Meituan Homestay User Experience Report

Explore the Meituan Homestay app features, a go-to platform for young travellers seeking a personalized accommodation experience.
 
When it comes to "homestay", Airbnb and Tujia should come to mind. Meituan Homestay, which joined in 2017, has been quick to seize the top three spots in homestay platforms. In 2020, its order volume ranked first in China. Are there more reasons for its success other than its strong brand and the vast flow generated by Meituan reviews? Today, we will understand this product by analyzing its strengths and weaknesses from a user's perspective. 
 
Target users
 
According to Yunzhanggui’s “2020 Homestay Industry Data Report”, the users of homestay are generally young, with 70% of users below 35 years old. This is why Meituan Homestay aims at young people pursuing individuality and launched many marketing strategies targeting student users. 
 

Product architecture 
 
The product architecture will be based on Meituan Homestay (V5.2.1).

Product experience
 
1. Searching and browsing houses
 
The home page is clean with a straightforward search function. Search methods can be divided into the following categories:  

• In the search bar, search directly by selecting location, check-in time and landmarks.
• Tenants with special requirements such as cooking can input search with corresponding filters. 
• Tenants who want to stay in famous landmarks can search through the "popular places to stay" section. 
• Tenants who wish to reserve famous homestays can gain information from the "Hot Search List", "Super IN celebrity", and "High Score Experience" in the "Recommendation Zone". 
• Tenants who have no special requirement can view the “guess you like” section to get inspirations.

The search result page is arranged in a neat column. The individual labels on top can filter specific features of the house base on your requirements. Labels are also shown on each listing, making it more convenient for you to choose. 
 
Prices and discounts are indicated in bold and red. There are also taglines such as "limited time offer" to promote reservation.  
 
2. Viewing details
 
The “housing detail” page shows the pictures, price, brief introduction, service facilities, landlord introduction, evaluation, reservation notice of the house, and recommendations of similar places. The photo album at the top has pictures introducing different parts of the house. This allows users to browse the house holistically. Apart from the information above, the page also includes nearby public transportation, scenic spots and food choices, making it convenient for the tenants to plan their trip.

3. Reservation procedure
 
Users can place the order once the choice is confirmed. Tenants can check or revise the time, the number of tenants, and tenant information on the final order page and pay upon submitting. 
 
As the landlords instruct the reservation rules, there is no standardized procedure. Consumers risk no refund or partial refund upon cancelling a reservation, depending on the landlord's written rules. If the rules are obscure, disputes may arise.
 

4. Other functions
 
The discovery page of Meituan Homestay recommends houses through articles. This page consists of three types of articles: popular written articles, reviews by celebrities and recommended homestays. Apart from internal content creation, Meituan Homestay also pays users for review articles. Users whose articles are adopted can enjoy discounts on the platform.
 
Product Operation and promotion
 
1. Discount and Special offer 
 
Discounts and special offer can be divided into three types: discount for a special user group, general discount, and limited time offer.  
 
Discounts for a special user group are mainly for student users. Upon successful verification, student users will receive discount and cashback coupons. The Student verification icon is shown in every interface to stimulate users to verify their identity before purchase.
 
General discounts are shown as "Tonight's Special" and "New House Discount" to attract users and promote sales, while limited time offer happens during particular days or events such as Valentine's Day and Christmas, strategically promoting houses that match the occasion.
 
2. Self-propagation and publicity
 
Meituan Homestay's new user invitation plan and bargain discount by forwarding posts to friends help grow the user platform through self-propagation. Besides, the platform also promotes through Weibo, short video platforms, Wechat public account and other media platforms, attracting users on a large scale.
 
Since 2019, Meituan Homestay has cooperated with Modern Sky Co. Ltd., Taihe Rye Music Co. Ltd., and entities to host music festivals. It has collaborated with VUE to host the “Unbridled playing, unbridled recording” vlog competition. In addition, the platform works with schools to provide experiential learning and working experience through opportunities like “Superstar Evolution Camp” to build employer branding and attract future talent.
 
3. PUSH Advertisements
 
Meituan Homestay utilizes PUSH advertisements daily to remind users of the ongoing discount activities and coupon offerings.
 
