Hotel Booking App Development: Cost, Features (2024)

Since the last decade, the majority of industries have digitized, including the travel industry. All of us prefer visiting Agoda, Booking.com, Trip Advisor, Airbnb, Expedia, and other booking applications whenever looking forward to take a break and travel. Why not? After all, it helps save a lot of time and money. One can easily book a room at an affordable price with a few clicks using discount coupons offered by these applications. In this guide, we will find out how to make a hotel booking app and the cost, and features for hotel booking app development.

Not only discounts; booking a hotel online comes with numerous other benefits like – comparison, loyalty points, reviews, etc. As a result, the e-travel industry has generated over $800 billion in 2021 and will hit the $1464 billion benchmark with a CAGR of 10.58%. The industry also took a big hit in 2020 due to the Coronavirus outbreak; anyhow, it is expected to recover 85% by the end of 2022. Therefore, it’s an ideal time to launch your hotel booking app and generate huge profits. If you want to launch your own mobile app, hire a reputed on demand app development company.

Here is a list of facts related to the e-travel industry that might excite you, even more, to step into the industry as soon as possible.

• In 2018, about 82% of hotel bookings were done without human interaction.
• On average, 148 million travel bookings are being done every year.
• Around 83% of U.S. citizens prefer booking hotels online while traveling.
• Around 70% of travelers prefer a smartphone for their travel research.
• Around 700 million people will book hotel rooms online by 2023.

I think these facts and data are enough to inspire you to make a hotel booking app.

What are Hotel Booking Apps?

These applications are diligently designed to help people book hotels, hostels, resorts, etc., from anywhere within a few clicks. The best part is that it can be done anytime, anywhere, anyplace. With the introduction of such applications, the process of booking hotels has been reorganized and gained its full potential. Now there is no need to visit hotel-to-hotel with all your baggage to find a good hotel under your budget.

As a result, everyone prefers booking online nowadays as they can easily find the best place to stay by taking reviews into consideration. On top of it, users also come across various discounts and offer, helping them save a few bucks on bookings. You might be interested how to make an app and make money, here is an ultimate guide.

Top 5 Hotel Booking Apps

Hundreds of hotel booking apps are available on App Store and Play Store. Anyhow, only a few of them are capable of offering quality services. Therefore, here is a list of the Top 5 hotel booking apps that you can consider before starting hotel booking app development.

1. Booking.Com

The first and foremost on the list is Booking.com. It launches new and exciting deals every day for travelers. Even the users can connect with other travelers to share their experiences. People can easily compare hotels to unlock the best deal for themselves. Even it lets you manage your bookings as per convenience.

2. Marriott Bonvoy

For those who haven’t heard about it in the past, Marriot Bonvoy is a very popular and reputed Hotel Chain with over 7000 hotels worldwide. Users can easily check into their hotel rooms using the “Mobile check-in” feature. Even the mobile key can be used for locking and unlocking a room, getting access to the gym, pool, lounge, etc.

3. Airbnb

It is one of the trending hotel booking apps currently. A user won’t only book a place to stay with Airbnb; somehow, they will unlock an unforgettable travel experience. It is highly recommended to book long-term rentals. The traveler gets to choose from over 6 million properties in 191+ countries.

4. Agoda

It is highly preferred to find out the best and most affordable accommodations with 2 million properties to choose from. Exclusive offers are launched regularly for travelers. It also has an in-built map feature to help you find the property easily. It also offers 24×7 customer support to the users to help avoid complications.

5. Trivago

The last but not least app on our list is Trivago. It is a world-famous application with millions of accommodations to offer. Here you get the best offers and deals, as Trivago does not work on a commission basis. It is an advertising business model which tends to offer unbeatable deals to its users and generates revenue through ads. Here is a complete guide on how to build an app like Trivago. The success of these applications can inspire you to launch and create a hotel booking app.

5 Types of Hotel Booking Apps

The e-travel industry has multiple types of hotel booking apps. Each one of them has its properties. Consequently, it becomes crucial to learn about each of them before beginning to create a hotel booking app.

