Remember the time when you would discuss with your friends, cousins, or colleagues a trip to Goa or trekking? We know that such plans, unfortunately, are the most canceled ones. Moreover, every state of normal affairs has been stripped from our day-to-day lives due to coronavirus-induced pandemics. Even the idea of taking a vacation at […]
Updated 22 January 2024
Director at Appventurez
Remember the time when you would discuss with your friends, cousins, or colleagues a trip to Goa or trekking? We know that such plans, unfortunately, are the most canceled ones.
Moreover, every state of normal affairs has been stripped from our day-to-day lives due to coronavirus-induced pandemics. Even the idea of taking a vacation at the time seems a little far-fetched at the moment.
But we are optimistic that This Too Shall Pass!
And this might be the most opportune time for businesses to invest in a hotel booking app development. We know the travel industry has turned upside down but little by little, things are safely sailing through the hurricane.
In fact, despite the coronavirus impact on industries, both the online and offline travel market is developing rapidly. According to the experts and forecasters-
One thing is clear: The findings may prove to be a good omen for those who wish to create a hotel booking app that caters to all customer needs. There is still much market space for healthy competition.
Thanks to the safety protocols, planning trips will become joyful again. And people would start logging in to hotel booking apps to take a long or little trip down to the sunshine to enjoy their win from COVID-19 and get back to their creative best again.
Read | Guide To Develop A Travel App Like MakeMyTrip
But since there is little time for that, you can take advantage of the situation to build a hotel booking app, take people closer to the beach, pool, and snow and become a pioneer in the travel industry.
Have a look at who are the major players in the online hotel booking market to take inspiration from.
This blog walks you through the ins and outs of the hotel booking app development process including the types of features, processes, and costs.
Before you get all enthusiastic and directly hit it off to the hotel mobile app development lifecycle, there are some details you need to be clear about.
To begin with, know about the types of hotel booking apps i.e. OTAs, Hotel Chain Apps, and Hotel Aggregators.
OTAs are the types of apps that cover all aspects of travel, i.e. offer multiple booking facilities. They offer booking services for rental cars, hotels, flights, etc.
Such types of booking apps are built specifically for a hotel or chain of hotels. They allow customers to book hotels within a chain only. Marriott Rewards and Hilton Honors belong to Hotel Chain apps.
The key objective of such apps is to aggregate hotel data (based on APIs from third-party applications) and provide specific details, including price and availability, to users.
In the next section, we’ve shared a brief process of how the hotel booking apps work to give you an idea in toto. Read ahead!
Want to create a record-shattering booking application? Drop an email, text, or message to our team at Appventurez for a consultation on your project idea. We will explain to you the Whats and Hows of hotel booking app development and implementation.
There is no hecticness involved. A hotel booking app works in a simple, straightforward manner. The core functioning of any hotel booking app development lies in a booking engine. It ensures that the real-time user data stays in sync with every booking channel.
Let’s dive deep into the details.
The user books the hotel after checking the available rooms, prices, deals, and discounts, including amenities, etc. with real-time booking options available.
A hotel booking app makes sure that the information is in sync with every platform.
The user finalizes the hotel of his/her choice after checking all the details.
Once the user has found the one that meets his/her requirements, they proactively book it for further approval.
Users/Guests confirm their accommodation for the required dates by making the final payment in a multitude of ways.
Give how technology has transformed the payment industry a read.
Once the request is approved, the data is updated to several distribution channels and a confirmation email is sent to both the booking manager and customer. In addition, a confirmation text message is also sent to the user.
The host is prompted with the request made. They can further choose to either accept or reject as per their availability and convenience.
Now that everything is confirmed, guests check in on the corresponding date.
Guests check out on the last day of their stay anytime they want.
At the time of check-out, the user receives an email and a text message confirming the check-out. This includes the invoice with a request to rate and review the services during the stay.
Simultaneously, all the distribution channels are updated with the availability of the room along with the customer’s review.
So you see there is no rocket science but a plain sailing process. Moving forward, we have handpicked and shared the must-have as well as nice-to-have features of a hotel booking app
If you think this all requires technical knowledge and manpower that you do not possess right now, outsource your project to us. We would make your job easier than you can imagine and finish your app in no time.
The features work as a skeleton of your app and are the most crucial thing that will attract potential customers. In case you don’t know where to begin and put your efforts, listed below are several features that can be found in popular booking apps. Take note.
These MVP features can win or bust the mobile app.
Read | How Much Does It Cost To Build An MVP
Thus, it is important to integrate the following features to build the richness of your app.
There is a high chance that the User Registration process will either make your business or break it. Here’s why: It’s the very first thing that makes users stay or drop the app.
Sign in/Sign up is the most basic feature whose intent is to establish a relationship with each user by getting their details. Make the procedure as simple as possible so that users are quickly able to fill out the key information. Also, integrate an option for users to log in via social networks (email + social media accounts) to make the process faster and more convenient for them.
To convince people to stay on your app and use it more, let them utilize the core features of the hotel booking app in guest mode without creating a profile. You can ask for sign-up/log-in details afterward once they are ready to buy your services.
Since the endgame of a hotel booking app is to let users find a place to stay conveniently, a well-thought-out booking screen is among the extremely important features of a hotel booking app.
Don’t pile up the booking screen with unnecessary details. Collect only important data. You can also integrate the location tracking feature that is most suitable for last-minute bookings. An easy-to-locate ‘Near Me’ button could enhance the user experience twofold. This allows users to online book rooms 24×7 without actually contacting or visiting the office.
With the advancement of digital transformation trends, online payment features are unavoidable. Encourage multiple payment methods (credit card, debit card, UPI, etc.) for the user’s convenience.
