Hey Hoteliers and our aspiring friends!!!
Looks like you are planning to take up your business online. After all, that’s how you landed up here. And that’s pretty how we end up meeting a lot of friends who, inspired by the success of industry giants like Airbnb, Booking.com, and many more, want to develop a hotel booking app. And why not, as people incline towards technology, eTravel is one of the most industries. According to a survey by Statista, as many as 88% of the users prefer online hotel bookings
WIth immense competition, it is pretty difficult to make a mark in the eTravel industry. Having said that, we don’t support anyone who says it is unachievable. All you need is, the power of hotel booking mobility solution combined with the right set of features, seamless UI/ UX, and a flawless approach to reach target users. And you are much likely to ace it.
Let’s show you how it’s done. Get rolling onto this journey of hotel booking app development.
What You Should Know Before Beginning with Hotel Booking App Development?
Having your mind cleared for what awaits you in the hotel booking app development realm is much wiser than simply jumping into it to realize this later. Here are some of the things that you need to know before you begin:
#1. Choose the Type of Hotel Booking App that Your Brand would Represent
Were you always in an impression that there are no types? Nothing to worry about, many of our friends were. Now that you know, here’s the range of options you can choose from:
- Online Travel Agencies
Also referred to as OTAs. such apps are not merely hotel booking apps. They extend multiple other services to the users including vacation rentals, ticket bookings, and a lot more. Some of the known brands under this category include: Trip.com and KAYAK. - Hotel Aggregators
These apps are there to help users find the best hotels from an array of options. As the name suggests, these apps are capable of aggregating the hotel data and providing the same to users. Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and Hotels.com are some of the well-known names of this category. - Hotel Chain Apps
These are the mobile apps dedicated to a particular hotel or chain of hotels. With these apps, a user can make a booking for the rooms available within those hotels only. Hilton Honors and Marriott Rewards are some of the apps in this category.
In case, you are not yet sure of the app category your app falls in, you can brain boggle on certain questions to find the same. These factors include Business objectives, Your Partners, Target Market, etc.
#2. Get Clear View on Distribution Area
The most important question, “Where do you want to launch your mobile application?”
While mobile apps serve better when allowed to explore global market, it is subject to the budget availability. Moreover, it required considerable development time to customize the app to meet the demands of global user.
Thus, you can probably think about launching an app for the local market to test it in hot waters. Alternatively, developing an MVP, with just the accurate features can also help you to understand the market better.
What are the Must-have Features of a Hotel Booking App?
Here are the basic features that make it to the list of must-haves:
- User profiles with comprehensive data of personal information, bookings history, favorites lists, payment details, etc.
- Hotel search combined with filters like city, country, date, and number of people. You can also have some options enabling merchants to showcase the mainstays like pet-friendly, free breakfast services, ratings, type of accommodation, wi-fi availability, etc.
- Hotel information page with its description, photos, maps, room types, facilities, ratings, and reviews.
- Easy to navigate screens with convenient bookings and payment options.
- Push notifications to let users know about upcoming bookings, discounts, special offers, time-out deals, etc.
- In-app messenger for the users and merchants to connect, when needed.
What are the Could-Have Features of Hotel Booking App?
Here are some of the advanced features that could help you win a loyal user base:
#1. Payment Gateway
Payment gateways are there to make our lives easier. Don’t deprive your users of the same. Offer them with an innate payment gateway that supports all the major payment options like net banking, credit cards, debit cards, etc.
Also Read- How to Develop a Payment Gateway? From Concept to Code
#2. Global Currency Support
Well, let’s get that straight. As a user, we would never love to go through the hassle of converting currencies to the preferred choices. Like… Really? Who would enjoy it anyway? Global currency support is a must-have feature for your travel and vacation rental application. You can provide an in-app currency converter API to convert the payment value according to the chosen region using Google currency API.
#3. Reporting and Analytics
Admins need to stay updated on the facets like bookings made using the mobile app, active bookings, canceled booking along with the time range, payments, reviews, registered users, typically EVERYTHING. Getting your app integrated with a great reporting and analytics tool can simply make the job easier.
#4. Personalization
A pinch of personalization will help the users to get results based on factors like location, booking history, booking behavior. A well-integrated API to fetch the required data will be a great option for the same.
#5. Cloud Storage
Okay, the ease that cloud storage offers can never be overlooked. You can also think of storing your data over the secure cloud to ensure easy and round-the-clock availability.
#6. Live Chat
We all know and understand that the conventional CRMs have gone obsolete. It’s the era of live chat support now. The easiest way to do so is to integrate Live Chat API while taking care of travel and vacation rental app development.
#7. Multi-language Support
Don’t bind your users in the language barriers. Let them choose the desired language for the listing.
#9. Room Details
Once you are through to the selection process, it’s now time to explore the details about the same. A user might need to check the variants available along with the services that come along with the room like free breakfast, wi-fi availability, etc. Generally, a user tends to pick up rooms on criteria like images shown, room view, ratings and reviews, description, location, tariff, etc.
While you would definitely need a user-facing screen to display the details, integrating an easy to use admin/ host-facing dashboard to provide the details is also a must.
#10. GPS-based Navigation and In-app Cab Bookings
Well, navigating in an all-new place is the greatest pain in the neck. To help your users avoid issues concerning this, the best way is to facilitate is through in-app cab bookings and GPS-based navigation. This would not only serve them with hassle-free navigation within the travel place but also provide them with options that they can explore nearby.
#13. In-built Messenger
You might need to connect with the host you have made bookings with, or maybe as a host, you might need to get in touch with the guests you might be welcoming any time to pass on a piece of important information. An in-built messenger or communication dashboard will be of great help here.
#14. Location-based Emergency Services
Emergencies are called so for a reason and looking for some help in such situations simply adds up to the overall problem. But it doesn’t have to bother your users much. How about a feature that lets them keep a record of the emergency services. Amazing, isn’t it?
#15. AR-based Room Experience
Now that AR is now coming to every realm, AR App development has really taken up skyrocketing speed. The hospitality industry is no exception. How about offering users with a great experience using the touch of Augmented Reality. Creating virtual rooms will give your vacation and travel rental app with the boost of incredibility and also augment the download rates like anything.
#16. Voice Search
Imagine launching the hotel booking app and all you have to do is speak out “I want to book a hotel in Seattle for 26th February.”
And, the app instantly lists all the available options in front of you. Magical right? Well, the users will love it too.
Also Read- B2B Mobile App Development: A Complete Guide
Now What? How To Develop a Hotel Booking App that Stands Out?
Now that you have come up with some exciting features, the question you will encounter is, what next? Of course, get in touch with a top-notch mobile app development companies and give your idea the shape it needs.
Leverage the benefits of Matellio’s advanced hotel booking app development services to give your business a competitive edge. With over two decades of experience, we have established our brilliance in delivering competent mobile app solutions that operate seamlessly across every device regardless of the screen size and platform.
Our time-tested quality-centric approach caters to the entire app building lifecycle encompassing development, integration, security, and testing, to deliver compelling mobile apps that are faster and smarter. We, at Matellio, are dedicated to working with the clients throughout their digital journey and enable them to maximize the potential of their idea.
