Imagine having the power to make every traveler’s dream come true by laying it right at their fingertips. From that perfect hotel in a new city to dining at hidden local spots known only to insiders, travel apps like Expedia or TripAdvisor have forever transformed how people explore the world.
But have you ever wondered what it takes to develop a traveling app that’s just as comprehensive and user-friendly? Whether you’re an aspiring developer or an entrepreneur looking to break into the travel tech world, creating a travel app isn’t just about booking flights or hotels; it’s about delivering a seamless experience that meets every modern adventurer’s need.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through the steps involved in creating a travel app, the core features needed, the business model, and a rough idea of the travel app development cost similar to Expedia or TripAdvisor.
Why Develop a Traveling App?
Many features result in the success of a travel app. To develop an app like TripAdvisor or Expedia, there have to be some unique features that work well for businesses. Let’s have a look at these features to understand how Expedia or TripAdvisor works.
- Easy access to all the hotels and travel tickets
- Cost-effective and reasonable prices of the hotels
- A ticket and transportation comparison feature
- A feature for the users to create a travel Wishlist
- Easy navigation of the location, users are traveling to
- 24*7 support from the admin panel
- Must have combo packages for a budget-friendly travel
- Special services for those with special needs
Before diving into the technical aspects, it’s important to understand the value and opportunity of the travel industry as well:
Growing Demand: Online Travel Market size was valued at USD 600.5 billion in 2023 and is estimated to register a CAGR of over 7% between 2024 and 2032, fueled by economic factors and favorable market conditions.
User Convenience: Travel apps offer a one-stop place for users to find flights, accommodations, and modes of transport with often personal recommendations.
Revenue Streams: There are opportunities for travel apps to monetize the application by either taking a commission for bookings, in-app ads, or premium subscriptions.
Now that you understand the potential, let’s move on to how you can create a travel app that can compete with big names like Expedia and TripAdvisor.
How to develop a travel app like Expedia or TripAdvisor?
Step 1- Market Research and Competitor Analysis
Developing a traveling app demands profound insights into trends, behavior, and preferences of users.
Understand gaps in existing apps that your own will fill.
Key Points to Consider:
Target Audience: Are you targeting solo travelers, family trips, or business travelers?
Competitor Analysis: Look at the features and services provided by successful apps such as TripAdvisor and Expedia. There are so many things that make each one stand alone, but there is a place where they fall short.
Niche Focus: Instead of creating a general, all-round travel application, focus on adventure travel, eco-tourism, or luxury travel, for example. It is easier to target a specific audience with such a specialization.
Understand the Competitors:
TripAdvisor: It highly relies on user-generated content, reviews, and travel forums. The site provides travelers with authentic reviews and experiences related to traveling. Additionally, it offers booking for hotels, restaurants, and activities.
Expedia: It is mainly an online travel booking portal where one can book flights, hotels, and car rentals. Besides this, Expedia also offers bundles and deals to the user, making them save on booking services.
Knowing the strong points of such platforms can be useful for figuring out how to create a travel app like Expedia or TripAdvisor that uniquely values different user groups.
Get the Complete Travel App Development Guide Here
Step 2- Defining the Features of Your Travel App
Once you have conducted research, you will specify the core features of your application. In other words, a travel app like Expedia or TripAdvisor would support many services, including flights, hotel reservations, other users’ reviews, and maps.
Here are some of the features you should consider for your travel app business model:
Essential Features
User Registration and Profiles: It provides a self-explanatory sign-up process via email, phone number, and social login. Option to create user profiles, track bookings, and save favorite places.
Search and Filters: A good search facility for users to search hotels, flights, or rent a car.
Filters on the basis of price, location, reviews, facilities available, etc.
Geolocation and Maps: Geolocation embedding allows users to discover attractions, restaurants, or even accommodations in their vicinity. Google Maps or other mapping APIs may be used to integrate for ensured location details.
Booking System: All should have the option to book flights, hotels, and rental cars directly from your app. Add APIs of travel service providers like airlines, hotels, or car rental companies.
User Reviews and Ratings: Allow users to rate hotels, flights, restaurants, and attractions. This displays the average rating score and detailed review breakdowns for other users.
Gateway Payment: Have a secure payment gateway, capable of processing more than one currency and providing support for any given method of payments, ranging from credit cards to PayPal and Apple Pay.
Push Notifications: Keep the user in the loop about best offers on travel, confirmations of booked travel, weather updates, and other timely updates and information about their trip.
Itinerary Management: This should enable users to access all bookings and travel itineraries from a single location.
Multilingual Support: Your app must support various languages so as to reach out to global users in the most native way possible.
Customer Support: Add a chatbot or direct customer support for the users to ask questions or resolve booking issues.
Advanced Features
AI-Based Recommendations: Use machine learning to get feedback from travelers on their traveling behavior and, on that basis, give them suggestions about where to go.
Augmented Reality (AR): Virtual tours of cities or accommodations can be incorporated into travel experiences using AR.
Currency Converter and Weather Forecast: These features will make your application worthy of giving users a real-time basis to make decisions.
Loyalty Programs: Create a loyalty program where frequent visitors receive rewards such as discounts or special offers.
Implementing APIs
To develop a travel app like Expedia or TripAdvisor, several APIs related to flight booking, hotel reservation, and car rental have to be integrated.
Some of the most used APIs are:
- Skyscanner API for flights
- Booking.com API for hotel reservations
- CarTrawler API for car rentals
- Google Places API for local attractions and places of interest
Integrating third-party APIs can reduce development time and cost, as it leverages existing data and services.
Step 3: Choosing the Right Technology Stack
To develop a travel app like Expedia or TripAdvisor, the appropriate choice of a technology stack is demanded. The technological stack you’ll choose should support the scalability, performance, and security requirements of your travel app business model.
Front-End Development
Back-End Development
- Frameworks: Node.js, Django, Ruby on Rails
- Databases: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
- Server: AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure
API Integration:
RESTful APIs or GraphQL is usually used for communication of the app with third-party services of booking and geolocation.
Security:
Because your app will be handling confidential information of its users, it needs to maintain the standards that relate to security, for example, GDPR for any users based in Europe and PCI DSS if you are handling any form of payments. All these definitely require SSL encryption, secure payment gateways, and 2FA.
Learn About the Top Travel Apps
Step 4: Develop the Travel App
Wireframing and UI/UX Design
An app’s interface first needs to be visualized in creating wireframes and mockups. The overall design interface should have an intuitive, user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing UI/UX. