Dark UX patterns from IHG #1 (Hotel Indigo: Madrid — Gran Via)
TL;DR: Don’t hide important information behind a link titled ‘View more…’
Last December, my girlfriend and I decided to spend Easter in Madrid. My favourite hotel group is IHG, so we called up a list of local IHG hotels.
‘Hotel Indigo: Madrid — Gran Via’ intrigued us as they lead their listing with a photo of a rather lovely-looking pool.
Doesn’t it look gorgeous?
‘Hotel Indigo: Madrid — Gran Via’ seem proud of the pool too — they list it in the main hotel description:
And on their own hotel microsite:
‘Hotel Indigo: Madrid — Gran Via’ wasn’t the cheapest hotel, but use of a pool was perfect. Our last holiday was a busy one in NYC. This time we really wanted to relax. So we booked, spending 30 euros a night more than we would have done on the nearest IHG competitor.
Last night we arrived and asked for the opening hours of the pool
We were tolf that it is only open during Summer — three months a year.
‘What?’, we asked, ‘but we chose to pay extra to stay here specifically for the pool. How can it be closed?’
‘We do mention the closure on the website,’ they said.
Apparently you have to hit the ‘View more’ link on the hotel summary.
You may think that ‘View more’ would have the same effect as clicking on the hotel name. That would make a lot of sense. It would be a web convention, but no. Clicking on the hotel name reveals the microsite I shared earlier. That mentioned the pool but said nothing about it being closed 9 months out of every 12.
There is no indication that ‘View more’ reveals anything important, but it harbours a horrible secret — the limited opening hours of the pool.
This is obviously not good enough.
Everywhere the pool was mentioned, the restricted opening hours should also have been detailed.
And nothing that people need to see should ever be hidden behind a ‘View more’ link or similar.
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Update, 15 April 2017: IHG — who I placed the booking with — has told me to talk to the hotel about the issue. Meanwhile, the hotel is blaming IHG. They wrote: “We have posted it in all the places IHG webpage allow us to do it.” I have contacted IHG again, and await their response. They have been silent for 24 hours at this point.
