How to Develop an Accommodation Booking App? Hotel Booking App Development Insights, Tips and Process

Table of Contents:

Is It Still Worth It to Invest in a Hotel Booking App?
Why Do Users Benefit from Accommodation Booking Apps?
Types of Accommodation Booking Apps
Monetisation Models for Booking Portals
Key Features to Include in Your Hotel Booking App
Hotel Booking App Development Process
What Impacts Hotel Booking App Development Costs?
How Can You Evaluate the Hotel Booking App Development Cost?
How to Create a Successful Hotel Booking App: Final Thoughts

At a time when giants such as Airbnb and Booking.com have revolutionised the e-travel sector, the tourism industry continues its upward trend. According to Statista, the industry is expected to generate an astonishing $927.30 billion in revenue by 2024. Hotels are projected to be the largest revenue-generating category, contributing $446.50 billion to this booming market.

Moreover, in the travel & tourism market, 76% of total revenue will be generated through online sales by 2028 (Statista). At the heart of this revolutionary boom is the undeniable impact of mobile apps, which play a key role in transforming the online landscape. The rapid increase in digitalisation across industries highlights the need for innovative solutions, and hotel booking apps are at the forefront of this revolution.

This article is your gateway to understanding the dynamic world of on-demand hotel booking apps like Booking.com or Airbnb. You will discover the aspects of hotel booking app development, learn about the various types and key features that are shaping the future of this dynamic field, and gain insights into the development process.

Is It Still Worth It to Invest in a Hotel Booking App?

To find an answer to this question, let’s have a look at some data in this field.

The global hotel booking market anticipates a rise at a considerable rate between 2023 and 2030 (Global Data). According to Statista, the United States is expected to generate the highest revenue in this area, estimated at $198.70 billion in 2024. Prime factors responsible for this growth are the proliferation of mobile devices, improved network connectivity, and rising disposable income coupled with the emergence of a vlogging culture (everyone can easily become a streamer nowadays).

Traditional travel agencies are losing their popularity. More and more people prefer digital solutions for travel planning – 72% of respondents prefer online booking systems to just 12 per cent in favour of using a travel agency (Statista).

Online booking will continue to shape the travel landscape, ensuring ease and a wide array of options. Hotel booking apps provide easy-to-use platforms for searching, comparing and booking accommodation. Chiefly, 53% of online travel bookers value the speed at which you can get your trip organised. Secondly, 47% of respondents said it’s often easier to compare prices, and ultimately, find the best deal (Statista).

However, people are still struggling when interacting with such apps. That indicates that there’s a lot to be done in the User Experience area. A research report from March 2023 showed that just a small percentage of leisure travellers (11%) and business travellers (16%) worldwide reported minimal frustration when arranging trips online. Additionally, around 23% of leisure travellers faced limitations due to location-restricted search functionality.

Families encounter challenges too. According to Travelport, one-third of families spend considerable time comparing offers when looking for accommodations, leading to 23% expressing dissatisfaction with the search and booking process.

Conquer the market through innovations

Analysis of your business idea and thoughtful approach is key. If you believe there is a niche to be filled or a unique value proposition to offer, investing in a hotel booking app could be worthwhile.

For example, a platform like Slowhop has found its niche by offering atmospheric accommodations or intimate getaways, eschewing chains in favour of unique places, with urbanites and hipsters as their target group.

Another inspiring example is the Dog Inclusive platform. It is designed for pet owners who love to travel with their beloved animals. The rooms they provide are truly pet-friendly, as your furry friends are not just accepted, but genuinely welcomed.

However, it’s essential to conduct comprehensive research based on a thorough analysis of market dynamics, potential risks and opportunities, and planning before making any investment decisions.

Overall, while the landscape of the travel industry may evolve, investing in a hotel booking app can still be a fruitful venture for those who identify opportunities, understand consumer needs, and are willing to innovate.

Why Do Users Benefit from Accommodation Booking Apps?

You already know that users are more than willing to use online booking solutions, but the question is: why? The benefits are slightly different depending on whether they use portals like Booking.com or particular hotel applications.

In this section, I focus primarily on booking-aggregator-type applications and the user’s perspective – what are the advantages of using accommodation booking apps and booking directly with the hotel apps.