Conclusion and suggestions
 
1. Highlights
 
Detailed labelling: The biggest highlight of Meituan Homestay is its detailed labels and referral traffic. On the home page, there are 15 featured labels, and labels are set in every section. This makes it very convenient for users to filter according to their search requirements. In addition, the platform has over ten hotlists based on diverse categories, which allow users to discover their popular choices efficiently. 
 
Discounts and offers: As Meituan Homestay’s target users belong to a younger generation, they are more sensitive to price. This is why the platform focuses on promoting discounted items to attract purchase decisions. Offers and discounts are always bolded in red to increase visibility. 
 
User-friendly design: The “scroll back to top” button in the “favourites” page, classification of pictures according to the location of the house and display of estimated travel time by different modes of transportation are all examples that make this platform a user-centric one.
 
2. Weaknesses
 
Design: The homepage uses too many colours. The banner design is also unreasonable as the content repeats what is shown in the bar. The contents of many elements on the home page overlap, which makes the overall experience less pleasant. 
 
Functionality: Many interfaces lack the “scroll back to top” button, while the messages interface lacks the one-click "mark all as read" function. The “favourites” page also lacks functionality. It cannot sort the listings based on filters and other rankings.
 
Personal home page: The profile page is overly simplified and poorly designed. "My orders" are not classified according to the order status, making the list challenging to navigate. The “itinerary” and “review” functions are not interactive and therefore deemed as unusable.
 
3. Suggestions

Here are some suggestions based on what we have discussed so far:
Improve the page design and the functions of some components to avoid overlapping.

• Maintain high standards for the quality of houses and the qualifications of landlords. Enhance customer service and optimize after-sales services.  
• Add functions such as sorting and classification on the “favourites” page. A “share” button is helpful to make the page more interactive.
• In the “view house details” page, link the recommendations to eat, stay, travel and play with other Meituan APPs. This forms a closed-loop ecosystem which helps to build Meituan’s growth.
• Allow reviews for landlords and list the reviews on their homepage. 
• Enable reviews to be sorted by time, critical comments, only reviews with pictures, and others. Interactive functions such as “like” and “reply” will allow tenants to communicate and perceive the reviews as authentic.
• Short videos can be included on the discovery page. At the same time, User Generated Content (UGC) created by tenants or Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) can help to enrich the community atmosphere.

 

美团民宿产品体验

提到民宿，大家第一时间想到的应该是爱彼迎和途家。然而在中国市场，美团民宿于2017年加入赛道，短短几年，有如黑马一般直接冲入前三，2020年订单量更是全国第一。其成功除了依托强大的品牌优势和美团点评带来的巨大流量外，还有其它原因吗？今天我们来体验下这款产品，从用户的角度感受一下它的优缺点。
 
目标用户
 
根据云掌柜发布的《2020民宿行业数据报告》，民宿用户呈年轻化，年龄在35岁以下的占比近7成。因此美团民宿把追求个性的年轻群体定为目标用户，并针对学生群体制定了很多运营策略。

产品架构

 

产品架构划分以美团民宿（V5.2.1）为依据。

功能体验
 
1） 房源的搜索和浏览

首页页面整洁，搜索民宿功能明确。搜索方式可以分为以下几种：

• 在搜索民宿功能块里，选择位置、入住时间、地标就可以直接搜索；
• 对有特殊要求的房客，如能做饭等，可以进行在相应标签栏中进行针对性搜索；
• 对于想在热门地标入住的房客，可以在“热门入住地”板块获取；
• 对于想打卡网红民宿，可在“种草专区”获取“热搜榜单”、“超IN网红”和“高分体验”榜单。
• 对于没有目标房源的用户，可以查看“猜你喜欢”榜单。

进入到房源搜索后，页面呈单列排列，样式整齐。顶部的标签栏可以对房屋特色功能以及适用场景进行筛选，方便用户精准定位心仪的房源。且标题下方也有附上房屋特色标签，方便用户做出针对性选择。 

