February 1, 2023
With increasing rivalry while being digitized, how does the travel or hospitality industry remain back, especially when we have successful examples in the industry? Yes, we are talking about booking.com and Airbnb. By following these market leaders, various startups or entrepreneurs have started associating with the hotel booking app development company to successfully launch and market their hospitality apps.
As no one is unaware of how the travel & tourism industry has been uplifting in the last few years despite the pandemic, the industry is calling to develop a smarter solution simplifying and improving customers’ experience and driving effectiveness across the business context.
Anyhow, technology has brought a massive change in the way these interrelated industries deal with, manage customers and drive growth. And this somehow compels the modern startups or SMBs associated with hospitality services to develop a custom hotel booking app.
So, if you are willing to develop a hotel booking app, you need to consider several factors to ensure seamless launching and market success. Thus, keep reading this blog, we are going to let you know the market scope of hotel booking apps, potential benefits, user-oriented features to be included, the cost required, and more.
Market Scope & Analysis
Recent years encouraged the travel, tourism, and hospitality industry to leverage digital advancement wherein users seemed more flexible while ensuring their booking through mobile applications whether for their travel, hotel stay, and entire tourism.
However, Covid-19 brought a pause in this industry for a time being but somehow prepared the users with an increased adoption rate for digital utilization while planning for any trip. Thereby, the concept of the hotel booking app is continued taking a lope with full-on speed post Covid-19.
When it comes to Statista’s facts and figures, the travel & tourism market is expected to ensure market growth of up to US$1016.00 billion by the year 2027 at a CAGR – of 4.41% for the period of 2023-2027.
Another fact reveals that 74% of total revenue will be generated through online sales by 2027.
Eventually, these growth potentials are revealing how it becomes inevitable to develop a hotel booking app. Hence, considering this rising demand, let’s contemplate the required things, plans, and strategies to be implemented when you decide to launch your hotel booking app.
Here, partnering with a trustworthy hotel booking app development company can help you deploy a custom-configured and user-driven hotel booking app to stimulate your business practices and serve an improved experience to your users that drive growth and reserve scaling opportunity ahead.
Reasons to Develop a Hotel Booking App
When your customers are steadily adopting digital platforms to book and reserve their hotel and travel allied requirements, you need to deploy an app to help you serve what your customers anticipate and acquire improved outcomes.
There are several business benefits of developing and launching the hotel booking app. Distinctively both the users and the business individuals can get benefitted. Here are considerable reasons to develop a hotel book app.
Business Benefits
Developing hotel booking apps enables businesses to locate their guests on a regular basis. This helps them to draw more and more guests to their hotel.
When you develop a custom hotel booking app for your business, you gain success in expanding your business capabilities, improving the way of communicating with your users and your internal staff, ensuring seamless market penetration, and eventually attracting more customer base.
Through your app, you can promote your hotel brand, build a market reputation, and accelerate your growth rate while reserving your futuristic return on investment.
When you develop a hotel booking app for your users, you enable automated cost estimations for additionally availed services. Through this, not merely you eliminate the chances of errors even your customers enjoy a seamless experience once they avail of customized services while staying in your hotel.
Now, let’s demonstrate the benefits of developing a hotel booking app distinctively for both the users and administrators (business owners).
User Benefits
Users can effortlessly access the available hotels by leveraging the custom-built hotel booking app. Moreover, they can make hassle-free payments while leveraging your mobile app built to serve hospitality and travel allied services.
You can allow your users to choose and finalize the hotel as per their specific needs in terms of geographical needs, pricing range, check-in or check-out flexibility, and other facilitations.
Users can make satisfactory decisions while choosing and booking a hotel by leveraging hotel room photos and other related information. For instance, before booking they will get to know whether they will get complimentary breakfast or not, whether they are allowed as unmarried couples, etc.
Modern customers are more likely to believe in making online payments which is encouraged more and more in recent years due to instant worldly challenges and market adoptions. When you facilitate them with credit/debit, UPI, online banking, and more payment options, they enjoy flexibility and reliability. However, you will also find clients who still rely on cash transactions, thereby, you need to keep a cash option open for your customers.
Steps Involved to Develop a Hotel Booking App
Market Research
To ensure the success of your app, you need to start with market research and analysis wherein you need to know your app objective first along with future potentials. You need to be determined about your desired marketplace wherein you are willing to launch your app.
