Top 17 Features to Consider While Building a Hotel Booking App
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Chirag Vaghasiya
- April 15, 2024
- 6 min read
The hospitality industry has undergone a seismic shift in recent years. Gone are the days of flipping through endless travel brochures or relying solely on phone calls for reservations. Today, travelers crave a seamless, digital experience, and hotel booking apps have become the undisputed champions in fulfilling that desire.
But these apps are more than just a convenient way to book a room. For hotels, they represent a powerful tool to not only attract guests but also maximize revenue and streamline operations.
However, creating a successful hotel booking app requires more than just a fancy interface. It needs to be feature-rich, user-friendly, and cater to both guests and hoteliers. This blog unlocks the secrets to crafting a phenomenal hotel booking app. We will unpack the features that elevate your app from good to great, empowering you to attract guests and cultivate lasting loyalty.
Market Statistics for Online Travel Booking Market
- The global online travel booking market is projected to grow at a 9.0% CAGR from 2022 to 2030, reaching $1.13 trillion by 2030.
- Europe led the online travel booking market, holding a 32.21% share, driven by increased regional income, improved business environments, and government tourism promotion.
- Key players in the online travel booking market include Airbnb, Expedia, Booking Holding, Trip Advisor Inc., Trip.com Group Ltd., MakeMyTrip Limited, Hostelworld Group PLC (HSW), Trivago N.V., Despegar.com, Corp, and Lastminute.com Group.
Source: Grand View Research
Top Hotel Booking App Features
Here are some of the top features you should consider including while building a hotel booking app. By incorporating these features, your hotel booking app can become a powerful tool to attract guests, increase bookings, and streamline operations for your hotel, leading to greater revenue and efficiency.
1. Advanced Search Filters
Making the search process effortless and efficient is crucial in hotel management systems. By incorporating advanced search filters, such as price range, location, amenities, and user ratings, users can easily find the perfect accommodation that matches their preferences. This not only improves user experience but also increases the chances of converting a potential customer into a confirmed booking.
2. Real-Time Availability and Instant Booking
One of the biggest advantages of a hotel booking app is the ability to provide real-time availability updates. Users can instantly see which rooms are available for their desired dates, eliminating the need for back-and-forth communication with the hotel. Moreover, integrating an instant booking feature allows users to secure their reservations immediately, enhancing convenience and driving prompt bookings.
3. Personalized Recommendations
Personalization is the key to capturing the attention of users and keeping them engaged. By analyzing user data, such as past booking history and preferences, a hotel booking app can provide personalized recommendations for hotels and offers that align with the user’s interests. More than just making things easier, this feature creates happy users who return again and again, building lasting loyalty.
4. Push Notifications
Push notifications serve as a vital tool for keeping users engaged with the app by providing timely updates on booking confirmations, check-in reminders, and special offers. Personalizing these notifications ensures relevance and effectiveness, contributing to enhanced customer retention and increased app usage rates.
5. Booking Review and Verification
The booking review feature enables users to verify their selections before finalizing a reservation, minimizing errors and enhancing confidence in the booking process. By offering a smooth review process, hotel booking apps streamline operations and reduce the need for customer service interventions.
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6. Loyalty Programs and Discounts
Rewarding customer loyalty is a proven strategy to increase revenue and encourage repeat bookings. By implementing loyalty programs and offering exclusive discounts for app users, hotels can incentivize customers to choose their property over competitors. This not only increases customer retention but also attracts new users, ultimately driving revenue for the hotels.
7. Transparent Cancellation Policy
A clear cancellation policy builds trust by managing user expectations and detailing the terms under which bookings can be canceled or modified. Offering flexible cancellation options enhances customer satisfaction and encourages confident booking decisions.
8. User Account Management
It forms the foundation of personalized user experiences within a hotel booking app’s backend. It facilitates seamless registration, login, and profile updates, empowering guests to manage their bookings and preferences effortlessly. This backend feature enables efficient tracking of booking history and rewards accumulation, fostering enhanced customer loyalty and engagement. By offering tailored services, it contributes significantly to user satisfaction and retention.
9. Hotel Owner Dashboard
The hotel owner dashboard provides essential tools for hoteliers to oversee their listings, update availability, and manage bookings effectively. This backend functionality ensures that hotel profiles remain accurate and attractive to potential guests, thereby optimizing the booking process. Empowering hotel owners with direct control over their information enhances their satisfaction with the app and contributes to its overall effectiveness. By facilitating efficient communication and management, this feature benefits both hoteliers and app users.
