Turning Clicks into Trips by Reducing Friction for High-Intent Users

CLIENT

Anonymous

SERVICE

Digital Journey & CRO, Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy & AI Consulting

INDUSTRY

Enterprise, Hospitality / Travel

+2.5% Conversion rate

+700K Annual revenue impact

Travel search UI test — recent searches module

BACKGROUND

As a global hospitality leader, this Hyatt brand knew that delivering a seamless digital booking experience was critical to converting site visitors into paying guests. However, their booking funnel was complex and time-consuming, requiring users to reenter details each time they visited. They partnered with Cro Metrics to identify friction points and design high-impact optimizations that reduced drop-off and increased revenue without adding risk to the booking experience.

Challenge

Booking Funnel Friction Caused Major Drop-off

The booking process spanned multiple steps and took 5–10 minutes per session. Users were forced to repeat their trip selections on every visit, creating unnecessary friction and leading to significant funnel abandonment among otherwise high-intent travelers.

Solution

Re-engage Visitors with a "Complete Your Booking" Feature

Cro Metrics introduced a friction-reducing feature, a “Complete Your Booking” button on the homepage, allowing returning users to access their saved vacation summaries instantly. This small but strategic change streamlined the user journey, re-engaged ready-to-book visitors, and measurably increased completed reservations.

Methodology

Identify Friction, Streamline the Journey, Elevate Bookings

Our team began by analyzing the booking funnel to identify where users encountered friction and why high-intent sessions weren’t converting. With multiple selection fields, long session durations, and no saved progress functionality, the booking journey demanded too much repeated effort, especially for returning users.

Our hypothesis centered on convenience: simplifying the return path would yield a direct lift in completed bookings. By implementing a “Complete Your Booking” button on the homepage, we allowed users to pick up where they left off without restarting the process.

The A/B test ran for just over a month, measuring impact across sessions and customer segments. Early results were modest, as many visitors were still in the research phase, but performance accelerated as those users returned ready to book. Over time, the experiment confirmed an increase in conversion rates and a significant annualized revenue impact.

Beyond the quantitative lift, the experiment reinforced a core insight: reducing friction for high-intent users produces outsized gains in both customer experience and revenue. The outcome validated a scalable framework for future funnel improvements, where personalization and saved-state experiences drive meaningful business impact.

Results

+2.5% CVR & +$700K Annualized Revenue Impact

By minimizing booking friction for high-intent users, we transformed a cumbersome process into a streamlined, revenue-generating experience, ultimately proving that even small optimizations can unlock significant gains in conversion and customer satisfaction.