Advantages of using booking apps

For users, hotel booking apps like Booking.com offer a comprehensive platform to explore available hotels, facilitating decision-making based on factors like location, pricing, facilities, and check-in/check-out timings.

Such apps support users to make informed choices by assessing hotels through detailed information, verified reviews and room photos. That decreases the level of uncertainty about what users book and what quality or conditions they will encounter when they arrive at the place.

Flexible payment options and various interconnected methods also enhance the overall user experience. What is more, users can feel more secure by paying a well-known portal for their stay than the hotel itself, especially when it’s a small property or they interact with a particular place for the first time. This way, the authority of a portal encourages people to explore places they might be reluctant to visit otherwise.

Advantages of using hotel apps

When booking directly through hotel apps, users often have access to exclusive deals and discounts that may not be available through intermediaries, and many hotels offer a best-price guarantee. Secondly, hotel apps facilitate direct communication with hotel staff, allowing users to make specific requests and receive personalised services throughout their stay.

Additionally, many hotel mobile apps come integrated with loyalty programs, allowing users to earn points and receive exclusive perks and rewards. Hotel apps also streamline the check-in and check-out process, offering mobile check-in options and providing real-time room availability information.

However, there are some limitations to using hotel apps directly. Some smaller independent hotels may not have developed their own apps, limiting the property options available. Another drawback of using hotel apps directly is fewer user reviews compared to popular booking platforms, which provide valuable insights for users.

Types of Accommodation Booking Apps

It’s crucial to have a clear understanding of the different types of hotel booking apps available before developing one. This will help you create an effective hotel booking app by defining your vision and the features you want to incorporate. By understanding these, you can tailor your hotel booking app to specific user needs and preferences, resulting in a better user experience.

Online Travel Agency (OTA) Apps

An Online Travel Agency (OTA) functions as a standalone travel agency, handling the entire booking process and taking sole responsibility for all transactions made on its platform. OTAs are mostly focused on a comprehensive travel experience. They offer platforms where travellers can search and book various travel services (hotels, travel packages, activities, car rental, flight tickets) from multiple providers.

What is more, OTAs offer users reliable insights and recommendations with ranking systems and feedback mechanisms. Such platforms are extremely useful for tourists, particularly when exploring unfamiliar places or dealing with foreign languages.

Booking.com is the biggest representative of the European OTA market that has earned recognition for its extensive database of hotels and a broad range of options suitable for different preferences and budgets.

Airbnb also stands out as a leading OTA app, offering not only different types of accommodation, such as vacation rentals and unique homes but also other kinds of bookings for travellers: classes, workshops and tours.

Hotel Aggregator Apps

Unlike an OTA, an aggregator doesn’t directly sell flight tickets or hotel accommodations. A hotel aggregator is, in fact, a hotel consolidator. It retrieves all the necessary information about hotels from OTAs and presents it to users. That allows you to choose which platform to make your booking through.

What distinguishes OTAs and hotel aggregators is that with an OTA you make a reservation directly from the portal you are on, while in the case of an aggregator, you are redirected to another portal to book there.

Google Travel used to be a popular aggregator app (their service is now only available on the website). It compiles a diverse selection of hotels from various sources, providing users with a wide range of options and competitive prices.

Trivago and Agoda are bright examples of aggregators that allow users to compare hotel prices from different booking platforms in one place, simplifying the decision-making process.

Hotel Chain Apps

Major hotel chains, such as Marriott and Hilton, have their own dedicated mobile applications. These apps enable users to book directly with the specific hotel brand, often providing loyalty benefits and a seamless booking experience.

The apps list all properties of a particular hotel chain, which is useful for those interested in specific amenities of a hotel stay. However, in this article, we will not focus much on these applications.

Corporate Travel Apps

Planning a business trip seems like a daunting task, although some business-oriented travel apps can make the process of a business trip easier. For instance, Business Booking, ITILITE and Navan meet the needs of corporate travellers by integrating with expense management systems. They benchmark industry travel costs and suggest ways to optimise the company’s travel spending, as well as provide tools for managing events during business trips.

Monetisation Models for Booking Portals

The successful implementation of monetisation strategies is a significant determinant of sustained growth and viability of an accommodation booking business. However, generating revenue while providing value to both hotels and users is a complex task that requires a thoughtful approach. To learn more about effective monetisation techniques, I’d recommend delving into Katarzyna’s insightful article.

