Taking a breather from the repeatable mode of living and tedious work life is the shared interest of most of the people out there. Taking a trip away from the familiar work and life structure can rejuvenate the mood of a person to a great extent and allow them to get back to their creative best again. However, there are other dimensions attached to this idea of traveling and the most noteworthy of them is deciding a place to stay during the trip. Hotels are the most viable option in this scenario and if you have an app to assist you to book a hotel then you can shift your focus towards making your trip memorable.

Hotel booking app

Since the staying aspect of a trip holds a lot of weightage therefore travel and hospitality industry is growing at a rapid pace in the last few years. Hotel Booking apps have gained a lot of popularity by reducing the number of steps in booking a hotel for stay. This sudden shift of norms round hotel booking apps has drawn a lot of entrepreneurs in the market to get themselves develop a scintillating hotel booking mobile app and if you are also one of them then you will absorb a lot of knowledge regarding the whole concept.

Facts and Figures Associated with Hotel Booking App

We have already stressed the fact that the Travel and hospitality industry is growing leaps and bounds in the last year or so. People find the whole process of online hotel booking effortless which is directly contributing to taking the usage of hotel booking apps to a whole new level.

Data from research by Criteo revealed that

  • 45% of bookings for the Online Travel Agency (OTA) proceed through mobile handsets.
  • 80% of the last-minute reservations are performed via mobile phones.
  • The conversation rates on mobile are five times that of the rate of conversion on the mobile web.
  • Approximately 70% of travelers use hotel mobile applications to make booking decisions.
  • In 2021, the worldwide market size for booking travel services online was valued at USD 519.1 billion. It is anticipated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.0% from 2022 to 2030.

If we throw in some other numbers then we will find out that in the U.S. alone 88% of the population has shown trust in online hotel booking apps. The trend is very much similar if we take other countries into focus. Worldwide online travel sales were 564.87 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 and it has grown at an exponential rate to reach the mark of 755.94 billion U.S. dollars last year. In terms of market volume for online hotel bookings, the number is expected to cross $174 million in 2022.

Hotel reservation is indeed the primary focus of a hotel booking app but if you are looking to capture the market then other options like booking a taxi, flight, cruise, or package holidays prove to be of great significance. Not becoming stagnant and exploring other segments will lure in more and more customers for your app. The stats mentioned in the image suggests that the travel booking industry is growing at a booming rate and it is a great time to create a hotel booking app.

Types of Hotel Booking App Development

1. Hotel Aggregator Apps

As the term says, such apps accumulate the data of the hotels listed on various web sources. Next, they display them on their websites, easing the users to compare hotel booking prices on their app without switching between pages. 

Examples: Goibibo, Trivago.

2. Hotel Chain Apps

A group of individual hotels or chains scattered worldwide run such apps. The users will find booking details for varied chains of unique hotels with exclusive discounts and loyalty rewards. 

Examples: Marriott Bonvoy

3. Last-Minute Hotel Booking Apps

When you make a last-minute plan, maybe for a business or family trip, these last-minute booking apps find you seamlessly. These are usually chosen for executing instant hotel booking plans and usually offer rooms with significant discounts that have the possibility of going unbooked.

Examples: Hotel Tonight

4. Vacation Rental Apps

These applications facilitate users to book vacation homes or private residences for short-term stays, generally at best and lowest price compared to traditional hotels. 

5. Budget Hotel Apps

When your primary concern is the best hotels within your budget, such apps come into play. You can choose these apps to book budget rooms at hostels or hotels. 

6. Luxury Hotel Apps

When you intend to book luxury stays with high-end accommodations, luxury hotel apps facilitate you to book rooms at grand resorts or hotels. 

7. Pet-Friendly Booking Apps

If you want to plan a holiday with your furry babies, you can do this, as it’s not just an idea today; it has caught up with reality. Worldwide, you can find pet-friendly booking apps that emerge with a listing of pet-friendly hotels and accommodations. 

Example: BringFido

8. Hostel Booking Apps

The best option for backpackers to book accommodations within their budget is a hostel booking app. Such apps help them get the best-priced hostel, including the necessary facilities a user need to get fun and exciting experiences with their friends. 

