Many entrepreneurs are inspired by the success of companies like Booking.com and Airbnb. These companies came up with innovative business models and used cutting-edge technologies to disrupt the travel industry.
These companies have significantly contributed to the ever-evolving travel industry. Hotel services are a huge portion of this industry and these companies have played a remarkable role in their growth.
They have made hotel services more accessible and convenient. As per Statista, the revenue from the hotel market is expected to reach $426.50 billion by the end of 2024. It shows the huge potential of this market.
If you are an entrepreneur looking to develop a hotel booking app like Booking,com and Airbnb, this is your go-to guide to do this. Here you will get plenty of information about hotel booking app development.
Get the right information to develop a top-notch app and make the right decision for your business.
An Overview of Hotel Booking App Development
Hotel Booking app development is a process that involves creating an app that offers hotel booking services. It requires extensive research, planning, and technical expertise to create such an application.
A hotel booking app enables users to search for nearby hotels and book online for a stay. This type of application requires many types of features including maps, user-friendly UI, online payments, the ability to view hotel services, and more.
Key Features of Developing a Hotel Booking Application
Search
It is one of the most important features of a hotel booking app as it will be used by all users of your app. Users should be able to easily search for different hotels based on their location or preferences.
Instead of a simple search feature, you must implement a rich search functionality that can allows users to find hotels based on different criteria like prices, locations, services, etc. The feature should allow users to easily view available hotels and their amenities.
Moreover, you should ensure that the hotel booking app you develop makes search easy, quick, and intuitive. As per Statista’s research, the search feature is one of the key reasons to download a travel application.
Push Alerts
The next important feature for a hotel booking application is push notifications and alerts. They are useful for keeping users engaged and providing essential information. Plus, these notifications also help users get alerts on special offers and deals.
Another important feature is to provide real-time alerts for hoteliers and visitors. This feature will enable them to get quick information about booking confirmation, changes in rates, check-in/check-out information, and more.
Plus, these alerts can also be related to reminders of events and planned activities.
Payment Details
Payment is another important feature of hotel app development. This feature entails a simple payment interface that will enable users to make payments for their bookings. Besides, they should also be able to see the history of payments, multiple payment options, and more.
Customer Service
Helping customers resolve their issues and get answers to their queries are among the most essential features of a hotel booking application. So, you must implement this feature. You can integrate a tailored chatbot to streamline and automate the customer service process.
With the use of an AI-powered chatbot, you can help users get instant answers to their queries with a human-like response. Plus, they can quickly resolve some common issues with steps or guidance from the chatbot. So, this will simplify the process of services.
Currency Conversion
If the target audience of your hotel booking app is around the world. You must implement an automatic currency conversion feature to enable your users to get the desired currency no matter which country they visit.
The automatic currency exchange feature will remove the load of exchanging the local currency for a host currency.
Automatic Language Recognition
Another feature a hotel booking app should have is an automatic recognition of languages and translation. Since travelers may go across borders, they need to communicate with locals. This communication requires an understanding of the local languages.
Automatic language recognition and translation features are a great addition to your hotel booking application. It can add value to your application by allowing users to seamlessly communicate irrespective of the location on the world map.
Types of Hotel Booking Apps You Can Develop
There is a lot of information you need to consider to create a hotel booking mobile app and understanding the types of apps is necessary. Check out the different types of apps to determine the best investment option.
Advanced Booking Apps
These apps are for users who prefer everything pre-planned. Individuals can use these apps to book a room. The room can be booked even one year before. Well, booking a room a year in advance sounds strange but there are apps like Priceline and Expedia that make it possible. Users can easily book hotel rooms in advance and check in on the pre-planned date.
Last Minute Booking Apps
As the name suggests, these apps allow users to book hotel rooms at the last minute. Users can check the availability of hotel rooms anytime and book rooms at their convenience. It allows spontaneous hotel booking.
These applications come as a rescue for those who need a room urgently at the last minute. With these apps, individuals with urgent requirements can check and book rooms.
Booking Apps for Hotel Chains
Develop booking apps for hotel chains that want to allow individuals to book hotel rooms conveniently. Individuals can book hotel rooms in big hotel chains like Marriott from a simple interface without visiting the hotel or conducting telephonic conversations. These apps must have a simple interface and necessary information.
Hotel Consolidator Apps
These mobile apps are designed to gather essential information about hotels and offer a consolidated interface to access this information. This type of app offers a consolidated view of different hotel options. It offers a complete view of hotels from prices and locations to amenities. Consequently, individuals can easily check different options for hotel booking without switching between apps.
Hotel Booking App Development Process
Creating a hotel booking application is an intricate process that involves many steps and tasks. Developing such an app can take from a few months to a year depending on the app’s complexity, types, and more. The following is the complete hotel booking app development process that helps create a robust mobile application to book hotels.
Planning
The first and foremost phase of app development is planning. It involves defining the project scope including analyzing competitors, finalizing a business model, features, and other things about your project. It also includes discovering the pain points of your audience.
UI/UX Design
UI/UX design is another phase of hotel booking app development that involves creating prototypes, mockups, and other wireframes to design the application interface. It helps define user interface elements and user experience for a mobile application.
Development
Once your design is ready, a developer will use it to code the app. It involves creating the frontend and back end of your application. The frontend is the user side of an app. Frontend development involves coding UI elements like buttons, sidebar, menu, and more.
Another important component of app development is the backend. All the business logic of your application is in the backend. It handles the logic of the app and makes it functional. Backend development coding involves writing the logic for user interactions, the behavior of UI elements, coding for data operations, and more.
