The travel and tourism industry is indeed a huge business sector sprouted with thousands of travel agencies, restaurants, hotels, and so on. And with the advent of travel mobile apps, all the travel clamors has reduced to some extent. People can now easily plan their trips through such apps and can go exploring the world around.

Why Launch A Travel Booking App?

Before I move on to answer this question, let’s have a look at the stats. As per Statitsa, people are downloading more apps now than they did 5 years ago. It has been estimated that the number of app downloads would increase to 196 billion from Google Play Store by the year 2021.

Travel companies currently, are leveraging this opportunity and are making huge bucks out of it. So, if you have a travel business offline, don’t you think it’s high time you get a travel booking app of your own?

But how to build a travel booking app successfully?

I know this question freak you out and that is the reason why I have jotted down an entire step-by-step guide on developing a travel app.

What Does The Current Travel Industry Trend Say?

The present-day travel industry is facing numerous challenges with the evolving technological facets. And to remain on the competitive edge, travel app startups are now coming up with the trendiest travel apps that are absolutely meant for providing the users with unique traveling experience.

As per the recent surveys, it has been noted that an increasing number of people are making use of mobile apps to plan their trips and bookings

When it comes to planning an upcoming vacation, at least 30% of people open their travel apps for making the final decision. And more than 80% of bookings (hotels, flights, trains, buses) are done through travel apps.

Checking individual travel requirements, booking ease, finding a room are some of the benefits because of which people are highly interested in using travel apps. Surprisingly, people even seek the help of chatbots for clearing their travel-related queries.

Related read: Mobile App Development Trends And Predictions – What To Expect In 2019

The current trends of the travel industry also talk about the features that are integrated with high-end travel apps today. It includes the use of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and other pro-travel app features including live tracking system.

How To Build A Travel Booking App? Here Are The Features To Consider

It is worthwhile developing a travel app, as it is actually a promising investment that you are making. Getting your travel booking app instilled with the best travel app features is something which makes it a successful one.

Ever thought why travel booking apps like KAYAK, Citymapper, Airbnb are so popular?

They are a one-stop solution for travelers. These apps are not only featured rich but also makes it easier for the users to navigate with their seamless user-interface which actually makes them so loved by backpackers.

These travel apps are doing wonders today as they are successfully meeting all the requirements of the users.

So, if you are wondering how to build a travel booking app successfully, then check out some of the features that you need to integrate into your app.

1. Login/ Registration

This is a compulsory section for the users to begin with. Bookings are not possible without this particular feature.

If you feel like making your users’ life simpler, then add social network integration. Through this option, the users can log in directly through their social media accounts, without facing the hassle of remembering their user ID and password.

2. Search/ Filter

Another essential app feature that helps users find a particular hotel, transportation mode, accommodation preferences as per their budget and even available dates. The users can also be offered a list of other suggestions, based on their searches.

The users can even opt for filtering their searches – which should include parameters like location, accommodation type, traveling class type, price, selection of dates, among others.

3. Proper Listing Information

It is obvious that you cannot make a travel app without providing complete listing info. Listing info includes a series of nearby hotels, flights, trains, etc. For instance, if a user comes across a hotel that perfectly matches his requirements, he will definitely want to look for more and will browse through different hotel options that are being shown in his screen.

So, you need to include information about the hotel, like hotel photos, room availability calendar, hotel description, hotel guidelines, cancellation policies, and their contact details. The users will be happy if they get to see more information and will probably book it instantly from your app.

4. Chatbot Texting

As an app owner, it is not possible for you to assist the users through calls and texts. To avoid this tedious task, chatbots are the recent feature that is integrated into almost every other travel app.

Your users can directly solve their issues by connecting with the chatbots. Although tech-savvy people are familiar with chatbots, they are still new to the majority. Thus, it is highly essential that your chatbots cater to all the queries of the users and solve their issues.

Related read: 8 Best Practices Of Making Your Chatbots User-friendly 

5. Payment Details

Whenever a user books anything, they need to pay for it at the same time. And for making the transaction process smoother for them, you need to add payment gateway technology like Braintree or Stripe.

This simplifies the process by making it easier for users to enjoy a hasslefree and cashless transaction. However, you need to add a payment info page where the users will add their bank details which will get saved automatically.

6. Itinerary Or Booking History

Your travel app is incomplete until and unless you allow your users to view their booking records. This is an essential feature, as the user might want to repeat the same booking.

Your app’s booking history page should show the complete list of the users’ travel history or accommodation bookings with full details.

7. Feedback

It is a universal truth that feedback and reviews make your app better. It is not only a useful feature for your app, but also helpful to the people who are new to your app.

After a user is done with their bookings and payment, you can ask them to rate their experience through a small pop-up screen. If the user has enough time and has actually loved using your app, they will definitely rate your app with five stars along with a positive review.