9. All-in-one travel apps

The app that meets varied travel needs, like hotel booking, travel package booking, flight booking, etc., via a single app is an all-in-one. This app trend is budding in the app market and will soon catch up with the pace. 

Business Models involved in Hotel Booking Mobile App

There are four types of business models that we normally associate with a hotel booking app. So, without any further ado let us dive straight into those model types.

1. Merchant Model

In this type of model, the app owners sign a contract with the hotel to own a certain number of hotel rooms on a discounted rate as they are getting a hold of the rooms on a wholesale basis. In the next step, these rooms are offered to the app users with an average margin of 10-40%. Prices of rooms and hotels may vary depending upon various factors, one of them being travel demands.

Expedia is the prime example of this type of business model, managing 17% of the digital travel business across 200 countries worldwide. However, implementing a merchant model will require a huge sum of money and Expedia has just that in the form of their huge capital gain.

2. Advertising Model

The advertising model provides you with the option of creating money through your hotel booking app. App owners generate capital by redirecting their users onto the hotel websites. Among all the business models that we are going to discuss, this model type is the least profitable but its plus point is less risk and investment involvement. Tripadvisor is the prime example of an app working on an advertising model as it earns most of its capital through cost-per-click charges.

3. Aggregator Model

The most popular form of hotel booking app and there is a strong reason behind it. Hotel booking apps working on this model tends to be in connection with a variety of online booking services. What it does is that whenever a user starts scrolling through a hotel booking app to look for a comfortable place to stay, he is provided with a large list of hotels having flexible price ranges. Once the user has found the hotel option of liking, he is redirected straight to that specific hotel website. Hotel Book and Booking.com come to mind when we think of aggregator model-based apps.

4. Dedicated Model

This type of model is the preferable option of widely popular hotel chains such as Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Hilton which have apps built in their names to merge all of their brands and resort brands. However, having a personal app for your hotels and chains proves to be a great idea only if your app popular enough. These apps are not created only by keeping the booking purpose in mind but by also taking other factors into consideration like special requests of users during their stay like the order of extra pillows, ironing board, a food item, or any other stuff of prime importance.

Popular Hotel Booking Mobile Apps & Services

1. Priceline

Priceline

The Priceline app is a must-have for travelers looking to save on their next trip. The app provides exclusive hotel, flight, and rental car deals, ensuring you get the best price on your vacation or business trip. The Priceline app lets you compare travel deals and book while on the go.

2. Expedia

Expedia

Expedia app lets you explore over 500,000+ hotels worldwide, including boutique hotels, luxury hotels, airport hotels, hostels, B&Bs, vacation rentals, and resorts. You can also enjoy free cancellation on most hotels, because flexibility matters. From trip planning to booking, the Expedia app is designed to enhance your travel experience and keep you one step ahead with real-time travel alerts and the ability to view your trip details anytime, anywhere. Start planning your next adventure and download the Expedia app today.

3. TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor

Tripadvisor app allows users to book hotels, tours, activities, experiences, and other things to do with free cancellation. Users can also find great places to eat nearby and make restaurant reservations, as well as get great deals on hotels by comparing the lowest prices from more than 200 booking sites worldwide. The planning tool, Trips, enables users to save and organize traveler-recommended places, see their saves on a map, and share and collaborate with their travel companions. With the Tripadvisor app, users can plan and book their trips all in one place, making travel planning easy and convenient.

4. Booking.com

booking.com

The Booking.com app offers extensive travel booking services for your next trip. With just a few clicks, you can access great deals on hotel or apartment accommodations, flights, rental cars, and taxis all in one place. The app features free cancellations at most properties, 24/7 customer service in over 40 languages, and no booking or credit card fees. You can also communicate directly with your property through the app and receive exclusive mobile-only discounts.

5. Kayak

Kayak

KAYAK is a travel platform that searches hundreds of sites for great deals on flights, hotels, and car rentals. They offer various accommodations, from five-star resorts to boutique hotels and vacation homes. You can filter for free cancellations and find exclusive mobile-only rates.

We can help you build a Hotel booking app like Booking.com, Priceline, Expedia Tripadvisor, etc. Our team of experienced developers can create a custom app that caters to your specific needs and requirements.