Let’s briefly discuss some of the options you have!

Commission Fees

The commission fees model charges hotels a percentage for each successful booking made through the app, tying its earnings to reservation drives. More bookings mean higher revenue, so the app must continually improve its features, marketing, and user experience to keep up in the online hotel booking market.

As an example, Booking.com charges hotels a commission for each booking made through its platform, typically ranging from 10% to 25% (average 15%).

Airbnb charges hosts a service fee for each booking, usually around 3%, and it can go up to 14% for hosts who have a super strict cancellation policy. It also charges a guest service fee of up to 14,2%.

Subscription Models

A hotel booking app can offer subscription plans for hotels for enhanced visibility and marketing benefits. This creates a consistent revenue stream for apps and reliable income for hotels, fostering a long-term relationship between the platform and its partners.

Thus, TripAdvisor offers a premium subscription service called TripAdvisor Plus that provides access to exclusive discounts and perks for travellers.

Another example is HotelTonight, which offers a membership program called HT Perks, where subscribers get extra discounts and benefits.

Advertisements

Hotel booking apps can also make money by showing targeted ads to users. Advertisers pay for the ad space, which diversifies app income and helps hotels promote their offerings. Users can discover travel-related services and deals through the ads, enhancing their app experience.

Here we can look at Expedia: in addition to earning through commissions, it also generates revenue through advertising opportunities for hotels and other travel-related businesses.

Kayak can also be a brilliant example, as it displays ads from various travel companies and earns revenue through clicks and bookings generated from these ads.

Key Features to Include in Your Hotel Booking App

A carefully curated list of essential features is crucial for creating a user-friendly and appealing hotel booking app. While not all features must be included in the initial release, strategic planning allows their incorporation over time, guided by user feedback and a comprehensive understanding of the app’s trajectory. This dynamic approach ensures a user-driven development, aligning the app with your vision and user expectations.

Before applying any features, you need to have a clear understanding of the app’s purpose, target audience, and user experience goals. It is your foundation to meet the primary needs of your users. And developing a unique value proposition while using a user-driven approach is the number one priority when it comes to selecting your app’s features!

Core Features

Core features are the essential elements for the app to function properly. They directly impact the user experience by providing the essential capabilities users rely on, and ensuring the app’s intuitivity and value to its audience. These are fundamental requirements and typically include functionalities like:

• user registration and login,
• basic profiles,
• core search
• booking and cancelling capabilities,
• payment processing,
• confirmations and notifications.

Focusing on core features helps developers allocate their resources efficiently, directing time, budget, and manpower towards the most critical aspects of the app’s development. This approach also facilitates scalability, as a well-designed core makes it easy to extend and add new features as the app grows and evolves over time.

Creating a Unique Value Proposition 

Besides fundamental features that are essential for the functionality of the app, it should also have features that enhance the user experience, provide extra value, and differentiate the app from its competitors.

While deciding which features you should add here, consider the Unique Value Proposition of your app, the user needs and expectations, and the resources available for development and maintenance. Prioritise the features that are essential for the app to deliver its core purpose and provide a usable and valuable experience to the users. Features prioritisation allows you to create a Minimum Viable Product (we will explore this topic later in this article), which is the initial version of the app with enough functionality to satisfy early users and gather feedback for future iterations. Basically, it is going to be your first released version of the app.

So, the list of features will differ depending on their importance to the app’s concept. For example, let’s assume you are building a last-minute booking app starting with its simplest version. The basic search filters for your app could be “hotels nearby”, “available accommodations in a particular city”, or a map with vacancies marked on it. In this case, a traveller just wants to get a place to sleep as soon as possible, so it’s sufficient to fulfil this goal.

On the other hand, there could be an app that focuses on luxury vacations, so the search filters would need to be much broader and more complex (and this still can be considered a basic feature for your app). So again, it all depends on your goal!

Here are some features that can help make your accommodation booking app unique.

Advanced Search Filters

Introduce unique and specific filters that cater to niche markets or specific traveller requirements. For example, filters for eco-friendly accommodations, properties with specific amenities like pet-friendly options, or accommodation options suitable for business travellers. In one case, those might be extensive customisation options (when they can choose on which side the windows are, what landmarks are nearby or whether there is a pool or a sauna in the hotel), while in another it might be a simple “hotels nearby” option (e.g. with price adjustments). The goal is to ensure that they can easily and swiftly find exactly what they are seeking.