Keep the detail screen plain and manageable. Provide the details of hotels, apartments, locations, basic information, price, reviews, basic amenities, and so on for quick and right decisions & keep these buttons within a thumb’s reach.
You can even sync a route map to the hotel selected by the customer. Moreover, adding some contact details can make the task of booking a room even easier.
The users should be allowed to search for the most appropriate deal that meets their needs. Ensure your online booking engine works smoothly and lets users search for deals according to destination, check-in/check-out dates, guests with pets, number of people, price, and other amenities.
Furthermore, to improve the search process, include a sorting and filtering system to help them make quick and more informed decisions.
The more successful the users in their search, the more they will be loyal to you.
Now that your customers/users have input all the booking details, applied filters, and got search results, they would probably like to take a closer look at the chosen accommodations.
Another step of hotel booking app development involves making sure the data – Map, Photo Gallery, Basic details, Hotel facilities & policies, Call-to-action button, Sharing button, Add to favorite, Reviews, etc., is present on your accommodation details screen.
These are the very basic details the majority of travelers would like to be aware of before booking their stay.
It is essential to make all their data available to regular users to help them make fast choices
A user profile is among the important features of a hotel booking app that stores information about the user and his/her booking history along with other general details.
Allow users to choose the desired language, and currency and create wish lists. In addition, a user should be able to view messages or any notifications (reminders, booking details, etc.) in another section of the profile.
Often users may have to cancel their booking due to some circumstances/emergencies. That is when you make sure you follow a cancellation policy allowing users to cancel the booking anytime they want, even until the last day. This builds their trust in you and increases your customer satisfaction and retention rate.
A customer should be able to cancel a booking with ease and with the least inconvenience possible.
The best method to keep customers updated with the latest and special deals offers and discounts is by sending out push notifications. Here’s how push notifications value increases with intensity.
Not only the offers but you can also notify the users about itinerary notes, friendly reminders, weather forecasts, scheduled travel plans, alternative routes, loyalty programs, price discounts, and more. These notifications will timely update the users and make a rational decision.
Well, these were the basic features of a hotel booking app but it’s nice to put bells and whistles to keep your users satisfied.
In addition to the aforementioned features, including more advanced features would work as icing on the cake to attract more users and increase revenue. Read on to know more!
Ahead we have discussed a few of the features with advanced functionality that will help your booking app stand out from the crowd.
Great! These were some of the ingredients you should include during hotel booking app development. It is not necessary to add them during the app’s release. You can integrate them sometime after the launch; once you have gained a foothold, earned feedback, and gained a solid understanding of what direction you should move.
Also Read | How Much Does App Development Cost?
Now that you are well-versed with all the ingredients that go into the making of a hotel booking app, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of the hotel booking app development process.
Being a leading hotel booking app development and software development partner, hereunder is the app development process followed at Appventurez.
Market analysis is the very first step to unlock the door to an app’s success. You must research the niche market thoroughly. Ask yourself – How is my app different from others? What is my target audience? What problem does my app solve? What uniqueness can I bring to the table?
Once you have solutions to these answers and are satisfied, you can organize the project information while defining your budget, duration, etc., and share it with us.
Leave the rest to us now! Our business analysts leave no stone unturned to gather the best possible solutions for you and formulate a detailed project specification after putting in the best mobile app development strategies.
On top of that, a final project estimate is shared based on the collected information.
Focusing on the defined idea and goal, our UI/UX designers create wireframes for each app screen. Once all wireframes are designed, the designers shift their focus to making mockups for hotel booking application design (screen by screen).
Next wireframes, project requirements, and modern UI/UX methodologies are combined to build an outstanding app prototype.
Following this, the UI/UX designers submit the project to the developers and support them.
The development stage is all about transforming beautiful mockups into an exceptional working hotel booking app via top mobile app development frameworks that work the best for your app.
We boast a talented team of iOS and Android developers to help you make an app for your preferred platform.
Now that product design and development are finished, the QA engineers perform multiple tests to ensure that the app is bug-free and meets all your requirements.
Once every test is run and completed, the QA specialists enter results into bug reports and forward them to the developers. The information helps the development team to find and fix the bug.
Read | Mobile App Development Mistakes To Avoid
Now after the final magic touch of the development team, your app is all set to release and break records. The app is released in target markets to receive initial feedback and make changes if required.
And we don’t part ways once the app is built. We support the app by timely adding new features or updating and providing maintenance based on users’ feedback. See how much app maintenance costs.
If you are moving forward on your own, here’s a list of some hotel booking app development tools that will help you to build a top-notch app:
If you are outsourcing the project, here are the things to ask from a mobile app development agency.
Designing a hotel booking app demands extensive hard work and dedicated professionals. We, at Appventurez, are a professional hotel booking app development company that has a superpower in providing enterprise-level travel and hospitality software development solutions.
Walkthrough our portfolio to see what type of projects we’ve developed before and find ideas for your business solution.
Q. What are the Benefits of a Hotel Booking App?
There are several promising benefits of investing in a hotel booking application such as user-centricity and convenience, connectivity with clients, multiple revenue streams, and brand recognition.
Q. How to Make a Hotel Booking App?
There are two options i.e. Build an app based on a template or hire a dedicated travel and hospitality app development team having years of rich expertise in designing and developing the app from scratch.
Q. How much does it Cost to Make a Hotel Booking App?
Though it entirely depends on your requirements, type of hotel app, features involved, server architecture’s requirements, and platforms you wish to launch your app on, it may cost you approximately $30,000 to create a feature-rich hotel booking app.
Elevate your journey and empower your choices with our insightful guidance.
Director at Appventurez
Director and one of the Co-founders at Appventurez, Chandrapal Singh has 10+ years of experience in iOS app development. He captains client coordination and product delivery management. He also prepares preemptive requisites and guides the team for any possible issues on a given project.
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