Top Features To Be Considered For Superlative Hotel Booking App Development

Ankit Patel
March 01, 2019
4 min read

The travel boom is here! Youngsters, millennials, the aged; everyone desires to travel, plan their holidays and travel routes, book hotels online all by themselves. With the zeal to travel comes the necessity to stay in hotels. So, you have the hotel industry to address the needs of all kinds of travelers. From the luxury stays to the budget hotels, you can book your hotel stay well in advance or at the last minute.

Now, there is absolutely no necessity of picking up the handset and getting your booking done through the telephone. The online booking provides a seamless experience to the users and they can be rest assured that their booking is confirmed that too at affordable rates that suit their budget. With user-friendly hotel booking apps, even a novice finds it easy to navigate the app, search the hotels, filter the search, pay the money, and print the receipt. Undoubtedly, the hotel app proves beneficial to the hotel also, since they get the customers they want.

– What are the essential features when you go in for hotel booking mobile app development?

Booking a hotel is at the core of any hotel booking mobile app development. This is fructified when you provide the user with

Search option
Select option
Booking option

When these three primary features are conceived in the best possible way, your hotel booking app development will be lead you to a sure-fire way to success.

* Search:

Apart from the login/ register that is optional, the most necessary initial phase of the online hotel booking is the search option. It is here that the user decides on how user-friendly your hotel booking app is. When you have a lot of hotels to look for, then there comes the necessity to place a search option. This will help the user to narrow down the search to a few as per his choice. Set the search parameters to-

Destination (city, preferable location)
Date (Check-in/check-out) details
Number of people (Adults, kids, infants, extra bed)
Number of rooms
Room type (single, double, suite)

Note: If it is for the last minute bookings, then use the GPS navigation through ‘find hotels near me’ option.

After the user enters the search criteria, then a list has to be displayed of all the hotels that fit into the user criteria. The hotel names, their image, the ratings, brief address, proximity to popular places, and the rates are displayed as per the search results.

* Selection:

In the search process, there is the filter option to make things easy for the user. This aids him in the selection of the hotel.

1. Filter option:

The search option does half the work of displaying those hotels that match the user preferences. But there still are a lot of hotels to choose from. Now, you can help the user further refine the search results by providing the filter option. The filter option can have parameters like-

Budget
Reviews and ratings
Proximity (to the airport, railway station, highway and so on)
Reservation policy

After the filter is the sorting option. This will help the customer prioritize the list. Take, for instance, he can view the hotels with higher ratings first or that which are cheap first.

Additionally, you can include the map feature that allows the user to pick the hotel based on the location or proximity to the places they plan to go.

2. Hotel Profile:

When the user clicks on any hotel from the filter and search option, the hotel booking mobile app development design has to be such that the complete hotel profile is displayed. The details that will be displayed are-

Overview- general hotel information like address, photos etc
Amenities provided (swimming pool, Wi-Fi, restaurant, night club, laundry facilities, game zone, parking facility, A/C, etc)
Recommended rooms (with a complete specification of the room facilities, its photo, and its rate)
Room availability
Nearby places of interest
Important information (check-in and check-out time, hotel policy, hotel profile)
Review and ratings
Map to locate the hotel and surroundings
Offers for that room (breakfast included or not, A/C or non-A/C) with a quick book option

Once the user has made the choice, he hits the book button to complete the selection process and proceed with the booking.

* Booking:

Now comes the most important part in the hotel app booking development process. A payment gateway completes the booking process. It is also a safe and secure way to complete the transaction process.

Note: An opt-out option or a ‘Replan’ button at the payment page lends credibility to your hotel booking app.

The booking process consists of-

1. Filling user details-

Login or filling of guest details like name, mobile number, email id, and the address. The entire details of the bill are displayed which includes the tax and promotion offer inclusion if any. There will a checkbox for the user to agree to the terms and conditions of the hotel booking and cancellation policies. The user can click on it to know about them more in detail. After the checkbox is ticked, the user has to click on the continue button to initiate the payment process.

2. Payment gateway-

Your hotel booking mobile app development will consist of integrating many payment options in the app. The user is provided various options like credit card, mobile wallet, and online bank transfer and so on. The payment procedure consists of the verification process and when the user hits the pay button, the payment gets transferred. Provide the user with the transaction id for further references.

3. Booking confirmation-

The user can now take a printout of the booking confirmation with details of payment, booked room, and the transaction ID. Moreover, the booking confirmation will also be sent to the user email address and the mobile through SMS.

Any basic hotel booking mobile app development process needs to have these many features in order to be functional. But, if you have to stand out from the crowd, then you need to think out-of-the-box and your hotel booking app development company has to provide additional value-added features to the user.

– Additional features to be included during the hotel booking app development process:

Hire an expert hotel booking app development company that will provide you with inputs and suggestions on how to improve your app at affordable prices. Some of the additional features that can be included in your hotel booking app are-

Recommended hotels for the user based on previous search results
Dynamic room pricing based on demand and supply
Room cost forecasting and estimate calculation
Online assistance through chats
Push notifications and alerts
Value-added services like car rental, city guides, events and festivals in the city, social media links, and restaurant booking, and so on.

These may seem insignificant, but for sure, it is these small things that make your hotel booking app unique and innovative and help you to attract customers.

Wrap Up

Remember, your hotel booking app is competing with the already established names in the industry. So focus on your unique value proposition. Excellent design and implementation with efficient customer service are what will take you through it.

About: Ankit Patel

Ankit Patel is a Project/Delivery Manager at XongoLab Technologies LLP and PeppyOcean, a leading mobile app development company. In his free time, He likes to write articles about technology, marketing, business, web, and mobile development. His work has been featured on YourStory, E27, Datafloq, JaxEnter, TechTarget, eLearningAdobe, DesignWebKit, InstantShift, Business Magazine, SimpleProgrammer, and many more.

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