Personalised Recommendations

Make the app know your users better than they know themselves! Use Machine Learning algorithms and user preferences to offer personalised accommodation recommendations based on past bookings, user behaviour, and individual preferences. This feature improves the user experience by providing tailored suggestions and increases the likelihood of successful conversions.

Predictive Analysis And Forecasting

By analysing historical data and trends, it becomes possible to predict things like pricing fluctuations, availability patterns, and even upcoming events or festivals in your chosen destination. You can empower your users by making more comprehensive recommendations, thanks to the analysis of weather data, temperature, season, presence near mountains or the sea, the number of tourists at specific times, and give more personalised results.

Reviews & Ratings:

You can help new customers make informed decisions by adding a dedicated ‘rating & review’ section to your app. An easier solution here is to implement a star-based rating system first and later add a segment for extended reviews. To make it work smoothly, you can encourage customers to leave feedback upon their stay in exchange for small rewards (like discounts, points or even badges). A user-friendly review section will improve transparency, build trust and grow loyalty.

Maps And Location Services

You can integrate maps and location services to offer users a visual representation of the accommodation options. Users can view the proximity of accommodations to nearby attractions, transportation hubs, and landmarks. This feature helps with selecting accommodations that are conveniently located and suit the user’s needs. The possibility of these features can be broadened with an app’s growth

Integration With External Services

Enhance users’ travel experience by providing different services internally in your app: from booking transportation and activities to ordering food delivery or arranging airport transfers. This will take the convenience of your users to another level and simplify the travel experience!

Expanding Features as the App Grows

With your app evolving, you may consider implementing new features to upgrade it and make it even more outstanding. Those features can be introduced based on user feedback, market trends, or the app’s growth strategy, ensuring that the app remains relevant.

Extra features often act as value-added propositions, giving users more reasons to choose one app over another. They not only extend the usefulness of the app but also contribute to its competitiveness in the market. Whether it’s advanced functionalities, customisation options, or unique tools, these features can increase its market viability.

Moreover, new features can open up new possibilities for monetisation. By offering premium options, in-app purchases, subscriptions, or ad placements, developers can generate revenue streams beyond the initial app purchase or download. This diversification of revenue sources can strengthen the app’s financial health and support ongoing development and maintenance efforts.

Let’s take a look at some features that can impact user engagement and retention.

In-app notifications

The application should notify users when reservations are confirmed, as well as about check-in and check-out times, changes in prices, service disruptions, or scheduled activities and upcoming events during their stay. Users should also be able to communicate directly with hosts, property managers, or customer support teams within the app. It’s important to allow users to customise their notification preferences, personalise messages, and optimise timing to avoid overwhelming them. This facilitates quick and convenient communication that creates a sense of trust and reliability.

Social Integration

Enable social media integration, allowing users to connect their accounts and share their travel plans or accommodations with friends and followers. Building a travel community within the app not only creates a social network but also serves as free marketing for the app, attracting new users through word-of-mouth referrals and user-generated content.

Loyalty and Referral Programs

Engage and reward your users with loyalty programs, allowing them to accumulate points and unlock benefits on special occasions. Users who consistently leave reviews can be recognized as opinion leaders through a badging system and can earn special badges or bonuses.

Embrace gamification by offering additional rewards for achieving specific goals, such as booking a certain number of hotels within a certain time frame. This approach not only stimulates repeat bookings but also adds excitement and rewards to the loyalty program. And don’t forget about exclusive mobile-only discounts!

Smart and Dynamic Pricing Adjustment

Intelligent pricing algorithms can adjust rates based on various factors, such as demand, seasonality, and specific events happening in the area. This feature ensures competitive pricing and maximises revenue for hosts by encouraging users to make bookings and take advantage of favourable deals, increasing user engagement and retention.

Instant Translation and Cultural Tips

Providing users with valuable information and insights about their destination, including language translations, local customs, etiquette, and cultural norms can be a great idea. By offering this guidance, the app enhances the user’s travel experience, reduces language barriers, and promotes cultural understanding. For instant translation you can use a built-in translator or have multiple language support within the app.

