How we launch booking service and got “Brand of the year” in Belarus

Since 2012, Kufar has listed daily rentals from private landlords and businesses, with the majority being private landlords owning one or two apartments. They use a freemium model for advertising, while larger landlords, numbering over 500, pay monthly for ad placements.

In February 2022, Kufar's revenue from these listings grew by 300% year-over-year, prompting a deeper exploration into the daily rental service. This interest intensified after Airbnb and Booking exited the Belarusian market, leaving a gap in online booking services. Recognizing the ongoing demand for such services, Kufar decided to launch its own online accommodation booking platform.

We assessed the daily rental market's size and our potential for revenue increase, also analyzing the competition. Our potential turnover from online apartment bookings was calculated using a formula involving the number of Kufar listings, average booking details, and standard market commissions, resulting in a potential turnover of 45 million Belarusian rubles (~1.25 billion Russian rubles).

We compared competitors based on the number of listings, lessors, and website traffic, using data from their websites and tools like Google Analytics and SimilarWeb. To understand user demand for online booking, surveys were conducted with renters and landlords.

In a survey of 3,111 "Kufar Real Estate" users, 91% expressed a willingness to use Kufar's online booking service for domestic travel. Belarusians prefer apartments and houses (71%) over hotels (20%) when traveling within the country. Most respondents (68%) book accommodations 1-2 times a year, aligning with the service model.

Among 44 legal entities with properties on Kufar, 56.8% also advertised on Booking, and 50% on Airbnb. Almost 70% found an online booking service valuable and were willing to switch. Surprisingly, over 70% of landlords manage reservations manually. These findings highlight a strong case for launching online booking on Kufar, with substantial user and landlord interest, along with promising revenue potential.

The MVP development involved a small team and a week of work based on research data. Product was tested from June to July 2022 by a partner with 25 apartments in Minsk, aiming to assess landlord willingness for online booking and generate at least 3 daily applications. During the test, 117 applications were received, meeting the target.

The experiment involved two levels: the utilization of either the "call" or "book" button. Users on ads with online booking predominantly (60%) chose "Book," while 40% preferred to call. Despite only 10% of listings offering online booking initially, the "Book" button received 30,000 clicks in September 2022. By early 2023, properties with online booking received 79% more leads per listing than those without, emphasizing its success and growing adoption.

The launch of MVP showed that online booking is viable. Therefore, Kufar's management made it a priority product for the rest of the third quarter of 2022. In mid-July, we started to refine it, and in exactly one month the same team prepared the first full version of the service. We relied on feedback from users, analytics, and the results of tests.

After conducting a series of interviews and MVP tests, we found two problems: firstly, guests did not understand whether the application had left after being processed, and secondly, they could not cancel the reservation. Together with the team we decided to display all requests and their status on the website, in the "My Reservations" section. Next to each request we added a button to cancel the request.

We collected all the feedback with recommendations for improvement that we received during the life of the service. We interviewed landlords to find out their experience and how they currently solve the problem of processing requests and the problem of forming prices. Which way of interacting with requests they prefer, desktop or mobile version.

The challenge was to specify accommodation prices on a website with varying rates. Prices differed based on weekdays, weekends, and holidays, and landlords preferred weekly rentals with discounts. Existing solutions didn't fit the bill. After brainstorming and talking to landlords for insights, the team developed a tool to allow landlords to set flexible pricing for their listings, meeting their primary needs.

In the creation of an online private accommodation booking service, I played a key role as a designer, guiding its development from the initial MVP stage to subsequent improvements and extensions. Our journey started with the creation of a basic product focused on user needs, which gradually evolved into a more comprehensive and functional service.

The service has shown positive growth trends and has become one of the company's flagship products. In June 2023, for example, it achieved impressive figures with a total of 35,950 applications and 17,936 successful settlements.

My involvement covered various important aspects, including strategy development, user communication, hypothesis generation, design evaluation, bug tracking, survey creation, competitor analysis, A/B testing. If given the opportunity to start again, I would prefer for a standalone product with its website and mobile app, recognizing the scalability issues and the absence of native iOS and Android versions.

Despite certain limitations, we have laid a solid foundation for future growth. While I am committed to improving user engagement and introducing innovative features, I acknowledge that technical limitations can be a major hurdle, and sometimes, clever solutions may not be suitable for a business at the outset. Thank you for your attention!