The most important question while planning for a vacation that strikes in mind is to book a hotel where you can get the best leisure time as per your budget and requirements. Hospitality and travel are experiencing tremendous growth with the advancement of technology and smartphones.
Now it hardly takes a few seconds to convert the planning to Hotel booking. As per the research, travelers around the world are getting familiar with and adapting emerging technologies to make their lives fast and easy. Now people are more inclined to book the hotel per their comfort and necessities.
Gone are the days when travelers have to book hotels after reaching their destinations. The travel industry and hospitality app development are experiencing rapid growth, driven by the increasing preference of customers for online booking platforms such as Hopper.
Now from a hotel booking application, you can check entire details related to the hotels, rooms, and services being offered and can make comparisons to get the best deal within your budget. This has really made the booking experience easy and quick.
In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide on the various aspects of hotel booking app development. We will cover topics such as the different types of hotel apps available, essential features that should be included, and monetization strategies. By following these guidelines, you can create a top-notch, customer-centric hotel booking app.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact, the travel and tourism industry is expected to experience substantial growth over the next year and is projected to reach $8335 billion by 2025. Additionally, the online travel market is also rapidly developing.
Hence, the above-mentioned statistics clearly define that mobile bookings are now becoming the prominent or ultimate way for customers to book and pay for their stay.
As the name defines, such applications have various hotels available in the respective city registered with them. The users get an advantage that rather than checking individual hotel websites they can get the details for various hotels in one go.
The search results can also be refined by applying various filters such as star ratings, budget, facilities required, etc. After checking the details the users can book the stay as per their needs and requirements.
Examples of such types of applications are: Trivago, Booking.com
An app that is developed specifically for a particular chain of hotels or resorts to carry out its business operations is called a dedicated hotel chain application. In such applications, the users can get complete information regarding the various hotels or property types that a particular brand owns.
The services like reservations, restaurant bookings, food ordering, etc can be managed from the application itself. Examples of such types of applications are Taj Group of Hotels, Ramada, Hilton, etc.
These are the online companies that allow customers to book various travel-related services from the website or application directly. They are the third-party agents selling various holiday packages, hotel bookings, cars, flights or railway reservations, etc provided or organized by others. Examples of widely used OTAs are Make My Trip, Agoda.com, Expedia, and Trip Advisor.
A unique selling proposition is a factor that differentiates your offerings from others. Some of the USPs that are used are as follows:
With this feature, the user can complete the signup process easily. Customers can set up their accounts just by typing their email addresses, contact details, and other login credentials details. They can also Sign up using their social media accounts such as Facebook or Gmail.
Users get various notifications related to their bookings, check-in / check-out times, new offers, and discounts.
This is the most important feature of mobile applications. Global Distribution System (GDS) is a worldwide computerized reservation network that is used as a single point of access for accommodating hotel rooms, car rental apps, and other travel-related items by travel agents, online reservation sites, and large corporations.
As per the user’s last searches, the app providers customize the hotel recommendations. The suggestion for the hotels can be displayed as “Recommended for you”. This gives a sense of personalization to the users and helps in-app engagement.
The rates of the hotels keep on fluctuating and the users can get a rough estimation of the cost and they can plan accordingly. With a prior analysis, the best deal can be catered to easily.
A metasearch engine is an online information retrieval tool that uses the data of a web search engine to produce its own results. The integration of metasearch engines helps visitors in comparing rates from multiple websites. A metasearch engine compiles the room rates from multiple online channels (OTA) onto a single platform.
Users can get a complete dynamic view of the hotel and rooms by exploring the 360-degree photos or still photos available on the application.
As per the user’s location, the application automatically adjusts the language and the currency.
The application comprises intelligent travel assistants such as chatbots, Google Assistant, and messenger which help in providing a better customer experience 24X7. Common issues can easily be navigated with their help.
Admin can check the customer dashboard, and hotel dashboard and this facilitates real-time decision-making. For example, in any city, the bookings are less due to some reasons so there low booking prices can be offered so as to gain business.
Rewards and referral programs motivate the customers to share and use the application more and more in order to earn more reward points which can be converted into attractive discount offers. It is really beneficial for the hotel booking app to boost the approach among potential customers.
Various marketing tools that can be used to reach out to the target audience are Chatbots, paid social media advertising, Email marketing, push notifications, and many more.
CRM integration is really important in a hotel booking application, as providing the best customer experience is to ensure that the customer feels at home. Adding a CRM helps in strengthening customer relationships with the app.
A content management system is the most important tool for admin. From this system, the entire content of the application can be controlled and managed.
With the integration of CMS in the application, the functionalities like rolling out notifications related to the offer, and booking management can be done easily without any effort.
Users’ last search criteria get stored in the application and whenever they use the application again the results related to that search are always displayed. This helps in making various personalization strategies for the customers.
Google maps and Apple maps are integrated into the app so that users don’t face any difficulty in finding locations during the trip.
With Google Apps integrated, users can check the weather forecast and plan the day accordingly.
It ensures that users have a good experience while traveling across the city without any inconvenience.
If you want to integrate the API from any other website, for example, the API of Trip Advisor can be integrated so that the users can read other customers’ ratings and reviews.
To ensure easy payments, Payment APIs of various modes such as PayTM, net banking, debit/credit cards.
Using the geolocation tracking feature, customers can easily search the places nearby, such as tourist destinations, restaurants, movie theatres, malls, etc.
By integrating third-party API with Ola and Uber, users can book taxis easily during their travel.
Using a third-party app integration feature within the application, users can also book restaurants during their trip from the application itself.
The users can share their experiences on the application through reviews, pictures, videos, travel blogs, etc.
Every successful project requires a talented pool of professionals who helps in transforming thoughts into reality. So, let’s take a look at the team structure you will need for your app.
The cost estimate of a hotel booking app depends on the functionality, size, and complexity that it includes. Apart from it, the location of developers and the number of hours invested in the app development plays a very important role in deciding the app development cost.
Jeeto11
The app quickly earned over 1,000 downloads within two months of launch, and users have responded positively. ARKA Softwares boasted experienced resources who were happy to share their knowledge with the internal team.
Archithrones
While the development is ongoing, the client is pleased with the work thus far, which has met expectations. ARKA Softwares puts the needs of the client first, remaining open to feedback on their work. Their team is adaptable, responsive, and hard-working.
Service Provider
I started my project with Arka Softwares because it is a reputed company. And when I started working with them for my project, I found out that they have everything essential for my work. The app is still under development and but quite confident and it will turn out to be the best.