Extra Features Can Take Your Travel App To The Forefront

Bonus features are something which makes your travel app a better one. It is all about how unique your additional features are.

Depending on your budget, you can choose to add some bonus features to your app. This not only makes your app a viable one but also allows the users to get all the supplementary information.

Adding extra features prevents your users from leaving your app and installing a new one, as they are getting almost every feature in your app. So, choose your additional features wisely.

1. Time Converter

If a user is planning an international trip, they may get confused with the crossing time zones. Including this simple time converter feature in your app will prevent the users from installing some other world clock 3rd party apps.

Time Buddy is one such app which shows the correct time across different zones of the globe.

2. Weather forecast

Often due to bad weather your user might end up canceling their bookings or change their journey schedule. To prevent such issues, most of the travel app developers are now integrating real-time weather forecast.

This keeps the users updated with the upcoming weather predictions while they plan their travel itinerary.

3. Emergency Service (Location-based)

You never know when your user might get caught in some crisis where they would require assistance.

Therefore, you must include an emergency contact number, so that the users can connect the nearest location-based emergency services whenever there’s a need.

Not only these, but there are several other additional travel app features which you can incorporate to make your app an amazing one.

So, now that you know how to build a travel booking app and what features to include in it, let’s see what types of travel apps you can opt for.

Choose The Best Travel App Type For Your Startup

Currently, there are thousands of different travel apps that are integrated with customized features. For instance, there are apps which are solely meant for transportation booking (flight and rail); there are apps for hotel booking. Also, there are a few apps which are integrated with almost every end-to-end solutions.

Let’s check out some of the travel app types that offer different travel-related solutions:

1. Flight And Rail Booking Apps

There are almost thousands of such apps making rounds in the App Stores today. Hardly, few of them are reliable though. These types of apps allow users to check the availability of seats, prices, and other cheapest flight or train booking options. It even now comes with exciting discounts on special events.

2. Hotel Booking App

Apps like Trivago can be cited as the best example of a hotel booking app. This type of app helps the users to find their perfect accommodation according to their budgets and other conveniences. The users here will be provided with a list of all the hotels that fit into their budget.

3. Ride-Hailing Services

Taxi service app is another type of travel app that helps users to book a cab easily. It is specifically helpful for those who are traveling to a new city and are unaware of the road conditions. In such situations, ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber have come to the user’s rescue.

Related read: How Can You Generate More Revenues With Apps Like Uber and Lyft?

4. Navigation Apps

These type of apps helps users to look for the quickest way to reach from one location to the other. Navigation apps are extremely vital when a user is traveling to some unknown place. Travel app developers are now trying to make the navigation apps work offline too.

5. Other Apps

Apart from all these travel mobile app development options, you have can build guides, planners, translators, time converter, currency converter, and weather apps. You can even integrate all the apps together in a single high-end travel app.

For instance, apps like KAYAK, Citymapper, are some of the popular all-in-one travel apps where the user can not only book accommodation but also any transportation.

Travel Apps That Are In Vogue

By now, you have already realized that there is a huge demand for different travel apps at present, which is making the market more promising. To convince you better, I have made a list of all those travel apps that are in the mainstream travel industry and loved by every traveler.

Who knows… they might come as handy inspirational app ideas for you.

1. Wetu

This travel app mainly focuses on the tourists by helping them in their entire journey; right from searching for tours to accommodation bookings. It also provides assistance to the tour operators. Through Wetu, the tour operators can effectively communicate with their clients by providing them the best tour options.

2. Airbnb

“Air Bed and Breakfast” is what Airbnb stands for. Almost all of us are familiar with this name, as it has created a huge buzz amongst the itinerants. This app always keeps up with the existing travel trends which is one of the reasons for its popularity. Airbnb provides an unforgettable travel experience to its users. Booking the best vacation homes has been simplified by apps like Airbnb.

3. Skyscanner

Skyscanner is one of the best flights booking app where you can find the complete detail of almost every worldwide airline. Here the users can compare different airline options, compare the prices and other conditions, and ultimately choose the best one for themselves.

4. TripAdvisor City Guides

This handy application is very useful for people traveling in new cities. TripAdvisor City Guides is just another city guide that can help the user to arrange a comfy stay abroad.

5. GetYourGuide

This app is built on a P2P model. Here, the user needs to enter the data, check the availability and pricing and buy the best tour option.

Ready For Your Groundbreaking Travel Mobile App Development?

With all the latest updates on travel industry trends, you are now finally ready to build your very own travel booking app. You have also read the statistics which infers that the travel and transportation industry is actually evolving with passing years.

People are now showing more interest in travel apps as they are able to meet all their travel requirements with just a click. The demand is further going to increase in the upcoming days. Leveraging this opportunity, more and more travel tech partners are now investing on such platforms.

So, are you ready to meet the head-on situation and take a deep plunge into developing your unicorn travel app? A travel app development company like us can help you to create the best mobile travel planner app, as per your requirements.