How to Create A Hotel Booking Mobile App? A Cheat Sheet

The online travel market driven by two major staples flights and hotel bookings has undeniably become the heart of industry growth by reaching unprecedented size and momentum in 2018. The inflating disposable incomes churning out from both emerging and developed markets seem to be stubborn in further propelling up this growth.

Each year, the global travel industry is continually thriving with its own novelties and differentiators. The number of travel departures have multiplied across the globe (see graph below) and injected billions of dollars in excelling travel industry. Here is the timeline to show the online travel sales worldwide from 2014 to 2020. In 2016, global online travel sales totaled 564.87 billion U.S. dollars. This figure is projected to grow to 755.94 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.

Digital travel sales worldwide from 2014 to 2020 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Image source: Statista

The growth drivers of travel and hospitality industry have strengthened the hotel booking business and have proven to spark growth and elevate the hotel reservations. The increasing potential and flooding capital in this sector has driven hoteliers, entrepreneurs and aggregators to arm their hotels/hotel chains with incredible digital solutions so as to relieve pain points of travelers and provide them hassle free bookings from any part of this world.

Here we will help you foray into this sector by covering the key topics of interest like:

• The Business Model
• Key Competitors
• List of Features
• Technology Stack
• Cost to Develop the App

The Business Model

1. Key Partners

• Hotels
• Guests
• Online travel Agencies
• Investors and shareholders
• Payment processors

2. Key Activities

• Product Development & Management
• Sales & Marketing
• Manage guest networks
• Manage hotel networks

3. Customer Segments

Partners

• Hotels
• Online travel agencies
• Media

Guests

• Travelers with affinity for online banking
• Tourists looking for the best deal
• Business travelers

4. Revenue Streams

• Cost per click (CPC)/ Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Advertising and Media

5. Cost Structure

• Technology set up and running costs
• Marketing costs
• Employee salary

Choose The Type Of Model:

1. Aggregator Model : You want to aggregate hotels in a mobile app/website.

2. Hotelier App : You want to build an app/website for your own hotel chain.

3. Online Travel Agencies : You want a full-fledged app/website that includes hotel searches, flight bookings, car rentals, restaurant bookings etc.

List Of Features In An Online Hotel Booking Aggregator App

Customer App

• Sign Up : Users can create a account with details like name, email id, mobile no., password, confirm password.
• Social Login : Make the signup process convenient by enabling users to login through their social accounts like Facebook, Instagram.
• Profile Creation : Users can create their profile by entering all the vital information like name, email, DOB, state, country, phone number and address.
• View Hotel List : Users can search hotels, filter hotels (with price, property type, ratings, & locations), view hotel details.
• Filter Option : Apart from filters like price, property type, ratings, & locations users can also apply filters like free WiFi, Air conditioners, car park, pool, spa, pet friendly, kitchen etc.
• Compare : Users can compare the prices, proximity, and spaciousness of hotels and find the ideal hotel.
• Book Hotels : In this feature, users can select hotel, check availability, select booking dates, enter traveler information (name, email id, mobile no.), make payment etc.
• Payment Gateway Integration : Users can make payment through credit/debit cards, online banking, and wallet payments.
• View Bookings : Users can view past bookings, upcoming bookings, reservation details and transaction history.
• View Deals : Users can view special offers, deals, announcements, coupons, vouchers, gift cards if any.
• Recommendation Engine : Recommendation engine help customers to find the product they would like by knowing their taste.
• Push Notifications : Users can be kept updated with email and push notifications.
• Geolocation Integration : Users can view the location of the hotels through maps.
• Multilanguage Interface : Users can set their own language preference.
• Hotel Ratings and Reviews : Users can view hotel ratings, reviews and feedback and also rate and review hotels.

Hotel Owner App

• Content Management System (CMS) : Hotel owners can upload and manage content like hotel amenities, room details, pictures, rates, special deals etc.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) : Through CRM integration, hotel owners can manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving customer service relationships and assisting in customer retention and driving.
• Price Management : Hotel owners can manage and adjust the price of rooms depending upon the factors like availability, rush, or city events.
• Room Management : Hotel owners can update the information of rooms, availability etc.
• Customer Support : Hotel owners can assist guests before, during, and after their stay.

Admin Panel

• Login : Admin can login through email id and password.
• Dashboard : Admin can check total bookings, total number of users, number of hotels registered, total amount collected, all in a single view.
• Hotel Management : Admin can manage hotels, add hotels, delete hotels, and update their information.
• Customer Management : Admin can add customers, delete customers, check their personal details and send messages.
• Bookings Management : Admin can view total number of hotel bookings, book on behalf of customers, cancel bookings, update bookings.
• Reports and Analytics : Admin can check reports and analytics to drive key decisions; get deep insights so as to catalyze next action.
• Ratings and Reviews Management : Admin can manage ratings and reviews, users’ feedback.

Cost To Develop A Hotel Booking App

The cost to develop a hotel booking app generally depends on the number of features you require and the total hours employed in developing those features, which generally depends upon the per hour cost the mobile app development company charges.

The total cost to develop a hotel booking app costs around $27000 – $34000. Given, the app development charges are $20/hr-$50/hr.