美团民宿将价格和优惠直接加粗加红标示，并且打出“优惠仅限今天”之类的标语，更容易刺激消费者产生预订的欲望。

 
2） 查看房源详情
 
可在查看房源详情页面对心仪房型做进一步了解。详情界面主要包括房源照片和价格、房屋概况、服务设施、房东介绍、房客评价、预订须知和相关房源的推荐。

其中的顶部相册轮播图带有房间内部各个方位的标签，用户可以相应浏览。

房源价格和优惠采取红色字体加粗显示，吸引消费者注意。

不仅显示了房源的位置，还显示了房源附近交通、景点和餐饮等情况，方便用户计划安排，设计更具人性化。

3） 预定流程

选好心仪房源后即可下单预订。下单界面可直接确定或重新选择时间、人数、和住客信息，提交订单后直接跳转支付界面并完成支付。

但是，因为房源的具体预订规则由房东制定，不同房源规定可能会不同，而美团相关提醒标注不够醒目。如果消费者误操作，或行程有变，而预订后可能无法退款或只能部分退款，体验差，也容易引发纠纷。

4） 其它功能

“发现美宿”这一版块用文章+房源的模式给客户推荐民宿。主要是精选民宿文章、达人测评和美宿精选三部分，其中顶部的精选文章会进行定期的更换。

美团民宿的文章除了内部定期整理推送外，还会向房客征集文稿并提供稿费，文章被接收的用户可以享受平台的折扣优惠。美团民宿采用这种方式一方面丰富了平台的内容，让用户在浏览房源时有更多的参考，另一方面也通过用户投稿这一方式，增加了用户粘性。

产品的运营与推广

 

1）折扣福利/活动

美团民宿的折扣福利/活动可以分为三类：针对用户群体推出的折扣福利，普通的折扣活动，针对时间节点推出的折扣福利。

其中针对用户群体推出的折扣福利主要是面向学生用户群体，例如美团民宿学生认证活动，学生完成认证后会获得首单优惠券、折扣券、返现券等一系列优惠，并且学生验证的活动在美团民宿的每个界面都有出现，一定程度上刺激了用户进行学生验证，从而刺激消费。

普通的折扣活动主要是在房源界面上显示“今夜特价”、“新房优惠”等信息来吸引用户，刺激消费。

针对时间节点推出的折扣福利则是在一些特殊事件点如情人节、圣诞节、双十一、国家公务员考试等，有针对性地推出优惠政策，提升了用户在平台精准找房的效率。

2）拉新和自传播

如新人邀请计划、砍价拿返现活动，一方面为消费用户提供了优惠，促使用户自发地去转发、分享，从而刺激消费者消费。另一方面，通过这种邀请、砍价行为，为平台吸引到更多的新用户，带来大量流量。

除此之外，美团民宿也通过微博、短视频、公众号等媒体平台进行活动推广，吸引了大批的路人用户参加活动，从而提高用户的转化率。

如2019年来，美团民宿与草莓、麦田、MTA合作音乐节，打造乐迷打卡坐标；与VUE合作举办“尽兴玩放肆拍”的vlog大赛，吸引了一众知名vlogger合作参与；通过与这些年轻、有格调、有性格的达人进行内容共创，一起制造线上线下联动的营销事件，来博取年轻大学生用户的关注和喜爱。

除此之外，美团民宿还与学习机构合作，整合营销，面向大学生推出“超星进化营”职业体验项目，一方面促进大学生就业，另一方面方便目标用户群体了解美团民宿平台，为美团民宿吸引高校人才。

3）PUSH广告推送

PUSH广告在日常生活中为用户推送优惠提醒，如民宿酒店折扣、美团月付额度高、优惠券赠送等信息，从而刺激用户消费。

 

总结与建议

 

1）亮点

 

美团民宿的最大亮点是细节化的标签设计和引流入口。在美团民宿的首页，民宿特色标签有15个，并且在每个分区都设置有标签栏方便用户对民宿特色功能进行选择。此外，美团民宿的推荐的热搜榜单数量高达十余个，这些丰富的分类标签和民宿类型给用户在选择房源时提供了更多的可能性和便捷性，同时也大幅度提高了用户浏览页面的停留时间。

 

在房源浏览页和房源详情页，对优惠价格和优惠活动做重点突出，这种信息展现方式使用户容易将目光聚焦到价格和优惠上。而美团的目标用户正是对价格敏感的年轻群体，优惠的价格更容易刺激目标用户的消费欲望。

 

美团民宿的一些人性化小设计，例如在收藏界面有回到顶部的按钮，为用户免去了手动上滑至顶部的操作麻烦；房源详情页的轮播图有方位标签设计，方便用户迅速获取各个方位的环境情况；房源详情页的位置介绍中有显示各种交通设施所需花费的时间，方便用户做合理计划安排。

