Optimizing the rates and availability tool for the Expedia Partner Central app
Overview
Expedia Partner Central (EPC) is the portal for hotels to manage their listing on Expedia. It is available on the web and in apps for iOS and Android. One of the most-used features of the app is the ability to update the rates and availability of rooms.
Problem statement
On desktop, the rates and availability feature was a complex page with lots of data and functionality displayed in a table so multiple dates could be viewed at once. The original app used webviews from the responsive website which can have pros and cons:
Pros:
Develop once, deploy in two places.
Works great for static content and simple functionality.
Cons:
The website must work well in mobile view.
Big changes to the layout are hard to implement.
Complex flows that need to be fundamentally different are much harder to achieve.
To make the table work on mobile, the website limited the view to one day at a time. While this did work, it led to a cluttered and cumbersome UI.
We knew from analytics that rates and availability was the most used feature in the app so it made sense to create a native mobile version that would be easier to use.