Multiple Listing Service (MLS) For Hotel Booking & Reservation

A multiple listing service is a central database or software that helps a hotel booking service gain more users by allowing the individual booking agents or hotels to share the available information regarding rooms or hotel listings in their area. A combined database of all such hotel listings is known as a multiple listing service database. This allows the customers to view more options of hotel booking filtered on the basis of city, state, zip code, and county.

hotel booking

Property Management System (PMS) For Hotel Booking

A property management system (PMS) is a specific hotel management web application that the hotel owners and front desk employees use to run their business efficiently. This software or application allows them to keep track and manage room booking availability, reservations, managing housekeeping, making adjustments to existing room reservations, etc. Another advantage of having a PMS for hotel booking app is that helps the management to keep a keen eye on key performance metrics like room occupancy rate (OR), average length of stay (ALOS), revenue per available room (RevPAR), depreciation, amortization, total Revenue, and total bookings.

Booking Engine for Hotel Booking Service

In layman terms, a hotel booking engine is a software application on hotel websites, mobile apps, and social media pages which makes it possible to capture and process direct online reservations and inquiries. A booking engine works in conjunction with the hotel property management system. Most hotels rely on travel agents and travel websites for listing their rooms. However, on each booking, the hotel has to pay a commission to the listing portal. The booking engine allows you to bypass that way and provides the user to book rooms through the official website, mobile app, and even the Facebook page.

The customer doesn’t have to website or app to book a room as the booking engine takes the information of the user to your website and makes the reservation. This reservation information is also shared with your PMS as the booking engine gets synchronized with it. This whole method makes the process of booking rooms very easy and hassle-free for tourists. As now customers can book rooms through different channels such as social media, app, and website. So, a booking engine or hotel reservation system helps you increase conversion, collect useful data, and provide an excellent experience to guests.

Features To be Included in a Hotel Reservation App

Features are the blueprint on which a hotel booking app operates. So, having all the necessary ones while building a hotel booking app is paramount.

1. Result Filter

When the user starts looking for accommodation, the app will turn his focus onto a particular amount of parameters which includes City or place he is visiting, Dates of checking in and checking out, other members along with him, if he is carrying a pet and lastly, the number of rooms he will be requiring to stay in.

2. Booking and Cancellation

As soon as the user has decided upon the choice of the hotel he will stay in, he is directed to a safe and secure payment gateway like Debit/Credit Card, Braintree, Stripe. Most of the hotel booking services provide a complete refund to their users within the first 24 hours in case they had to cancel their booking. This feature of cancellation is of great benefit for the users but on the other end of the spectrum, it causes a lot of complications for the hotel owners as most of the cancellations are done just a day or two before the date of arrival of users.

3. User Interface and Experience

The user interface of an app holds significance when it comes to boosting customer engagement. You must create a user-friendly and easy UI for your hotel booking app to drive more customers. 

4. Push Notifications and Alerts

Your app should send notifications and alerts to your app users to keep them updated about the latest discounts, changing fares of hotels, upcoming bookings, and a lot more. This way, you will stay connected with the users and frequently tap your app.

5. Reviews and Feedback

Provide a feedback section to your users to let them review the services of the hotels you listed on your app. This will not only help other customers to make informed decisions ahead but also better for your app to attract repeat customers in turn of top reviews and ratings. 

6. Multiple Language Support

Obviously, worldwide, people converse in distinctive languages. Thus, it’s essential to have a multilingual hotel booking app to serve international customers while they book their stays via your app, running in their native language. 

7. In-App Navigation

In-app navigation should permit users to navigate through the app easily. The content and UI should be crafted according to the customers’ needs and ease. So, make it simple, compatible with all devices, set for unstable internet issues, and more. Be sure the lack of easy in-app navigation shouldn’t ruin the performance of your app. 

8. A Complete View of the Accommodation

Providing a view of the accommodation from all angles can help you create a great rapport with the users as this is what they are looking for. The app should be looking to provide an overview, room status, gallery, maps, social media buttons, pool view, suggestions, and some other views.

9. Customer Account

User information which includes wish-list, booking history, currency, and preferred language is stored in the customer account. Users receive discounts and personalized offers depending upon the data owners collected from their profile.

10. Hotel Account

Necessary information associated with hotels in the form of prices offers related to information, discounts, best deals, available rooms is all made available through the Hotel account.