1. Hotel Consolidator Apps

These types of applications work to gather all the essential information about the hotels and provide it to their users. Furthermore, the user can decide which hotel is more suitable for them depending on the amenities, location, etc., and book a room.

2. Last Minute Booking Apps

These applications are highly famous among travelers with a spontaneous nature, who always tend to make reservations at the last minute. Finding a place to crash at the last minute used to be a hustle until these applications came to the rescue.

3. Hotel Chain Booking Apps

Big hotel chains like Marriott develop these applications. In these applications, all the properties of a particular hotel chain are listed. For example – a user can find all Marriott Honvoy’s properties worldwide on their application.

4. Advanced Booking Apps

Unlike last-minute planners, some travelers like everything pre-planned. Using such apps, an individual can book a room in a hotel up to a year before. It might sound crazy, but apps like Expedia and Priceline have made it possible.

5. Hybrid Booking Apps

These applications are a mixture of the above two types as they let you make a reservation age before and on the last time. People can make the reservations as they wish, depending upon availability. Here you can find a list of unique app ideas.

Hotel Booking App Development Process

Creating a hotel booking app is quite a lengthy and complicated process and can take up to a month to complete. The complete process of developing an application can be divided into three stages i.e., strategy stage, designing stage and final stage. In order to understand it better; here is a step-by-step guide to help you build a hotel booking app conveniently.

1. Strategy Stage

• Planning – The first step to creating a booking app includes defining a plan; it is also considered as the discovery phase. A proper strategy and planning strengthen the roots of a project. In this particular step we finalize the business model, study competitors, establish a plan and work to execute it. It also includes finding a solution to any existing problems in the industry. Launching your application with the solution of an existing problem can give you a winning edge.

2. Designing Stage

• UI/UX Design – The sole purpose of these applications is to simplify hotel bookings. Hence, it gets crucial to build the application with a user-friendly UI/UX design. It is equally important to design the application in such a manner that all the features are easily accessible. A study states that consumers prefer apps with simple design over others.
• App Development Process – Once everything is finalized, from the business model to UI/UX design, it’s time for the developers to portray their skills and create a hotel booking app. All the plans, tech stacks, and features are combined together by the developers to build an outperforming application. The success rate of an application is partially dependent upon how well the developers work in this stage.
• Hiring – The need to hire best app development companies is quite obvious. A person needs to hire the best developers in the industry for help. The finest way to do so is by opting for an experienced team of developers with an amazing portfolio. Also, make sure that their services fit under your budget to cut down further complexities. The team of experienced developers can deliver you a quality application that runs smoothly in a short period of time.

3. Final Stage

• Testing – Once the developers are done building the application, the app goes to the testing stage. It goes through various stages like – Performance testing, function testing, platform testing, etc. The testing stage helps find all the bugs or flaws and rectify them. After successful testing, the application gets more stable, smooth, and secure.
• Launch – Once the application gets a green flag in the testing stage, it is all set to be launched in the market. Although it is the final stage of hotel booking app development, it doesn’t confirm the success of the application. Proper marketing of the app needs to be done before the launch to draw the attention of the potential audience and make it a successful project.
• Maintenance – Every application needs proper maintenance in order to work smoothly over time. Therefore, ensure that your team of app developers offers optimal support and maintenance services even after the launch of the application for smooth functionality. The application developers usually offer this service in exchange for a few extra bucks.
• Upgrades – It is equally important to upgrade your application with time. The technology around us is evolving at an incredible speed, and it’s essential to cope with it in order to stay in the industry. Upgrading the application is vital for smooth functioning, introducing new features, and keeping up with industry standards.

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  Hotel App Development Features

  The popularity and demand of an application partially depend upon its features. A hotel booking application with multiple features will outrank its competitors for sure. Hence, it is mandatory to have quality features in your platform. A brief of the same is mentioned below; prefer including these features in your application to outperform your competition.

