Travelling is the most interesting thing in anyone’s life. People love to travel from one place to another for holidays, business purposes and meet relatives. With the smartphone revolution, the world has become smaller and easily reachable. Planning a trip is always a challenging task but travel apps made it easy and convenient.
Before booking apps, people had to be dependent on travel agents to book any trip. Now, there are several travel apps available in the App Store and Google Play Store for travelers to download and book their favorite destinations in a few seconds. The travel industry has grown significantly in the last few years and several booking solutions are made for travelers, travel agents, accommodation owners, and travel companies.
Travel apps have shown potential growth and travel companies earn billions of dollars every year. Simpalm is one of the top app development company in Chicago, and has developed several travel apps like Trip and Travel application. If you are running a travel business and would like to build a travel booking app, then we can help you to prepare a roadmap to publish your travel solution.
1. Market Research & Business Plan
When you get an idea of a mobile app. The first question will arise: what type of travel solution do you want to provide to customers? It is a flight, bus, or destination booking app? Or will you sell tour packages? There are different kinds of tourism apps that are doing business all over the world. Do you need to research how your app provides better services than other companies? What are the travel trends? Who will use your app: service providers and travelers?
Your research should also consider mobile user data for different types of travel solutions and geography. Which will allow you to prepare an effective business strategy? Almost 75% percent of tourists use smartphones to search for future trips, booking, and invite others on the trip. These statistics from mobile travel trends can motivate and help in targeting mobile audiences.
2. Prepare a Feature List
Market research should be concluding a well-prepared requirement document. This document should enlist features and functions. A feature list should have interactive features and allow users to quickly search available flights and book. Or it should show trip details with the photos and videos. A rating and review system to rate services and service providers.
3. Design Your App
Design is critical for any app to become popular. The user experience should be visually appealing and allow the user to quickly perform an action. You can prepare a rough sketch and show it to the design agency to create a user friendly and intuitive design for the travel app. They will help you to create user engaging designs and attractive banners to display tour plans & packages.
4. Develop and Test
Once you complete the design phase, it is necessary to talk to some agencies like Simpalm, best react native development company in the USA, and get quotations. You may receive several feedbacks and suggestions from development teams on development strategy, method, and deployment plan. A reliable app development company can build both the frontend and backend of your app. They will also suggest third-party services to build an integrated solution.
A comprehensive travel app may need API integration for Text message sender, Payment Gateways, Tour Packages, Places, and Flight details. You should research and discuss preferred solutions with your IT partner. There are several APIs available in the market for travel solutions. Some popular APIs for your consideration are the following:
- Booking.com API
- Stripe API for payments
- Twilio API for text messaging
- Expedia API
- Hotel.com API
- AirBnB API
- SkyScanner Flight Search API
- FlightStats Flex
- British Airways NDC
- Google Hotel Prices API
- TripAdvisor Content API
- Amadeus Hotel Search API
5. Beta Testing and Publish the App
Once you complete the development stage and implement all features, you should conduct testing and check all screens one by one. Your app development agency will help you to set up a developer account on Google Play Store and App Store to publish the app. Make sure to prepare a well-organized description, design screenshots, contact details, and travel business logo. These things should not be ignored and be ready when you submit the source code. App Store guidelines evaluate the above-mentioned factors before publishing your app.
Types of Apps Used During Travel:
a. Flight Booking Apps:
Flight booking apps are the first need when you travel for a long distance. Several apps are popular in the USA that shows price prediction, latest flight details, coupons, and discounts to travelers. Airlines companies have their own apps on app stores. Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Airlines, American Airlines, and many other airline companies facilitate passengers to book and complete their trips using iOS and Android apps.
On the other hand travel agent apps also provide attractive features like flight details, discounts, cashback, and zero cancellation facilities to users. If you want to build a similar app, make sure to review these apps, and replicate trending features in your app.
b. Hotel/Accommodation Booking:
Hotel booking apps are also popular in app stores. Travel agents and online apps cover most of the business in the world. People love to explore hotel details before doing physical check-in. They want to see insights, hotel reviews, rates, and other facilities. Hotel agents and online companies like Expedia, Kayak, booking.com, hotel.com, and other companies also have apps for iOS and Android users.
c. Travel Guide Apps:
Travel guide apps that provide important information related to a particular place. Several tours and travel companies design their custom packages and offers. They sell these customized packages in different seasons of the year. Hopper, Culture Trip App, LoungeBuddy, WanderU, AirBNB, EventBrite, Uber, Lyft, and some examples of best travel guides in the USA.
d. Coupon Apps:
Several agents also build apps to sell coupons apps for flights, hotels, tour packages, and bus bookings. This type of app is also popular in the app store. You can search and review them if you have a similar kind of idea.
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