11. Payment Channels

After the users have decided upon the accommodation that suits them the best, they will be asked to do the in-app payments through a wide range of options in the form of Debit & Credit cards, Stripe, PayPal, Braintree.

Smart Features Associated with Hotel Booking App

Apart from the basic features mentioned above, if you add on some smart features then they will act as a catalyst in making your reach the desired audience. So, let us have a look at some of these smart features.

1. Estimated Cost Forecast

Costs of flights and hotels go up and down constantly which makes it hard for the users to calculate the final cost of their travel. Freeing the users from this problem by providing the data from the records will take your app a long way. An algorithm is built within the app which provides the users with seasonal trends, offers, and discounts that assist the user in booking reasonable flights and hotel rooms.

2. Recommendation Engine

Taking previous searches of the user into consideration, the app showers various recommendations like TripAdvisor offers, Booking.com offers on the users. With time more and more data gets collected which assists the algorithm in producing colossal results.

3. On the Go Travel guide

Travel assistants in the form of chatbots, Messanger, WeChat, Google Assistant provide all-time customer experience to the users. All the queries of the users are sorted by the users.

4. Virtual Tour

Users can get a feel of the hotel by going through the photographs, videos and can also enjoy the virtual tour with the help of 360 photos. Different sections of the hotel are covered through this feature.

5. Currency and Language Converter

As a part of a personalized strategy, the app should be able to adjust currency and language depending upon the customer location.

6. Analytics Dashboard

Admin has the access to enhance his decision-making by going through the hotel dashboard, customer dashboard, and flight dashboard. Bookings can be offered at a lower price when the frequency of bookings is low in a particular season.

7. CRM Integration

Integration CRM into your system will prove to be a masterstroke as making a customer feel at home is the prime objective of any hospitality service and CRM Integration will help you achieve just that.

8. Marketing Tools

Marketing tools play a key role in attracting the audience you are looking to win over. In a nutshell, marketing tools involve Chatbots, Email marketing, paid social media marketing, and some other mediums.

9. Loyalty Programs

To make your consumers repeat customers, you must organize loyalty programs for your app users. This is one of the best ways to hold your loyal customers. Besides, you should offer them special offers and discounts to make them feel superior to other users. 

Additional Features in a Hotel Booking App

If you are planning to create a hotel booking app that will always stay ahead of the competition then you should consider adding the following features to your hotel booking app.

1. Taxi Booking

When third-party integration comes into the picture in the form of Ola, Uber, and other similar, it becomes quite easy for the users to book a travel medium for them.

2. Places to explore

With the use of geolocation tracking features, users can look out for places to explore such as tourist spots, movie theatres, malls, and restaurants.

3. Hotel Comparison

As the app includes a long list of hotels, users can have a look at all the available options and then decide upon which hotel falls in the price and comfort range.

4. Restaurant Booking

Via third-party integration, users also have the option of booking a table in advance at their desired restaurant.

5. Trip Organizer

The app that you are creating should not only focus on booking hotels, it should also help out its users in planning the whole trip by providing a trip organizer.

hotel booking app

Benefits that Hotel Booking App Brings Along

Hotel Booking app provides numerous benefits to all the parties concerned with it.

For Customer

Benefits for the customer include Convenience, security, reliability, value for money, discounts, efficiency.

For Hotel

These apps play a key role in attracting direct bookings as you can create sales at a pretty high rate. Direct reach out, Brand promise, customer loyalty, user-data, automation comes under benefits provided to the hotel through these apps.

For Travel Agent

Through this section, you can provide a major boost to your business as the app allows you to explore some new markets, user engagement, user data, and brand recognition.

For App Business Owner

App business owners tend to seek huge benefits in the form of user variety, user engagement, variety of revenue streams such as subscriptions, ads, commissions, fees, etc.

Hire mobile app developers

Trends and Innovations in Hotel Booking App

1. Voice-Enabled Search And Bookings

Ease is the topmost priority an app owner should go with. A better way to catch it up is by enabling voice search and booking. Customers would love to use such apps to meet their room booking needs. 