 

美团民宿对于目标用户具有精准定位。对于学生群体进行引流，推出“学生认证优惠”等一系列学生优惠活动，并且通过砍价返现、评价返现、分享返现等方式进行引流，以优惠政策让用户对美团民宿平台的粘性增加，用户忠诚度和认可度增加。

 

2）不足

美团民宿首页的色彩要素过多，banner页面设计不够合理，且内容与搜索栏上面页面重合。此外，首页许多模块里内容出现重叠，大量重复的模块和榜单容易造成混乱和困扰。
 
很多界面都缺少返回顶部按钮，不方便用户使用；消息界面缺少一键已读的功能。收藏页功能也单一，缺少房源排序、筛选和整合的功能，也无法将收藏房源进行分享；浏览记录模块相对于收藏模块功能更少，只能通过入离时间进行查看。
 
“我”页面和个人主页的界面做的太简单，功能和内容很少，美观性也较差。我的订单中不同状态下的订单没有合理区分开，使得整个界面显得不够合理和便捷。很多功能并没有实现交互导致无法使用，例如我的主页中的“行程”和“评价”。
 

3）建议

• 改善平台页面设计和部分区域功能性质，避免出现功能重叠。

• 对房源质量品质和房东资格进行严格把关，避免“黑心房东”之类情况出现，并加强客服团队的建设，对售后服务进行优化。

• 对收藏页的收藏栏和浏览栏增加排序、筛选和分类功能，实现收藏栏和浏览栏的一致性，可以添加分享功能增进用户之间的互动。

• 在房屋详情介绍页面的景点、美食推荐中可以与美团APP进行生态对接，形成吃住行玩的闭环生态圈，有助于美团生态的推广。

• 在用户评价中可以增加对房东的评价，并将评价展示在房东主页当中，让用户对房东形象有个真实准确的认识。

• 房客评价中缺少筛选机制，比如按最新发表时间排序、只看差评、只看带图评价等，同时房客评价中也缺少互动，如果在每条房客评价下方设置点赞和评论功能，可以方便房客之间进行交流，从而使潜在用户获得真实评价。

• 在发现美宿这一块，除了文章+图片的展现形式，也可以考虑引入短视频的形式，同时可以增加社区功能，让用户或者KOL产出UGC内容，从而达到吸引更多用户，增加用户粘性的目的。

How to Deal with a B2B Bottleneck?

Understand the three reasons for B2B bottlenecks and how different operations call for unique solutions. 

 

B2B products are not immune to bottlenecks. The best method is to analyze the root cause and confront it head-on. Here are some views on how we can deal with a B2B bottleneck.

Why are B2B products stuck in a bottleneck?

There are three reasons for this: first, the relatively stable business form and management mode; second, the saturation of the B2B market; and third, the diminishing marginal effect of developing B2B products. 

 

1.     The business form and management mode are relatively stable

According to industry elite Zhou Xiang, "B2B products are digital tools that reflect the business management thought." B2B products are not just products for enterprises or back end operating systems. They reflect the management thoughts of enterprises under a type of business structure. To realize a sound management system, you need to digitize abstract business ideas and turn complex business processes into measurable data. The purpose of digitization is to bridge the information gap among production, operation, and other business processes such that digital value can turn into commercial value.

When the business environment is stable, and solutions are readily available in corresponding fields, there will be limited prospects for developing successful B2B products. In such situations, the performance of a B2B product manager depends on the breakthroughs in business operation and management.

 

First is the breakthroughs in business operation. When entering a new business area, there is a need to re-digitalize the business processes and gain insights through new projects. One example of such would be the expansion of the distribution business in e-commerce platforms. 

 

Second, breakthroughs in the mode of management. This can happen due to changes in organizational structure or business priorities. A breakthrough here means an improvement, optimization or making better decisions in business management. The shift in business structure and mode of management will result in changes in B2B products. However, if both drivers are present, we need to look inwards and dive deeper into B2B itself.

 

2.     The marginal effect of B2B products starts to decline

 

The second factor for B2B product stagnation is related to the marginal effect of B2B products. As a B2B product reaches its mature stage, there is little room for improvement, and therefore its marginal effect will begin to decline. This generally occurs at the platform stage.