Instead of creating a full-fledged app with all the features, you can build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). An MVP is a kind of mobile app that has some essential features needed for early adopters. The app can help you validate your data and avoid heavy loss in case of a failure.
Once you have an MVP, you can progressively build it with new features. For this, you can get feedback from the users and build features accordingly. It can help you avoid various problems including high costs in app development.
QA and Testing
Quality Assurance and testing is the next important phase in app development that follows the development stage. It involves evaluating the app for quality, security, performance, and other factors. This phase of app development ensures that users get the best quality solution without any issues related to performance, quality, and security.
Testing involves functional and non-functional testing. While functional testing focuses on the app’s usability and behavior, non-functional testing checks for aspects like data security and integrity. There are various automated tools used to perform app testing.
Deployment
Once the app is developed and passes the quality assurance test, it is ready for deployment. Depending on the type of app you have developed, the app is deployed to the desired platform. For example, Android apps are deployed to the Google Play Store, and iOS apps are deployed to the Apple App Store.
Once your application is published, it is easily available to users. They can download and install the app on their devices.
Maintenance
When an app is deployed, it is not the end of the process, maintenance is also important. App maintenance is a process that involves keeping the application up-to-date with regular updates. Over time, apps might be running on outdated technologies or bugs could arise that need to be remediated with maintenance.
Marketing and Promotion for Growing User Base
Once your hotel booking is developed and deployed, early adopters will install it. However, you need to increase your user base by conveying the benefits and uses of your application. Here marketing and promotion play an important role in increasing the user base.
Marketing and promotion involve activities that aim to increase the visibility of your app among the target audience. For this, you can use methods like paid ads, marketplace marketing, and online promotions to make it available to more users.
Marketing and promotion activities help you find new users of your app and encourage them to install it. You can leverage digital marketing to extend the reach of your app through videos and written posts.
Implement Top Technologies in Hotel Booking App
If you want to stand out from other businesses, you need to create a cutting-edge mobile app with unique features. This is what you can achieve by developing an app with modern technologies as mentioned below.
AR/VR
Implement Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies to build a high-end hotel booking application. With this app, you can offer virtual tours of the hotel and rooms that will enable guests to check how it looks and what amenities it offers.
Augmented Reality helps users visualize elements in the real world. On the other hand, virtual reality offers an immersive environment resulting in a real-life-like experience. The users can wear a VR device and experience the hotel just like they feel it by visiting virtually.
With VR, users can see hotel rooms, amenities, and services with virtual tours. It helps experience hotel services easily.
AI
You can leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze data and offer personalized services. It can help you boost your business with tailored offerings. You can get insights into your business and find weaknesses with the help of data.
The use of artificial intelligence is increasing across applications and you can do innovation with the use of this technology for your app.
Cloud
You can build a scalable and high-performance mobile application with the use of the cloud. Well, the cloud offers more flexibility and is cost-effective than on-premises infrastructure. Plus, you can choose from different cloud options like private, public, and hybrid. It works as a backend for your application.
Cost of Developing a Hotel Booking App
A hotel booking app is a big investment, especially if it targets a global audience. However, the cost to develop a hotel booking app largely depends on dozens of factors including its complexity, features, tech stack, third-party integration, and more.
Based on the complexity, the cost of app can be as given in the table below.
| Complexity | Cost |
| Low | $20,000 – $50,000 |
| Moderate | $55,000 – $120,000 |
| High | $130,000 – $250,000+ |
More complexity in your hotel booking app will require more development time and resources that will increase the overall cost to build it. The location of the development team is another factor that play a crucial role in the cost.
There are various developer rates around the world. So, if you choose a development team from a location where the developer rates are high, you will face high costs and vice-versa. The following table shows developer rates around the world.
| Location | Rates (per hour) |
| USA | $70 – $120 |
| Australia | $80 – $140 |
| Europe | $65 – $90 |
| Asia | $25 – $50 |
Final Note
As the travel and accommodation industry is booming, the demand for hotel services is increasing. However, traditional hotel booking methods are rather inconvenient and time-consuming. The use of hotel booking applications streamlines the process and helps businesses boost their revenues.
You can develop a robust hotel booking app to enhance user experience and get better opportunities. Creating the right app is crucial to make it a success. Focus on implementing the best features and leverage the top trending technologies to create an exceptional app.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is a hotel booking mobile application with tailored features to meet the unique requirements of a business. A customized hotel booking app is built with unique features and functionalities. Plus, the overall design and UX of such an app are also unique and align with the brand perception of a business.
You can develop a tailored hotel booking app with customized design and features by choosing the right app development team. The team will understand your unique requirements and create the application as per your specifications and business goals.
Creating a hotel booking app takes from a few months to more than a year depending on various factors like project complexity, features, business goals, and more. So, the actual time in development depends on these factors. For example, the complexity of your app development project greatly impacts the development time.
The higher the complexity of a mobile app, the more time it will take in development. Similarly, more number of features will require more time in development resulting in an extended development timeframe.
Yes, you can create a hotel booking mobile application with custom features that meet specific business objectives. You need the right development team to build an app with custom features. The team will help you create tailored applications with the desired functionality using their expertise in the technology.
Customization can be done in various aspects like UI/UX, features, security, and more. You can discuss your requirements with the development team to build the right app. However, you should keep in mind that developing an app with custom features requires more time.
Apart from this, developing an app with customer features also costs more than a simple app. So, you can decide which features are essential for your app to develop the right app and optimize the cost of developing it.
With the help of a hotel booking mobile application, individuals can not only book rooms but they can also get instant answers to their queries. So, they can easily enquire about hotel services and amenities without physically visiting the hotel.
All in all, a hotel booking application offers lots of benefits to guests that make their stay comfortable and stress-free.
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