2. Hotel Virtual Reality Tours

VR tours of the hotel embedded in your app will let the users witness their future stays. This will boost the decision-making for hotel bookings. It will provide an idea to the customers about their stay in their next hotel booking.

3. Artificial Intelligence

An AI-powered hotel booking app will append an advanced functionality. Your guests will help you to provide your guest with a streamlined stay experience. It will help in interpreting your guest’s data, mapping, and identifying their preferences so that you can show up the suitable results of accommodation packages. Altogether, with AI, you can personalize your guest stay experience. 

How Artificial Intelligence Is Driving E-commerce Industry

4. Big Data

Recently, one of the catchphrases that are covering the market is big data. Let you know that it’s the crucial capability of the hotels to accumulate, interpret, spread, and respond to the details. Especially the big hotels that need to serve thousands of guests every month. So, big data can be useful for them. It may help them make better revenue management strategies or identify suitable offers for hotel guests or travelers.  

How Big Data Analytics Is Impacting The eCommerce Industry?

5. Blockchain For Secure And Transparent Transactions

Blockchain technology assists guests in booking rooms directly from hotels at the best prices. This technology maintains a comprehensive transaction history of the users within the network, which enables users to track data with complete transparency. 

6. Chatbots Integration 

In case the customer faces any technical issues or while booking hotels, your app should be available with round-the-clock chatbot support to help them resolve problems. This way, you can increase customer trust and the probability of repeat sales. 

7. Cyber Security 

Be it an eCommerce website or healthcare, or hotel booking, every business with an online presence is prone to cybersecurity attacks that may lead to customer data loss and malicious threats risks, like phishing. Thus, you must invest in cybersecurity tools and train your staff for better usage. 

8. Mobile Check-in

Allow your guests to check in hotels using your app only. This will lead to reduced wait time for the customers, improved convenience, and enhanced customer experience. 

9. Mobile Wallets

Embed top mobile wallets and online payment systems to your app to ease customers with seamless payments. This will not only speed up the transactions but also automate the check-in or out process, thereby improving customer experience. 

Third-Party App Integrations

Different type of app integrations increases the dimensions in which a hotel booking app operates and thereby increases the overall sales of the app.

Navigation

Google and Apple apps are included in the apps so that users don’t have to face any kind of difficulty in finding locations while they are having fun on their trip.

Taxi booking app

This feature allows the users to book taxis and cabs from within the app.

City Guide

This feature ensures that the users are having a proper look around the city without any hiccups.

Payment API

This feature allows users to perform safe and secure payments in whichever mode they prefer. Debit card, credit card, UPI, Braintree, PayPal, Stripe all are available in the app.

Also Read: How to develop E-Wallet Mobile App

Aggregator API

This type of API is provided to provide much-needed assistance to users.

Reviews API

This type of API proves beneficial when some new users looking to use the app wants to have surety about the background of the app by reading out reviews and ratings of previous users who have made use of the app.

Safe App Code

Every app needs to have this Algorithm code encryption along with API encryption and the source code needs to be scanned consistently.

Monetization Strategy of Hotel Booking App

1. Subscription

You can present your app users with some exciting deals and discounts included in a subscription pack. You can name them premium functionalities that can be available by paying an amount. 

2. Service Fee

For every hotel booking made using your app, you can charge an amount as a commission fee. For example, Airbnb charges an amount from its users, while Booking.com charges a fee for hotels and apartments. 

3. Marketplace

You can provide your app space to the hotels by listing them at a one-time payment or asking them to buy a premium subscription plan. 

4. Advertising

You can allow hotels to advertise their services on your platform and get featured. This way, they will find a way to get a higher ranking in the search results. 

How to Develop a Hotel Booking App?

Developing a hotel booking app requires careful planning and execution. Here are the steps you can follow to develop a hotel booking app:

  • Define your app’s goals and features: Before you start building your app, you need to define what it will do and what features it will have. Make a list of the features you want to include, such as search functionality, booking and payment options, and hotel reviews.
  • Choose a development platform: Select the development platform based on your requirements, such as Android, iOS, or cross-platform development. This will affect the development tools and programming languages you’ll need to use.
  • UI/UX design: Create a wireframe or prototype of the app to help visualize the design and layout of the app.
  • Develop the app: Once you have the design and layout finalized, start developing the app with the required features.
  • Integrate third-party services: Integrate third-party services such as payment gateways and location-based services.
  • Test the app: Test the app thoroughly to ensure that it works as expected and is free of bugs.
  • Launch the app: Once the app is ready, launch it on the app store and promote it to attract users.
  • Maintain and update the app: Regularly maintain and update the app to ensure that it remains compatible with new devices and operating systems.