Moreover, competitor analysis is a must-have part that you need to work on. This will help you to know your competitors’ strategies, and how they are sustaining their market presence and expanding the same. Initiating with market study can help you acquire project success.
Select the Hotel Booking App Model
Hotel Booking App Models
Considering your different business model, your requirements could be different when you come up to develop a custom hotel booking app. So, it is crucial to understand which type of app you need to develop for your hotel business. Here are the potential types:
General hotel booking
If you want to gather information about hotels and serve the same to the users helping them to access the availability and enable them for seamless hotel booking, you need to go with this general concept which is also a very famous concept being driven by Booking.com, TripAdvisor.com, and more.
App to drive hotel chains
If you are running your own chain of hotels, and willing to allow your customers to access the availability and book room that comes within your chain of hotels, this idea is born for you. For this type of hotel booking app development, you can consider the example of Hyatt hotels corporation, InterContinental hotels group PLC, etc.
Immediate-booking app
Today’s busy people often plan their travel all suddenly, thereby, they seek immediate hotel booking options. If your idea is to serve these customers, you can ask your hotel app development company to develop and deploy your app to facilitate these users who anticipate last-minute bookings and reservations for their travel.
While serving these customers, you can charge them a bit more than the usual or general booking. Through this, you can generate improved revenue outcomes.
Advanced booking app
A usual method of hotel booking wherein users love to book their hotel room in advance. So, if your idea goes around serving the users who have planned a trip and are seeking to book a room for that specific period, ask your provider to develop it accordingly.
Additionally, if you want to serve your clients a complete package that includes hotel room booking along with traveling, you can definitely glad your customers.
Hybrid hotel booking
If you want to combine the idea of both the above-mentioned hotel booking apps, you can call it a hybrid hotel booking model. In this model, you can enable your customers to book room(s) on both advanced and short-term availability.
So, we have revealed the different app types of app models for your hotel booking app. All you need to decide, plan, and implement the idea which is more suitable for your business. In case you need any sort of consultation, connect with our experts, we can help you make a strategic decision to drive growth, scalability, and efficiency in the long run.
Essential Features to Consider for Your Hotel Booking App
When developing a hotel booking app, there are several essential features that should be considered to ensure that the app is user-friendly, efficient, and capable of driving success for your business. Some of these essential features include:
User account management
A user account management system that allows users to create, manage, and update their profiles.
Hotel search and booking
A robust search system that allows users to search for hotels based on location, price, and other criteria, and a secure booking system that allows users to reserve rooms and make payments.
Payment gateway integration
Integration with a secure payment gateway to process payments from users and ensure the security of financial transactions.
User reviews and ratings
A system for users to leave reviews and ratings for hotels, providing valuable feedback for other users and helping to improve the quality of the hotels listed in the app.
Push notifications
Push notifications to keep users informed about their bookings, changes in hotel availability, and other important updates.
Map and location services
Integration with map and location services to help users find hotels, view locations, and get directions.
Multi-language support
Support for multiple languages to make the app accessible to users around the world.
User analytics
User analytics to help you understand how users are interacting with your app and make data-driven decisions to improve the app’s performance.
By incorporating these essential features into your hotel booking app, you can provide a seamless user experience, increase user engagement, and drive success for your business.
Know the development process
Here we are considering the development process at iWebServices- a Travel Software development company.
iWebServices – a mobile and web app development company helps you develop a successful hotel booking app. With our expertise in app development and a team of experienced developers, we follow the development process below for a successful hotel booking app:
Requirements gathering
iWebServices helps you gather and analyze your requirements to ensure that your hotel booking app is developed to meet your specific needs.
Design and prototyping
We create a visual representation of your app and a functional prototype to test its usability. Once you finalize the sample prototyping & designing, we move toward the next step of the development process.
Development
The expert mobile app development team at iWebServices develops your hotel booking app, including the implementation of features and functionalities. Listening to your core needs, we ensure developing a custom-configured app for your business.
If your app requires to be integrated with any third-party solution, we ensure secure and seamless integration. For instance, payment gateway integration.
Testing and debugging
In the testing and debugging phase, we thoroughly test your app to identify and fix any bugs and issues. However, we believe in standard coding comprising the scaling capabilities while ensuring quality-assured practices.
Deployment
Finally, our development team deploys your app to a server or hosting platform, making it accessible to users. We ensure speedy browsing and improved bandwidth for your users to start driving efficiency from the very first day.
Maintenance and support
We provide ongoing maintenance and support to ensure that your app is functioning correctly and to provide support to users.