  Feature	User Panel	Hotel Owner Panel	Admin Panel
  Account Creation	✓	✓	✓
  Search and Display hotels	✓		✓
  Hotel Detail Information	✓	✓	✓
  Room Quotation	✓	✓	✓
  Online Reservation	✓	✓	–
  Payment Gateway Integration	✓	✓	✓
  Cancellation Policy	✓	✓	✓
  Guest Review and Feedback	✓	✓	✓
  Social Media Integration	✓	✓	✓
  Support/Help Desk	✓	✓	✓
  Push Notifications	✓	✓	✓
  Analytics	✓	✓	–
  Multi-Language Support	✓		✓
  Check-in and Check-out	–	✓	–
  Room Inventory Management	–	✓	–
  Rate and Inventory Management	–	✓	✓
  Reservation Reports	–	✓	✓
  Hotel Performance Report	–	✓	✓

  1. Comparison – An individual checks the hotel online to reserve the best option available under their budget. Hence, it is better to introduce a comparison feature so that any user can easily compare two properties and choose the right one according to their requirements.

  2. Search – It is one of the most crucial features that every hotel booking app should have. Using it, the individual can quickly look out for a specific property in a locality. The search box helps cut down the hustle of scrolling all the way up or down to look for a property.

  3. Secure Payment Gateway – The majority of travelers tend to pay online for their hotel booking as it helps save a lot of time and is convenient. Therefore, it is important to have a secure payment gateway through which the customer can easily and securely pay for the booking.

  4. Cancellation & Refund – There are times when a traveler needs to cancel their bookings due to sudden changes in plans or medical conditions. In such situations, they should be able to cancel their bookings and get a partial refund of their booking amount.

  5. Push Notifications – It is seen that travelers appreciate constant notifications about the latest offers, deals, booking details, etc. This feature can also help to create a brand image in the user’s mind.

  

  6. User Account – Every user who reserves a hotel room through your application should have an account. Basically, it would like a personalized dashboard for them where they can check their previous, current, and future booking along with payment status.

  7. Multiple Language Support – It’s a fact that every country has its own language. In order to make your application worldwide successful, it is important to launch it with multiple language support so that every person can easily access the application.

  8. Result Filter – This feature works to ease the customer’s search even more. The search can be filtered according to the ratings, reviews, pricing, etc.; it helps the users find an ideal hotel quickly.

  9. Virtual Tour – Using this feature, the users can have a virtual tour of the property they are looking forward to booking in the upcoming days. It gives a better idea of the property and helps in decision-making.

  10. In-App Navigation – Travelers do face a lot of issues in reaching their booked hotel as they are new to the place. The in-app navigation feature can help travelers to reach their hotel conveniently and save a lot of time as well.

  Tech Stack to Make a Hotel Booking App

  Leveraging the latest technology is the best option available to create a hotel booking app that outperforms the competition. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that your hotel app development service provider has access to Twilio for push notifications, HBase for Database technology, etc. Here is the list of tech stacks required for building an outstanding Tech Stack application.

  Application	Techstack
  Cloud App Development	Dataproc, Google Cloud
  Mandrill	Emails
  Real-time Data Management	Kafka Software
  Database Technology	Mail Chimp, Cassandra, MongoDB
  Data Storage	Amazon S3, Google Cloud, Zadara, Backblaze
  Cloud Environment	Amazon Web Services
  Desktop Website UI	Chromium embedded framework, Bootstrap, Electron
  Real-time Analytics	BigData, IBM, Cisco, Apache Flink, Hadoop
  HTTP and Proxy server	Nginx, HAProxy, Varnish, Lighttpd
  Streaming Media System	Nimble Streamer, Helix Universal Server, Wowza Streaming Engine, Adobe Media Server
  Push Notifications	Push.io, Twilio
  Weather Forecasts	OpenWeatherMap API
  Phone Verification	Twilio, Nexmo
  Maps	Google Maps, LocationIQ, Openlayers
  Payment Getaways	Stripe, Google Pay, E-wallets, Braintree, Paypal
  GDS Access	Travelport, Sabre, Amadeus
  Hotel Metasearch Data	Skyscanner Affiliate API, Expedia Affiliate Network

  Hotel Booking App Development Cost

  
  The development cost of an application is dependent upon various factors. On average, the hotel booking app development cost starts from $20,000 and can go up to $90,000. The main factors affecting the development cost are developers’ nationality, complexity, development platform, tech stack, etc. However, it is seen that getting the app developed by an Indian app development company is quite affordable when compared to others. Check out the table mentioned below for a better understanding.