Offline Access to Information

Allow users to access essential information offline, including booking details, property information, and neighbourhood guides. This feature is particularly useful when users are in areas with limited or no internet connectivity.

Virtual Reality (VR) Tours

This is a dynamic and immersive way for users to explore hotel space as well as local attractions, providing a 360-degree view and the sensation of being present in the location. This technology allows users to virtually step inside and examine the details of a property, providing a more informed decision-making process before booking.

Trip Planning Tools

This will allow users to organise and manage their entire itinerary within the app: accommodation bookings, transportation arrangements, activity reservations, and sightseeing plans. Providing such comprehensive travel planning capabilities will make your app an indispensable tool for travellers!

Additional Services, Experiences and Activities

Offer a variety of experiences and activities directly through the app. Whether it’s booking local tours, arranging transportation, purchasing tickets to local attractions or unique experiences related to the accommodation they book. This feature enables users to have a more immersive and complete travel experience and engage with the platform beyond accommodation bookings..

Everything is at hand – AI-driven Travel Assistant

People often gravitate towards the idea of consolidating all their needs into a single app. Managing multiple applications for different tasks can be overwhelming and time-consuming, so users prefer comprehensive solutions that cater to various aspects of their digital lives.

By having everything they require within one app, users can streamline their interactions, minimise clutter on their devices, and simplify their overall user experience. Ultimately an all-in-one app saves time and effort in the process!

So, it can be beneficial for you to consider creating such an app! Here you can think of implementing an even more advanced feature – a smart travel assistant that can always be available thanks to AI technology. Users can get instant help anytime, no matter their time zone, which is great for travellers worldwide. AI would make the travel experience smoother, more personalised, and more satisfying.

The AI-powered travel assistant can efficiently handle complex tasks. There are numerous possibilities of what it can do: filter hotels by certain criteria in a huge database, book hotel rooms, buy flight tickets or passes for attractions, or offer taxi and car rentals. It can inform about delays in the airport or predicted traffic jams, recommend restaurants nearby, find walking tours to discover local attractions, etc. It can even guess what users might like, bringing all services together on one platform. As they say, the sky is your only limit! Lots of people are looking for such a solution constantly!

Hotel Booking App Development Process

We’ve got to the point where we’ll explore the process of app development itself. I won’t go into the intricate details of every step involved in developing an accommodation booking app. If you want a broad understanding of the development lifecycle, I have a dedicated article guiding you through the process – feel free to explore it.

Where do we start? Most app founders have tight budgets so they can’t include all the features they want at once as they simply can’t afford that (and there’s no reason to do that, either). This is where a Minimum Valuable Product (MVP) comes in handy.

On the one side, an MVP means the first and the simplest version of the app, but there are other forms of MVPs. Developing an MVP brings the opportunity to verify your app concept, ensuring that you’re creating something people require, desire, and are willing to purchase.

Low-Cost Non-Development MVP

The concept of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) serves as a strategy to validate assumptions and gauge the demand for a new product with minimal investment. As I mentioned, contrary to a common misconception, an MVP is not just a simplified version of the final product. There is flexibility in the types of MVPs one can explore initially. These may include options such as landing pages, videos, or social media posts, providing avenues to test the viability of an idea before committing extensive time and financial resources.

For a more in-depth exploration of the MVP concept, along with examples and insights into its crucial role in app development, you can refer to Gabriela’s article.

Simplified Version of Your Hotel App

Another approach here is to begin your journey with the development part applying the MVP approach and building a simplified version of your app.

Airbnb Case

A great example of this strategy can be seen in Airbnb’s early days. When they started, instead of building an extensive platform with a multitude of features, they began with a simple website offering air mattresses in their apartment for travellers. This basic version allowed them to validate the concept and learn from user interactions.

As the demand grew and they received feedback, they iteratively improved and expanded their platform, eventually becoming the global accommodation giant we know today. You can discover more about Airbnb’s beginnings in Business Insider’s detailed coverage of their journey.

However, the process of developing an MVP differs from building a comprehensive app from the very beginning, and you can explore further details about it in the article dedicated to the specifics of the MVP development process.

Steps to Develop a Hotel Booking App

The software development lifecycle (SDLC) is a structured approach used by software development teams to plan, design, build, test, and maintain high-quality software products. It consists of four main phases: introduction, growth, maturity and decline.

