App Engagement

Priceline’s app was its most profitable channel by lifetime value, yet engagement was decaying: many installs never activated, and many users went long stretches without booking. The app was seen as a utilitarian tool rather than something sticky or delightful, in a market where rivals compete mostly on price and utility.

We set out to shift the app from a transactional tool into a habit-forming product. Success meant earning a lasting place on customers’ phones, including by delivering value when there was no immediate travel need.

Workshops with product, engineering, and marketing helped us shape the vision and prioritize ideas. A/B testing let us validate what actually drove engagement, and competitive and inspirational signals from habit-forming apps, inside and outside travel, kept us pushing past category norms.

We designed personalized, curated experiences based on traveler intent, lifecycle stage, and behavioral signals, adding relevance, playfulness, and anticipation beyond the booking flow.