  Country	Price/Hour
  U.S.A.	$150-$200
  U.K.	$50-$100
  Ukraine	$25-$50
  India	$25-$40

  How Hotel Booking App Makes Money?

  
  There are hundreds of applications that let you book hotels online. Anyhow, these applications are built around different business models to generate revenue. A quick glimpse of the same is below.

  1. Merchant Model

  Here, the successful hotel booking application partners with a particular hotel, resort, etc. and obtains the booking right of specific rooms. Later they rent out those rooms using their application. The applications book multiple rooms at a lower price and later rent them for a higher value. Expedia is currently dominating this business model with its presence in over 200 countries.

  2. Aggregator Model

  It is one of the most popular and competitive business models. Here the application ties up with numerous hotels and resorts in a locality and lists all of them on their application. A user can choose any hotel meeting their requirements and budget. Booking.com is a prime example of this segment.

  3. Advertising Model

  It is yet another popular business model in the hospitality industry. Here the application generates its revenue through advertising, as the name suggests. The applications monetize their apps and generate revenue from it. It is the least profitable business model in the industry, but there are not many risks associated with it. Trip Advisor is currently leading this business model.

  4. Dedicated Model

  Last but not least, this business model is highly preferred by hotel chains. Here the hotel directly connects to the customers through their application. All the reputed hotel chains like Grand Hyatt and Marriott are building their business around this model.

  Which is the Best Hotel Booking App Development Company?

  The NineHertz is one of the top hotel booking app development company. With over a decade of experience, it has a team of the best designers, developers, programmers, etc. It has successfully delivered best-in-class IT solutions to many companies till now and has taken them a step closer to their goals. They also understand the importance of the latest technology and innovations. Therefore, they work around it to deliver outperforming results to their clients. Moreover, with a development center in India, their service charges are quite affordable compared to competitors.

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  Conclusion on Hotel App Development

  In the end, the profitability behind Hotel Booking app development is crystal clear. Therefore, if you have an interest in getting your hands on massive profits, then hurry and get your hotel booking app developed as soon as possible by the best developers in the industry. Make Sure to check out the portfolio of the developer’s team before hiring and ensure their capability of delivering the result you want.

  FAQ’s: Creating a Hotel Booking App

  1. What are the Advantages of a Hotel Booking App?

  The Hotel booking app benefits both the owner and its consumers. The owners are generating massive profits from these mobile apps depending upon the business model. Where else the consumers getting unbeatable deals on hotel bookings. Even booking a hotel online is much more convenient for travelers.

  2. How Does a Hotel Booking App Work?

  All the hotel booking applications have a tie-up with hotel owners, resorts, Airbnbs, etc. They list the hotel’s room on their application. Once any traveler makes any reservation through the application, the information is shared with the hotel. The hotel’s room rent is further divided between the app and the hotel as per their Terms and Conditions.

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

  There are no fixed numbers associated with the cost of building a hotel booking mobile app. Anyhow, the average cost to develop such an app starts from $20,000 and can go up to $90,000. It is also witnessed that getting an application developed in India is much more affordable when compared to other countries.

  4. How to Monetize a Hotel Booking App?

  A hotel reservation app can be monetized in several ways. Trivago is an application that generates revenue by displaying ads to the users on their application. On the other hand, an application like booking.com is monetized by partnering with numerous hotels. In short, there are several ways to monetize the app; a quick glimpse of the same is as below –

  • Partnering with Hotels
  • In-app purchases
  • Advertisement
  • Subscription and paid app

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

  The travel industry got a big pullback in 2020 due to a corona outbreak worldwide. Anyhow, the industry is recovering at a great pace, and an 85% recovery is expected by the end of 2022. The speedy recovery signifies that it’s the right time to launch a successful hotel booking app as soon as possible and grow your hotel mobile app as the industry recovers.