Majorly, there are two types of travelers – the first as well-organized as Monica Geller and the second as spontaneous/intuitive as Phoebe Buffay.
Though the question here is how to create a travel app that caters to the needs of both groups?
Despite the high competition, travel application development is an apt business niche. If you hit the right target market with your personalized & distinguished USP, you can become a tycoon in no time.
Travel applications are like a friend in need for those looking for gorgeous places to visit in a new city, booking their flights, trains, or buses to their destination and back, etc. for more information on how to build a travel booking app, go through this blog.
Did You Know❓ – More than 85% of travelers prefer using mobile phones to make various bookings.
Market players leveraging this opportunity have higher chances of surviving in the market. In contrast, the ones not using this opportunity have an undecided fate.
On this note, before developing a travel app, let us check out some ongoing and upcoming travel trends among people.
Trends to Know Before You Learn How to Build a Travel App
The travel trends seem pretty bright, don’t forget your shades.
Traveling is something that is soaring high in the industry at present. Hence, enter this business realm and don’t miss your piece of the pie.
The bubble of pent-up travel demand in people due to the worldwide lockdowns and travel restrictions is about to burst.
Considering the above stats, your newly launched travel app stands a good chance of getting bookings from customers❗❗❗
Types of Travel Apps
You can choose to build various types of applications. Although travel app ideas are not one of the app ideas that haven’t been made, yet let us show you the types of applications under the travel category.
Accommodation Apps
Users can check out room prices, reviews, and comments by previous guests. This is basically a hotel booking application. People as per their budget choose 2,3,4,5-star hotels, hostels, and zostels for their stay.
Travel Booking Apps
This includes flight booking apps, seat choosing apps, online boarding pass apps, etc. You can add as many transport services as you want in your app. Remember, the more travel options you provide to the users, the more preference variants of users you will meet.
Local Ride Sharing Apps
Not everyone owns a vehicle. Perhaps, when talking about strange cities, travelers would prefer to book a ride. Hence, the ride-hailing and ride-sharing apps would be of much help in such scenarios.
Travel Guide App
Those days are gone when travelers hired tour guides to discover new sunset points, waterfalls, hidden lakes, eateries, etc. Digital tour guides, i.e., Travel guide apps are the best companion for travelers today. Such an app needs a huge information database which should also be regularly updated after it has been launched in the market for relevancy.
There are many other travel app ideas like travel planning apps and trip planner apps that we haven’t mentioned in the above list. You must consider these options as well.
Why Create a Travel App from Scratch?
Before understanding how to create a travel app from scratch, let us dig into the reasons behind building a travel application from scratch.
🗣️ “I don’t have a huge budget; what can I do?”
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Finally, How to Create a Travel App? – 6 Phases Penned Down
At long last, let us begin with learning the steps of building a travel app.
1. Choose your App Type
We already disclosed the multiple types of applications in the previous sections. This first step requires you to make a wise decision. Everything further in your business will depend on the category of travel app you select to build.
2. Conduct Competitor Research
You should not tread further in the industry without knowing what your competitors are capable of. You should always know what you are competing against. By discovering the market rivals’ strengths and weaknesses, you can target the audience accordingly.
Tip – Conducting competitor research in the market can help you in market segmentation.
Your knowledge in this aspect will aid you in determining how much effort you will need to put in.
3. Enter the Discovery Phase
This phase is the most integral yet fun to work at. Until you discover the app’s concept, no further work on the app can be streamlined. Therefore, you can take opinions on the app functionalities and come to a conclusion accordingly.
4. Select Travel App Features
What makes or breaks the momentum of an app in the market?
Its features!!!
We would suggest you jot down the list of features that you find attractive about travel applications. Once done, sort your list out. Pick the most interesting features that make your app helpful. Equip your app with those functionalities.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP TIP! 💡
The travel application you launch does not necessarily need to have A to Z all the features. It can have the most basic features for the first launch, and you may keep adding new features with further updated versions. To launch the first and mini version of your travel app, you can opt for MVP app development and then further act upon the feedback of users.
5. Get Started with the Creative Phase – Travel App Design
What appeals to the eye appeals to the heart. Isn’t it true?
Every travel experience is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Hence, the travel app’s design has to be great. Right from the booking experience to returning from a travel, the app’s design has to be top-notch amazing.
6. Find a Vetted Travel App Development Company
A specialized task force is assigned during the army’s special or very important missions. Similarly, app development is no child’s game. You have to be extremely vigilant about which app development company you hire. If you are not well-versed with the details then consult the app development agency to guide you with the platform, i.e., native or hybrid.
Adding more to this, whether you want an Android or an iOS app or both – you and the travel app developers can cumulatively reach a decision on this.
Choose the mobile app development company carefully because you will be entrusting responsibilities of some of the core aspects of your app like API development and integration, hotel listing, filters, calendar integration, payment gateways, etc.
7. Launch the Travel App in the Market
After thorough quality checks, you can deploy your travel application in the market. It can be made out for the public. Upon doing this, you may receive a very positive, negative, or neutral response from the audience.
