, I realized that a full redesign might not be the most effective or realistic path for a product like Airbnb. Instead, I defined key constraints to guide the solution: integrate with the existing flow, follow Airbnb’s design system, and keep the experience lightweight.
Reflection
Designing Within Real-World Limitations
This project challenged me to think beyond visual design and focus on what truly drives user impact: context, timing, and trust. By grounding every decision in user research and working within possible business constraints such as limited engineering capacity, brand consistency, and the need to integrate into an existing product, I was able to design a solution that is not only desirable for users but also feasible for implementation. It reinforced the value of designing with both user needs and product realities in mind.
