Hotel Booking App Development – Everything You Need to Know
The success stories of mammoths like Airbnb and Booking.com have pushed the e-Travel industry while stimulating phenomenal growth. Thus, not only hospitality professionals but also a lot of startups and entrepreneurs from different sectors are looking for hotel booking app development. In this blog, we shall offer complete details on hotel booking app development, from the types of hotel apps to the required features and monetization models.
A Brief Analysis of the Online Travel Market
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the travel and tourism market has significantly grown. It will reach $833.5bn by the end of 2025. Also, apart from that, the online travel market is developing fast too. Here are a few statistics:
- The number of users in the online travel booking market will reach $823.6 million by the end of 2023. Therefore, 72% of the worldwide sales in tourism and travel will be done online.
- 70% of the users check where to travel on their smartphones.
- The conversion rates on mobile apps are 5X higher than those on mobile websites.
From the above stats, it is clear that hotel booking app development is crucial for anyone considering this opportunity.
Things to Consider Before Booking a Hotel Booking App
Choose a booking app type correctly
Online travel agencies mainly focus on multiple booking capabilities, including hotels, car rentals, flight tickets, etc. The hotel aggregators focus on the apps to aggregate hotel data and offer it to the users. The hotel chain apps are created for a specific hotel or a chain of hotels that only allow booking a room inside that chain. If you are a hotelier, you should be clear about what kind of hotel booking app development services you should choose.
Choose a Distribution Area
This is yet another essential detail to settle before you get to the hotel booking app development. Yes, you can choose to run the app worldwide instead of selecting a local one. However, it takes time and substantial financial investment to scale to that level. Also, starting with a local market can save time and money. Also, this approach will help you to test the product and see how well it works.
Unique Value Proposition for the Users
If you want to conquer the users, you must choose the right value proposition and the right positioning. Therefore, if you are wondering how to create a booking app and succeed in a specific niche, you must determine the UVP.
Here are some of the models used in this niche:
- Offering last-minute booking deals! If you want to choose a hotel booking app development, this is the most widespread value proposition model in the market offered by companies like Trivago, HotelTonight, Booking.Com and more.
- Free Stays – This involves offering users to stay in each other’s apartments for free. Couchsurfing.com allows users this feature, and the number speaks for itself because it is used by 12 million travelers all over the globe.
- Cheap booking options – Some travelers, especially millennials, don’t care where to spend the night after a tiresome city walk. Therefore, the cheap stays are just perfect for them.
- An apartment rental or room sharing – Airbnb’s room-sharing business model has been adapted, making the service popular. Also, the company focuses on short-term apartment rentals. Both of these models are fresh and in demand.
- Short Stays – This is a niche model for people that want to stay somewhere for more than a night. Dayuse.com company offers users one-day booking at a lower price.
Consider the Hotel Data
When it comes to hotel booking apps, data is crucial. This is about hotel listings, where the users will pick the one, they would like to book a stay in. No one wants to use an app to book hotels without any single option. Therefore, it is essential to think about where to get all the data.
One way is when Booking.com and other hotel aggregators conclude an agreement with hotels. Then they install the software of their development at the hotels to monitor the availability and other parameters. This way, the major aggregators maintain a constant flow of new booking options.
Admin Panel
Every mobile and web application needs to be managed smoothly. The admin panel is a major part of any hotel booking app – from chain hotel applications to aggregators and OTAs. It is impossible to manage listings and keep track of important data without a custom solution tailored to the specifics of the platform. To create a successful hotel booking application, it is necessary to consider the costs of the user-facing part of the product but also the expenses of the infrastructure, like the admin panel and other related solutions.
How to Earn Money with a Hotel Booking App?
There are monetization models that go well with the hotel booking apps:
Service fee – When you choose hotel booking app development, you can charge a fee for every booking done through your application. For instance, Airbnb charges commissions from the users.
Subscription – You can offer users to purchase a subscription when they want to get access to much more exciting deals and discounts in the future. It is also applicable for premium features.
Advertising – Let the hotels pay for advertising within the platform to be ranked first in the search results through a specific query (e.g. city or region).
The Marketplace – You can charge fees from the hotels that want to be listed on the platform. This can be a subscription or a one-time payment.
Some Final Words
Hotel booking app development is a laborious process that needs dedicated specialists’ participation. At Shyam Future Tech, we offer enterprise-level travel app development services. We shall create software that helps you to keep all the hotels in one place and manage them using different criteria about availability, affordability, comfort level and more. So, get in touch with us today to avail the best hotel booking app development services.
