You’re a PM at Agoda and the CEO is considering adding a “Book a Spa” feature to the platform. What would you suggest they do?

Among these 3 usecases, the last one seems to be more aligned with the business model of Agoda, so we will limit the scope of Book a Spa feature as part of a ongoing/ future trip booked/ added in the Agoda account by users

Market analysis -

Most of the 4 and 5 star hotels where people stay have a spa service
The spa services are available to in house guests as well as outsiders
Due to limted staff, the interested folks need to book the spa service in advance otherwise slots might not be available
In such cases, interested people need to either search for an outside spa or drop their plan
The spa charges are on a higher side in the hotel premises
As of now, there are no other competitors who are offering this spa booking service to their customers

This suggests that this is an untapped area with potential to not only improve user engagement but also act at as an additional revenue stream in the long term.

Strategy -

User segment - People on personal/ business trips

Geography - Start with top 1-2 cities in one of the SEA countries, say Bangkok, Thailand

Value propostion - Relax at a spa when on a trip, by pre-booking in advance at most cost effective rates

User onboarding -

Add this service as one of the offerings in the home page
Send in-app, push, sms notifications to all users who have future bookings in place
Provide recommendation to all users who are currently booking a flight or a hotel
Partner with Google ads, FB ads to market this new service
Users can cross utilize their loyalty points earned from any other Agoda service in this service and vice-versa
Offer early bird discounted pricing to attract more users

Partner onboarding -

Partner with the hotels to allow for their spa bookings from the Agoda platform
Partner with top spas near to the hotels to allow for their spa bookings from the Agoda platform
Offer zero commission model to use the Agoda platform for spa booking services in the initial days
Arrange for Influencer/ celebrity campaigns which will bring more visibility to the stand alone spas

MVP product -

User
- Home page
- Option to search a spa
- Option to see the list of services provided along with prices
- Option to select and book a spa, without any initial payment
- Option to book group appointment for families
- Option to cancel the appointment, x days in advance
- Booked appointments will feature under the My Trips section along with other services bookings
- AI assistant to provide recommended spa and services based on user needs
- CS integrated with the main CS service
Partner
- Home page
- List of bookings received
- Option to confirm booking
- Option to cancel booking
- Option to confirm booking completion

Success metrics -

# new bookings
- % group bookings
# new spa listings
WAU/ MAU
% completed orders
% cancelled orders
Return rate (for future trips)
AOV
NPS
- User
- Partner

Long term -

Basis the performance of the feature in the MVP phase, we can evalaute the metrics, take end user feedback, make continuous improvements and start scaling up to entire of Thailand followed by other SEA countries.