By working with iWebServices, you can benefit from their expertise and experience in app development, and can develop a hotel booking app that drives success for your business.
Hire a Hotel Booking App Development Company
Once you finally come up with your intended app model and applicable features, the next step is to hire a hotel booking app development company. Again, choosing the right hotel booking app development company can ensure half of your goal success.
To hire a trustworthy partner, do adequate research, leverage efficient hiring portals, social media, etc., then come up with shortlisted companies, cross-check their development team’s ability along with their background verification, and then finally onboard the efficient team to undertake and initiate working on your project.
To ensure the trustworthiness of the provider, you can ask them about their client’s portfolios and cross-check the same. This will help you partner with the right hotel booking app development company.
Drive post-launching marketing strategies
Merely launching your hotel booking app in your desired marketplace won’t help you drive productivity. You need to drive effective marketing strategies post launching your app. However, your provider can help you in facilitating and driving marketing strategies for your app to start attracting a customer base and driving productivity.
To ensure so, rather than deploying the complete version of your app, you can go for MVP (Minimum Viable Product) development. Through MVP, you can launch the initially required functionality and then drive market research. Once you will get to know how your app is performing in the market, you can update and optimize your app accordingly to ensure long-term success.
For more information on how MVP app development works, you can always connect with us. Our expert can provide you with best-in-class yet personalized guidance to support your concurrent growth and scalability in the future.
Cost Estimation to Develop a Custom Hotel Booking App
The cost of developing a hotel booking app can vary greatly depending on several factors such as the complexity of the app, the size of the development team, etc.
The cost can also be influenced by the location of the development team, with costs being lower in countries with lower average salaries, and higher in countries with higher average salaries.
It’s important to note that the cost of developing a hotel booking app is not set in stone, and can vary greatly depending on the specific requirements of the project. To get a more accurate cost estimate, it’s better to discuss your project requirements with a development team or provider.
Monetization Model
There are several ways to monetize a hotel booking app, including:
Commission-based model
This involves charging a commission fee for every booking made through the app. The fee can be a percentage of the booking value or a fixed amount per booking.
Advertising
The app can be used as a platform to display advertisements to users. This can include display ads, sponsored listings, and more.
Premium features
The app can offer premium features, such as a more personalized experience, exclusive discounts, or priority booking, which users can pay for.
Affiliate marketing
The app can partner with other businesses, such as travel agencies, to earn commissions on bookings made through their platform.
Subscription-based model
The app can charge a monthly or annual subscription fee to use the app and its services.
Upselling
The app can suggest additional services, such as travel insurance, car rental, or activities, to users during the booking process, generating additional revenue.
It’s important to consider the target audience and their preferences when choosing a monetization model. Additionally, it’s important to continuously monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen model and make changes as needed.
How iWebServices Help You Develop a Custom Hotel Booking App?
There are several benefits of hiring iWebServices – a trustworthy software development company for hotel booking app development, including:
Expertise and experience
iWebServices has a team of experienced mobile app developers who have extensive knowledge of mobile app development, and a proven track record of delivering successful projects.
Customized solutions
iWebServices can help you develop a hotel booking app that is tailored to meet your specific needs, ensuring that your app is designed to achieve your business goals.
Scalability
iWebServices can develop a hotel booking app that is scalable, allowing you to easily add new features and functionalities as your business grows.
Quality assurance
iWebServices follows a rigorous quality assurance process in place to ensure that your hotel booking app is developed to the highest standards.
Cost-effectiveness
Hiring our development team for your hotel booking app development can be cost-effective, as you won’t need to pay for the overhead costs associated with in-house development.
Time-to-market
We help you bring your hotel booking app to market quickly, allowing you to start generating revenue, and achieving your business goals sooner.
Ongoing support
iWebServices can provide ongoing support and maintenance, ensuring that your hotel booking app is functioning correctly and providing support to users.
Wrapping Up!
In conclusion, developing a hotel booking app can provide numerous benefits for businesses in the hospitality industry, including increased visibility and accessibility for hotel listings, enhanced user experience, and increased revenue through the booking process.
However, it is important to carefully consider all the essential features and monetization models before starting the development process. The cost of development can also vary greatly depending on several factors, so it is advisable to consult with a professional development team associated with a worthwhile hotel booking app development company to get a more accurate cost estimate.
Ultimately, with the right team, the right strategy, and the right approach, developing a hotel booking app can be a valuable investment that drives success and growth at scale for your business.