Introduction Phase

It is the initial phase in the process of building a booking app which starts with Product Discovery. Here is where we figure out what we’re going to build and why. We need to understand the group of people who will use the software, see what they need, and define the scope, goals, and constraints of the project. It’s like planning a road trip – you decide where you’re going and what you need to get there.

For successful implementation, here are essential steps you need to go through:

• Define your target group and users’ needs 
• Do market research and analyse market trends and competitors
• Establish clear product goals
• Think about monetisation models suitable for your app
• Decide on the most important features and build a scope
• Choose the right development team.

If you are curious to find out more about the Product Discovery Phase, I encourage you to read Gabriela’s article.

The next step is setting Product Metrics. You need to establish clear KPIs that will guide the product’s success evaluation. Metrics should be based on product goals and be measurable and relevant. For example, we could track user engagement, conversion rate from search to booking, retention rates, daily active users, and the average booking value. You can learn more about integrating KPIs into your mobile app strategy in Katarzyna’s comprehensive article.

Once your prospective product enters the development stage, your goal should be to reach a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This means that the product has core features which define a unique value proposition to satisfy the target market you plan on introducing it to, so you can gain feedback from early customers. Your product doesn’t have to be perfect, but it can’t be defective. Additional features may not work yet, but the core features must be at their best, otherwise people won’t use or reject your app. It needs to reflect the greatest capabilities it’s designed for, so customers will be able to provide key feedback that will influence product iterations and updates. 

Growth Phase

This phase includes the UX/UI Design and Development. This is all about creating an intuitive and visually engaging platform for users to search, book, and manage hotel reservations seamlessly. The design and development processes are iterative, with continuous user testing to refine and enhance the user experience. 

UX design plays a crucial role, mapping out the user journey from searching for hotels to completing a booking to ensure that the process is simple and efficient. To identify areas for improvement, designers develop prototypes and then test them with real users to gather feedback. This iterative process continues until the design meets the desired standards (that again will be reviewed in the future based on user feedback).

Simultaneously, UI design comes into play, focusing on the visual elements of the app. It should reflect the brand identity and enhance usability. This involves designing elements such as the layout of search results, booking forms, imagery, and interactive components.

The product metrics set in the introduction phase are closely monitored to assess the product’s performance and guide development priorities. You can read more about how to approach UX and UI in our interviews with Dawid (Head of Design), or you can listen to them on Spotify!).

Then the magic happens – you actually have the booking app being brought to life! It’s like constructing a building based on the blueprint. Developers work on creating the different components and features according to the design specifications. This step involves coding, testing, and refining the app to ensure it works smoothly on various devices and platforms.

Even after launch, there’s still a continuous Discovery process. You need to stay in close contact with users to understand their changing needs and preferences. This includes regular user interviews, surveys, and usability tests. The insights gathered enable the development of new features and improvements that will drive growth.

 Maturity Phase

During this stage, the Optimisation and Expansion of your application takes place. With the product established, efforts shift towards optimising existing features and exploring new markets or user segments. Product metrics remain crucial in identifying areas for improvement and potential expansion. 

You still need to run the discovery process on a regular basis. Continuous engagement with users ensures relevance and competitiveness, potentially leading to significant enhancements or diversification of offerings.

Decline Phase: Innovation or Sunset

After the software is deployed and in use, you don’t just forget about it. You need to monitor product metrics to identify when the product enters the decline phase.

This involves verifying that the app continues to meet users’ needs and functions properly. You will have to decide whether to innovate and relaunch the product or to phase it out. Continuous discovery can help identify pivot opportunities or highlight when it’s time to sunset the product. So stay on top of changing trends and technologies to keep the app competitive and relevant in the long run.

Throughout these phases, continuous feedback loops and agile methodologies ensure the product remains aligned with user needs and market trends. Product metrics should be revisited and adjusted as needed to reflect changing goals and market conditions. This approach ensures a dynamic and responsive product development process that maximises the product’s market relevance and longevity.

You can gain more knowledge about process of the software development in Gabriela’s step-by-step guide.

But before developing your booking app, you may have another question: “How much will it cost me?”

What Impacts Hotel Booking App Development Costs?

When it comes to developing a custom hotel booking app, strategic choices must be made before diving into the app-building process.