10. Hotel Management
Dynamic hotel management functionality allows hoteliers to efficiently control their listings, including updating room details and pricing. This backend feature enables swift responses to market demands and supports special promotions, enhancing the visibility and competitiveness of the offerings. Efficient hotel management leads to improved customer satisfaction and increased revenue generation, benefiting both the app and its affiliated hoteliers. By ensuring that listings are always appealing and up-to-date, this hotel booking app feature enhances the overall user experience.
11. Secure Payment Gateway
A secure payment gateway is essential for facilitating smooth financial transactions within the hotel management software development. This backend feature ensures the reliability and security of payment processes, accommodating various payment methods to meet user preferences. Simplified financial reporting further supports efficient revenue management for hoteliers, contributing to the app’s success and user satisfaction.
12. AI-Powered Customer Support
AI-powered customer support, such as chatbots, offers instant assistance to users, resolving queries and guiding them through the booking process efficiently. This feature enhances the user experience by reducing wait times and operational costs while providing timely support.
13. Property Management
Property management is a cornerstone admin feature, empowering hoteliers to showcase their properties effectively on the booking platform. This includes uploading captivating photos, detailing amenities, setting competitive prices, and managing availability seamlessly. Efficient property management ensures that potential guests have access to comprehensive and accurate information, driving bookings and maximizing occupancy rates. This feature is fundamental to the success of hotel booking apps, enabling hotel owners to present their offerings attractively and optimize their visibility within the platform.
14. Reservation Oversight
Reservation oversight provides admins with centralized control over guest bookings, facilitating efficient management of reservations, cancellations, and modifications. This hotel booking app feature streamlines administrative tasks, ensuring a high standard of customer service and operational efficiency.
By automating key aspects of the booking lifecycle, reservation oversight minimizes manual intervention, reducing administrative burdens and costs associated with hotel operations.
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15. Insights and Analytics
Insights and analytics offer valuable data-driven insights into booking trends, revenue performance, and user behavior. This feature empowers hoteliers to make informed decisions to optimize their listings and pricing strategies, thereby maximizing revenue and enhancing the overall guest experience.
16. Promotions and Discounts Management
Promotions and discounts management allows admins to create and manage special offers directly within the app, helping to drive bookings during off-peak periods and fill last-minute vacancies. This feature enables hotels to attract a broader audience and incentivize bookings, thereby increasing occupancy rates and revenue. By strategically leveraging promotions and discounts, hotels can enhance their appeal to both new and returning customers, fostering loyalty and repeat business.
17. Reviews and Ratings
Building trust is essential in the hotel booking industry. By allowing users to leave reviews and ratings for their stay, potential customers can make informed decisions based on the experiences of previous guests. Additionally, hotels can utilize this feedback to improve their services and address any issues, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and driving future bookings.
Hotel Booking App Development Cost
Building a hotel booking app can be a fantastic way to streamline the hospitality experience for both you and your guests. But before diving in, it’s crucial to understand the development costs. This can vary significantly depending on the app design, features & complexity of your app, app platform (Android, iOS, or both), and the location of the company you choose.
However, to give you a rough budget, it would cost you $20,000 to $40,000 for a basic app and more complex apps with advanced features might cost between $40,000 and $80,000 or more.
Develop Your Hotel Booking App with PeppyOcean
When you’re looking for someone to help build your hotel booking app, it’s important to pick a company with experience in this field. That’s where PeppyOcean comes in. We’re experts at creating apps that make booking hotels easier and more efficient.
When you work with us, you’re not just getting an app – you’re getting a solution that can help increase bookings, make customers happier, and improve how your hotel operates. Let us help you to make your hotel booking experience better than ever before. Together, we can set new standards in the hospitality industry.
Wrapping up
The hospitality industry is constantly evolving, and so should hotel booking apps. As technology advances, expect even more innovative features like augmented reality room previews or real-time translation for seamless communication during your stay. The future of travel booking is bright, with apps becoming a one-stop shop for every step of your journey, from inspiration to booking to in-destination experiences. By prioritizing the features outlined above, these apps aren’t just keeping pace, they’re shaping the future of travel.
Chirag Vaghasiya is a Sr. SEO Executive at XongoLab Technologies LLP and PeppyOcean having skills in on-page optimization, off-page optimization, website promotion on major search engines, competitor research, internet marketing, quality link building, content optimization, and SMO.
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