Prioritizing Features is an Absolute Art!
A travel app must bring people, passion & places together!
So, on which basis would you prioritize the travel app features? Well, it is all about what the users would want. On this basis, you can decide the features of the application. Since all users have different choices, every set of users would find a different feature interesting.
This section will help you understand which features ought to be included, should be included, and can be included in your dream travel application.
Some features ought to be a part of the app. These inevitable features include:
1. Basic Block: Sign Up, User Profiles, Push Notifications, Payment Gateway ⚙️- In no case should these features be excluded from the application. The travel mobile app development company you hire must be great at integrating various types of API for the user logging in and payment gateway smooth activities.
Keep in Mind 💡
The sign-up procedure should not be very lengthy. Also, it should not be a compulsion because lengthy sign-up processes can be a core reason users bounce off. You can enable social media profile login for users to make it even easier for them to log in.
2. Booking Block: Transport, Hotel, Travel, Tour, Car Rental Booking 🚉✈️ – Users enter their travel date and stay to book the flights, trains, hotels, etc. Here, the filters make it easy for the users to finalize their bookings. Like, filters in prices, amenities, timings, filters, and photos.
3. Travel Planning Block: Document Holder, Itinerary Management, Real-Time Alerts 🗄⚠️ – Here’s a situation, visualize it while you read — Jumbling among various applications to fetch the documents you need can be very messy when you are standing at the gate to board your flight, and there is a long queue waiting behind you.
4. Extra Highlights Block: Tips, Guides, Weather Forecasts, Currency Calculators ☁️🆕 – Apart from the features mentioned above, you can equip your app with the functionalities like tips for traveling, compact packing guides, in-app currency converters for overseas travelers, weather forecasts for destinations, etc.
It’s Time to Discover About Travel App Monetization ($)
Your frontline motto of launching a travel app might be to help the users book their travel and stay easily. However, you are surely looking forward to earning thousands and gradually reaching millions on the rear side.
Therefore, to meet your revenue goals, read out this section to understand the ways to make more money with your travel app venture.
Collect Commission
Since you list the hotels on your application and users book whatever fits their budget, you help both parties. You are the mediator through which hotels get booked; hence you can charge a percentage of the booking amount as your commission. This technique is similar to the Agency Business Model.
In-App Advertisements
Running ads on your flight booking app is a good way to earn extra bucks. However, there are downsides to this. Many users find these ads very annoying. So, how will you battle this?
Well, if the ads being displayed are related to the app’s nature, the user is better likely to click on them.
For instance, you can show the airport shuttle or taxi booking ads on a flight booking app.
Merchant Concept of Earning
The merchant business model-inspired method of booking the hotel rooms in bulk will help you avail a bulk-booking discount. Post this; you can add your margin and sell the rooms to guests to earn profits.
As an app owner, you can allow merchants to book your services bulk. Or, as a merchant thyself, you may do the same to get an edge on your profits.
Offer Premium In-App Purchases
Premium services are a luxury. And some extravagant set of customers enjoy luxuries. To meet their high standards, the travel mobile app can provide multiple high-end luxurious services to premium subscription users. You can keenly follow this advertising business model.
For example – this may imply a translator feature in an app for traveling to enable smooth check-in in a different-lingo (language) country.
Throwing Some Light on the Travel App Development Cost Factor
As an app entrepreneur, you might have kept aside a budget before you delved into how to create a travel app like Tripadvisor or similar to Expedia app. Talk to our team to learn whether your customization demands fit in well with your budget.
However, to give you a ballpark figure, we must let you know what we consider when calculating costs. The resources and time to align a proper app development team structure include business analysts, designers, developers, testers, delivery managers, etc. You can expect the cost between $40000 to $60000.
Let Your Travel App Take a Flight that Soars High! – Concluding Words
Hiring Excellent Webworld as your travel app development company can get you many benefits. First being first, experience matters a lot. Our team has experience working with the travel industry for over a decade and is well-versed with all the trends.
On top of it, the team is full of certified and skilled professionals who work on client projects because we follow a client-first policy religiously.
Lastly, if this blog on how to create a travel app helped you in any way, then placing an enquiry for a FREE consultation call is worth it!
FAQs On How to Create a Travel App?
The best travel apps help users search for destinations, book travel, compare their stay options, and make bookings. Additionally, these apps also help travelers with currency conversion, weather forecast details, and tour guides.
There are a couple of reasons to build a travel application – keeping up with the digitized era, earning maximum profits since users use mobile to make bookings, and lastly leverage the boom in travel industry.
There are multiple ways in which travel apps make money. It is through commissions, listing, in-app advertisements, in-app purchasing, lite & premium versions, etc.
The cost to develop a travel app is between $40k-60k. However, you can reach the team at Excellent Webworld for more information on travel application development costs that fit your budget.
Excellent Webworld is a full IT service providing the company with expertise and experience in the app-building industry.
