The travel and tourism industry is on a rise. With the hectic schedules, it has now become imperative for people to take relax and take a break from their monotonous daily routine.
Well, planning a perfect trip requires a lot of effort, especially when you have to select the hotel. But the advent of technology and the Internet has made lives easier. This shift in the norms and contactless hospitality has made entrepreneurs shift the paradigm and develop a fascinating hotel booking mobile application.
If you are into the travel and tourism business then the blog is for you. All you need to do is have a quick glimpse of the article and know the comprehensive details regarding the app development process.
What are OYO Rooms and the need for a Hotel Booking App?
OYO is quite a popular platform that offers rooms to users on a budget. Whenever a user enters the location, all the hotel rooms along with the prices and distance from the popular locations are displayed. Such applications are the need of the hour during this scenario and work well in the hotel industry. Therefore, the trend of the development of such applications continues to rise.
Glimpses of Facts and Figures of Hotel Booking App
Whether startups or established entrepreneurs more businesses are laying the foundation towards developing a hotel app. As per reports:
- More than 700 million people will book hotel stays online.
- Around 53% of the tourist visiting different spots tend to reserve their hotels prior via mobile applications.
- The hotel industry segment revenue increases every year by 4% and is expected to reach $432 million in the year 2023.
- In the US, around 88% of people use digital channels to make their hotel reservations.
- The online travel sales in 2020 were $817.54 billion and the number is expected to cross $174 million in 2022. Here is a graphical representation:
Business Model of a Hotel Booking App
1. Aggregator Model
This is the most liked monetization model that works on simple logic. The app owner lists all the nearby applications and gets connected with all the online booking services. The user opens the application and books an appropriate accommodation; they are redirected to the website of the booking platform.
2. Merchant Model
This business model works on the ethics where the app owner is in the contract with the hotel for a certain number of rooms that they get at a discounted rate. The app owner can display these rooms in the app and earn margins on every room booked.
3. Advertising Model
This is a business monetization model that allows you to earn money on your hotel booking application. Whenever a user visits your app, they are redirected to the hotel website. For every hotel booking and redirection, the app owner is paid. One example of such a platform is Trip Advisor that makes money for promoting different hotel websites on their app.
4. Dedicated Model
This model works well when you are running a chain of reputed hotel businesses. The big brand names such as Radisson, Hyatt allow the users to make the reservation. Users can also take in special requests made by users during their stay, such as order an ironing board, extra pillows, a cup of coffee/tea, or whatever they need.
Benefits of Developing a Hotel Booking App
The hotel booking mobile applications have a huge demand in the market because it has several benefits. Let’s discuss in detail how the mobile apps help your business to grow:
1. Helps to track more customers
Mobile applications help to get all the information, crucial data, and customer behavior. When you track down the analytics you know what your customers like the most, what they are looking for, and how can you implement your business plans.
2. Helps to Market your Hotel
Proper marketing is the most important factor that is a must to compete in this competitive market. With the app development, you can create and maintain brand awareness for your hotel and there are no chances of errors.
3. Customer Reviews and Feedbacks
Customer reviews and ratings are crucial that let the business owner understands what the customers liked and what they disliked about their hotel. Moreover, it gives room for improvement so that they can take necessary actions.
Expectations from Hotel Booking App Post Covid-19
1. Easy Access
The customers should be able to easily access your app. If you are looking forward to retaining more customers then the features such as easy signup/login, offers, discounts, simple UI/UX should be offered. All these factors play a critical role to hold back the customers.
2. Advanced and optimized search feature
Customers want to search for a specific property at a particular location so such a search feature must be included in your hotel booking app. Filters based on location, budget, city, or locality-based will make your app more user-friendly.
3. Customer Relation Management
To maintain these, advanced filters such as the selection of budget, location, city, etc should be there so that the app is more user-friendly for the users.
4. Contactless Functioning
In the COVID-19 scenario, customers expect unique features such as making digital and contactless payments, easy booking, and cancellation. So the unique features and comfort you offer your users would surely help in customer retention and the chances to visit next time rises.
Must-Have Features of Hotel Booking Mobile App
1. Signup/Sign-in
The app should have an easy signup/sign-in option that may be through email, contact number. Social media login such as Facebook, Gmail allows the users to quickly sign in to the application.
2. Booking and Cancellation
Once the user selects the accommodation, they should be easily redirected to the payment gateway and make the payment. In case, the customer wants to cancel the order they can read the cancellation policy and cancel the booking.
3. 360-Degree View of the Accommodation
The customers want to view the accommodation at a 360-degree angle with high-resolution images. The app offers the customers an overview of the room, balcony, pool view, and more.
4. Payment
After the booking of the room is done, the customers are asked to make the payment via integrated payment gateways such as Credit/Debit cards, PayPal, Stripe, etc.
5. Hotel Information
All the crucial information about the hotel is displayed in the form of related information, deals, rooms, and other information given on the Hotel account.
6. Push Notifications
All the new feature that gets added to the app, information regarding the latest discounts and offers is provided to the customers through push notifications.
7. Online Receipt
Once the user pays via digital methods, they can send an online receipt on their mobiles shown on the reception when they arrive.
8. Integrate CRM
Integrating CRM makes the customer feel special which is the main objective of hospitality service.
Smart Features Our Hotel Booking Mobile App
1. Cost Forecast
As there are constant fluctuations in the price of flights, the same can happen for hotels too. With this feature, the users can have a forecast of the cost along with special deals, coupons, discounts, and whatnot.
2. On the Go Travel Assistant
With chatbots and instant online support, customer service becomes much more advanced 24/7. Also, it allows the users to quickly navigate all the issues instantly faced by the customers.
3. Recommendation Engine
With the integration of AI, the app allows users to check out the recommendations based on their previous search. This AI algorithm lets personal data be shared and produce awesome results.
4. Taxi Booking
The app can integrate with third-party cab offering services and allow the users to book taxis on the go.
How Much It Cost to Develop a Hotel Booking Mobile App?
Hotel Booking App Development depends on the platform, technology stack, size & complexity. The location of the developers and the number of hours consumed in the app creation also play a crucial role in deciding over the app development cost.
But a feature-rich application that is developed on a single platform costs around $20k to $30K. If you want to increase the features and want to make some more additions, the cost varies accordingly.
Winding up!
Hope this guide is enough to make the hotel app development process simple, no matter whether you are a startup or an entrepreneur.
The hotel and hospitality industry poses huge challenges for the owners, and therefore the on-demand hotel app offers the best opportunities to grow and connect with tourists. Share your ideas for a hotel reservation application with us and we help you to develop the best and unique app.