The final cost of developing an app can be affected by multiple variables, but let’s review the most important and significant of them. In Gabriela’s article, you can discover more about factors that influence app development costs.

Scope of the Project

First and foremost, you need to decide on the scope of your project. Are you aiming for a comprehensive application with an extensive set of features covering a wide range of capabilities for a fully-featured hotel booking app? Or you might consider building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), focusing on creating a simplified version of the app with only core features for essential operations only.

Are you going to design the app from scratch or use some shortcuts? What platform will you address? Choosing between an Android or iOS (or addressing both) will also affect development costs. Check out Robert’s article, where he describes in detail how you can choose the best approach and framework for developing your app.

Feature Complexity

The overall cost of development will be impacted by the complexity of the app. More complex features bring along greater investments and resources for successful implementation.

Keep in mind that estimating costs accurately in software development is challenging due to various variables and uncertainties. Gabriela has created a dedicated article discussing this topic in detail, shedding light on common issues with estimating projects. By reading it, you can gain insights into giving estimates and understand what to watch out for when comparing them.

Choosing the Right Development Partner

Selecting the right development partner and understanding various outsourcing models, including onshore, nearshore, and offshore, are crucial steps in the process. Here you can choose from 3 options: hire an in-house development team, choose freelance developers or outsource MVP development to a software development company. You can gain insights into these models, along with their advantages and disadvantages, by reading insightful articles, such as Mike Popov’s detailed explanation of outsourcing models.

Additionally, you can dive into Mike’s comprehensive guide to further refine your decision-making process for outsourcing software development projects. This resource offers valuable insights to help you make decisions aligned with your hotel booking app development process, project requirements and goals.

Hourly Rate of Your Development Company

Let’s suppose you decided on what type of team you need, and you’ve managed to accurately estimate man-hours demand. The cost ultimately depends on the hourly rate. In turn, hourly rates are influenced by factors like a company’s experience, its track record of successful products, and developers’ expertise.

However, the primary determinant here is location. Eastern Europe is a top outsourcing choice due to its skilled workforce and competitive prices, ranking third globally in affordability after Asia and Africa (but at the top in terms of quality).

Region Average hourly rate:

• North America: $100-$180
• South America: $30-$50
• Western Europe: $110-$200
• Eastern Europe: $25-$50
• Africa: $20-$40
• Australia: $100-$180
• Asia: $15-$40

For more details on worldwide hourly rates, check Mike’s article on software outsourcing destinations.

How Can You Evaluate the Hotel Booking App Development Cost?

After considering all the factors that can influence your app development, can we now predict how much it might cost you to build an app?

Firstly, as I mentioned, you have to choose whether you’re building an MVP or a full product. It will be your starting point for cost evaluation.

MVP development cost

Let’s take a look at the expenses associated with developing an MVP for a basic accommodation booking solution. This entails two main components: one for clients, allowing them to search for, book, and pay for hotels online, and another for companies, necessitating an admin panel to manage their offerings.

The average MVP development cost will look more or less like that:

• user authentication (sign-in, signup, recover password): 160 h
• places database: 240 h
• calendar and map planner: 160 h
• rating places: 120 h
• storage for files and links (the tickets storage): 80 h
• admin panel: 160 h

Overall estimation: 920h -> $45k

Full-featured app development cost

What about developing a full-fledged product, how much investment would that need? The average cost of developing a basic app, counting not just developers but also UX/UI designers, business analysts, and project managers, is typically around $80,000. However, for a medium-complexity app, the total cost can escalate to as much as $200,000. More information on this can be found in our ultimate development cost guide.

However, you need to keep in mind that it’s nearly impossible to estimate the cost precisely. The biggest challenge here is that every project evolves; therefore, developing an app doesn’t finish after its deployment. Scope of work changes (according to your changing needs, evolving market and users’ preferences) and app maintenance costs should also be considered. For a deeper understanding of estimating costs, you can explore Gabriela’s comprehensive article that includes examples of what the estimation accuracy depends on.

Obtaining an accurate cost estimate involves a careful evaluation of the complete scope and tasks associated with developing your hotel booking app (therefore, if you need the most precise estimation possible, I suggest you go through the discovery phase first). Collaborating closely with the development team will undoubtedly help you obtain a more clear cost estimate that aligns with your project requirements and financial considerations.