With the diffusion of demand, B2B products will gradually evolve from a function to a system and a platform. For example, the demand to view transaction data is met by the corresponding functions of reporting, storage, sorting, output, and data presentation. A case report will show such a demand at the initial stage.

 

When the demand is gradually diversified, accompanied by the increase in dimensional query and data type, the existing functions will form a reporting system progressively. This system is not complete as it solves only one kind of problem.

 

Platforms are integrated solutions that collate systems to solve more problems in a complete and closed-loop way. When a B2B product reaches the platform stage, the product is approaching maturity. At this level, a side branch way of development is possible, but the rewards are little. Another way is to jump from one product to another. Yet, we may encounter other boundary-related problems. The demand that needs solution could have already been well-solved, or it may be the case that we do not have the right capability to address the demand. As a result, a mature B2B product should maintain its stability.

 

What are the solutions?

 

If it is inevitable or highly possible for B2B managers to experience bottlenecks, what are the available solutions? Which option is more meaningful and valuable? The obvious answer is to go for a more efficient solution.

The above image is a quick summary of the efficient solutions available. It is crucial to note that high efficiency does not make something more valuable, and being valuable does not mean that it is essential, do not blindly follow solutions for the sake of doing it.

 

The transformation from offline to online business can be understood as standardization and digitalization, which are also one of the core directions of Internet products. We can think about which business process within the product's range are still being done offline and digitalize them accordingly.

Automatic, parallel, and intelligent operations can run separately or combined. Manually operated processes should be optimized into automatic and parallel step, while manual decisions should utilize models to realize intelligence and automation. The above methods apply to low-end B2B products. For mature B2B products, more is needed.

 

The ultimate goal of platformization is commercialization, and this is done by shifting the focus from internal to external. Yet, only a few firms are making efforts in this direction. Therefore, firms with mature B2B products need to run deep in their operations, tie in the KPIs, and help the businesses grow.

 

Why dive deep into the business operation?

 

As the value of B2B products reaches the ceiling, we need to consider a sustainable form of value creation. As B2B products serve to grow business value, a deep understanding of operations is crucial. Currently, this understanding is incomprehensive and superficial, but this is due to the characteristics of B2B products and their revenue scale.

 

1.     Characteristics of B2B products

 

Enterprises or organizations use B2B products to solve problems in a specific field. As they focus on helping clients complete part of their work, B2B products are strongly characterized as a ‘tool’, which provides a form of capability. Often, B2B products only transform a business model into a product, and they rarely interfere with the actual operations. As a result, it is hard for B2B firms to understand the client's business. When addressing a specific client need without an in-depth understanding of the importance of the project and the underlying logic, the impact of the B2B product will remain superficial.

 

2.     The B2B revenue scale

 

Revenue scale is related to the product stage.

The first product stage is construction. At this stage, the goal is to digitize the business, which starts from scratch. The next stage is growth. This happens after the construction period when the business is up and running. We then quantify the benefits of this product. The last stage is expansion, which occurs after platformization. At this stage, the platform can seamlessly link upstream and downstream processes, provide services and even commercialize the platform. If there is no commercialization or commercialization fails, the economic benefits reaped may be less than 1% of business growth.

 

The failure to commercialize does not mean that the B2B platform lacks efficiency or effectiveness. It suggests that growth is limited as it targets only a specific group, and businesses scale quickly. Based on the two factors above, B2B products need to create business value continuously.

 

How to dive deep into operations

 

Without essential resources, it is impossible to intervene in the business in-depth. Therefore, you need to master the long tail business and have a say in the core business.

 

Yet sometimes we choose not to start from core business mainly because we cannot. Without any achievements or foundation, a lot of time and effort will be wasted on networking to have the chance to run the core operations. Under such conditions, we need to switch a method. Long-tail business can be discovered by establishing our own set of measurements. We need to know the current operating situation and which parts have been effectively operated to target the undiscovered or ineffective processes. Afterwards, we can generate suitable strategies and achieve success. This allows us to get involved in the core business.

 

While this method feels difficult, there is a chance to gain fundamental knowledge in practice.

 

Conclusion

 

To combat anxiety, we should identify the cause and deal with it. However, do not be overly bothered if nothing is done. Businesses always move from disorder to order and from infancy to maturity. B2B bottlenecks are inevitable, so stay patient and give ourselves more time.