Technology Stack Required to Develop a Hotel Booking App

technology stack for mobile app
PurposeSoftware/Platform/API
Real-time data managementKafka
Storage and cachingAmazon S3
Desktop-based UIChromium Embedded Framework (CEF)
Platform structureGoogle Cloud Platforms/Dataproc
HTTP and Proxy ServerNginx
Payment processingPayPal, Braintree, Stripe, eWallets
SMS, Phone Verification, VoiceTwilio, Nexmo
Push notificationsTwilio, Push.io
Email managementMandrill
Real-time analyticsBigData, Cisco, IBM, Apache Flink, Spark, Hadoop
MapsGoogle Maps API
Nearby destinationsGoogle Places API
Aggregator APIsZUMATA Hotel Booking API, Expedia Affiliate Network API
Cloud environmentAWS
Streaming media systemNimble Streamer, Wowza Streaming Engine, Helix Universal Server

How Much it Will Cost to Build a Hotel Booking Mobile App?

The total cost that goes into developing an app like a Hotel Booking Mobile App for IOS and Android depends upon various factors like its size and overall complexity. Apart from that, the location of the mobile app developers and total hours consumed in creating the app also plays a key part in rounding off the total capital that needs to be invested in the app. We have accumulated the charges asked by the developers of different across the globe.

  • US-based developers: $100-$250 for an hour
  • Eastern Europe based developers: $80-$180 for an hour
  • India based developers: $25-$50 for an hour

A full feature loaded Hotel Booking App developed for a single platform will cost you in the range of $25000-$35000 and if you this app to be compatible with over one platform then you will have invest even more.

How Can Emizentech Help You?

Emizentech is an App development company that specializes in building mobile apps for various industries, including hospitality. If you want to develop a hotel booking app, We can help you by providing an app development team that can help in the creation of a comprehensive and best hotel booking app.

ServicesDescription
App DevelopmentWe can help in developing a user-friendly and attractive hotel booking app with features such as search functionality, room selection, payment gateway integration, booking confirmation, and more.
API IntegrationIntegrating the hotel booking app with various third-party APIs such as hotel booking engines, payment gateways, and travel booking platforms, location-based services..
UI/UX DesignDesigning the user interface and user experience of the hotel booking app to make it easy for users to navigate the app, search for hotels, and book rooms.
Maintenance and SupportProviding maintenance and support services to ensure that the hotel booking app is running smoothly and any issues are resolved quickly.
CustomizationCustomizing the hotel booking app to meet the specific requirements of the client, including branding, language, and currency options.

Conclusion

The Hotel Booking app business is evolving with each passing day, hence you need to be on top of your game to stay ahead of the competition. You need to constantly have a look at all new apps that are coming to the market and new exciting features they are bringing to the table. Inspirations for can be drawn from these newbies to make our app even more interesting.

Frequently Asked Questions FAQs

Q. How long does it take to develop a booking app?

Developing a fully-featured hotel booking software or app may take 7-9 months. Well, this is only an estimate, as the time may vary depending on varied factors, like the type of app, its features, and more. 

Q. Is it the Right Time to Develop a Hotel Booking App?

Post COVID outbreak, in 2022, the mobile app industry has expanded and recovered about 85%. So, this is the ideal time to develop a hotel booking app and boost your ROI. 

Q. How Much Does it Cost to Create a Hotel Booking App?

A hotel booking app development cost may start from $5,000 and go beyond depending on the factors affecting the price. 

Avatar photo
Author

CTO at Emizentech and a member of the Forbes technology council, Amit Samsukha, is acknowledged by the Indian tech world as an innovator and community builder. He has a well-established vocation with 12+ years of progressive experience in the technology industry. He directs all product initiatives, worldwide sales and marketing, and business enablement. He has spearheaded the journey in the e-commerce landscape for various businesses in India and the U.S.

whatsapp