Hi Reader! The technological evolutions are making us gape in awe as they surmount our lives in every aspect in providing better solutions. From the past decade, we have started experiencing surreal things that have great impacts on changing our lifestyles.
The invasion of smartphones has all the credit in making our lives easier. Certainly, one of the best byproducts of technology is smartphones. As one can avail of any services right from sending messages to booking tickets through smartphones, the percentage of smartphone usage has increased in real numbers.
The Statista website has published a report that depicts that the number of smartphone users have crossed three billion as of the year 2020. The number will tend to increase in the upcoming years.
With this hyper-growth of smartphone usage, businesses can extend their services via mobile apps that will widen the scope of their businesses. As we can see, every business right from restaurants to ticket booking to bill payments have leveled up their services from traditional systems to online booking.
In this blog, we will go through the importance of launching a Uber-like app for your travel business. Keep reading the upcoming sections and at the end, you will get a clear cut picture of owning a mobile app for the travel business.
Types of booking apps that are popular in the marketplace:
Hotel booking apps – The hotel booking apps or accommodation apps are widely used as users can choose the location, and type of hotel they want to stay within a few clicks from the app. Users can book hotel rooms by seeing the ratings and reviews given by other users of the app.
Transport apps – Other than accommodation apps, users widely prefer transport apps. The purpose of transport apps is to give users a list of transports available in a particular city or area. The app has the geolocation feature that will absorb the user’s current location and suggest to them the transports that are available nearby.
Ticket booking apps – The ticket booking apps have become familiar these days. Be it bus or train or flight ticket booking, the mobile apps come in handy for users as they can book their ticket in a few seconds.
A perfect ticket booking app should have every feature like forecast prediction, geolocation, and reviews. The forecast prediction will let users know the weather forecast and decide whether to commute or not.
Travel guide apps – The travel guide apps are very popular these days. Users who wish to explore a new place can download the app. The app will take the user’s location as input, and suggests the list of nearby tourist attractions.
Before developing the mobile app for your travel booking business you must consider the following crucial factors.
Analyze users – You can provide exemplary services to users only if you get to know their preferences and some personal data. For example, knowing the user’s date of birth will help you send personalized tourist places. To be more specific, senior citizens may prefer visiting holy places, whereas adults may love to visit hill stations or trekking places.
Also, you can send seasonal trip suggestions and nearby hotels where they can accommodate. Sending personalized suggestions will help you draw more users to your line.
Know your competitors – Knowing what your competitors offer and how they manage to get new users will help you to optimize your business. Know their offerings, discounts, special packages, etc., Pricing can be the key player as users will tend to opt for budget-friendly packages.
Finding the mobile app developer – As the base of your online travel booking system is the mobile app, you should pour in utmost importance in selecting the mobile app developers. The developer you choose should be consistent in delivering the app and at the same time the app should align with your budget.
In the next section, you will learn about the features that your travel app should possess.
Features of the travel booking mobile app
The User App
Your app should be the one-stop travel booking software that should comprise features like price comparisons, send reminders to users regarding their bookings, save their preferences, and send notifications on discounts, etc., Let us see the various features of the travel app.
User onboarding – Users can start using the app after providing the mandatory personal data like email ID, name, contact number, and address.
Cab booking – Users should be able to book cabs via the app. Say, the user travels to a place via flight or train. Once the user reaches the destination, he/she may look for cabs. Include a cab booking facility in your app so that users can complete their destination peacefully.
Geolocation feature – While exploring new places, users will surely need assistance. The app has a geolocation feature that will guide users to reach the destination and will also alert them in case they tend to exit the safe zones.
Weather forecasting – The app has a weather prediction API that updates the weather conditions of a particular area. Users can book their flights or plan their travel based on the weather report generated by the app.
Choose seat type – Users should be able to choose the type of seat they prefer according to the passengers. Also, include child seats that will be the biggest savior for new moms who carry toddlers while traveling.
Search filters – The travel app’s filter option will help users to find out the type of services they are looking for. For example, users can select the flight type either economic or business class by applying filters. Or filter options like type of travel packages based on the amount, etc.,
Trip reviews – Collecting reviews from users will greatly help other users to know the quality of services and the fare of services.
The Agent Panel
Agent registration – The agent who wishes to collaborate with your business should complete the registration process. For example, for hotels listed on your app, the agent or the hotel manager should provide details like the name of the hotel, location, email ID, contact number, etc.,
View ticket details – The agent can view the complete details of the passenger by entering the ticket number in the concerned field.
Booking cancellations – The agent can decide to give refunds to users who canceled their bookings.
Manage pricing – The agent will decide the pricing of the tickets, fare of the hotel room, and also decide to give offers or special discounts to users.
Commission reports – The app will generate the commission reports with which users can view their in-app earnings.
The Admin Panel
Manage profiles – The admin will manage profiles of users like allowing access to the app, verifying agent profiles, etc.,
Content management system – The admin can choose the content type to be displayed on the app. The content-type includes texts, videos, infographics, etc.,
Currency – The admin can include different currencies to the app so that users worldwide can make the payments via their preferred currency.
Push notifications – To keep users informed about your app, send frequent alerts to them via push notifications.
Choose the right mobile app for your travel business that has the above-mentioned features. Next, you will go through the monetization model of the app.
The income structure of the app:
Commission – As an app owner, you will receive commissions from service providers as they get exposure to their services via your app.
Premium version – The app has many advanced features and you can allow access to other features by charging a certain amount from users.
In-app ads – Companies or service providers who display ads on your app are liable to pay you advertising fees.
The last section will include the workflow of your travel app right from booking to availing of services.
Step 1– Both users and agents will register themselves to your app by giving certain mandatory information like name, location, email address, phone number, etc.,
Step 2– The user will select the type of service. Service types include ticket booking, hotel booking, etc.,
Step 3– Once the user selects the type of service, the request will be mapped to the concerned service provider or agent panel.
Step 4– If the agent or the service provider accepts the user’s request, then the user will get notified via the in-app push notification.
Step 5– In the case of ticket booking, the user will select the mode of transport and mention the number of passengers. Whereas in the case of hotel booking, the user will choose the package type, number of rooms, etc.,
Step 6– After this, the user will have to make the payment option. Include several reliable payment options like PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, etc.,
Step 7– Once the entire process of booking is completed the user will receive updates regarding the services frequently.
Conclusion
The blog is a comprehensive collection of insights that will help you to launch an Uber-like travel app. Get started with this app and reach great heights in your travel business. Break a leg!
Author Bio
Jennifer Atkinson is a growth hacker and marketer at Appdupe who helps startups in achieving online visibility and reach among their intended customers. Other than marketing and online workshops, she is interested in giving consultations for businesses that are looking to market their brand online.
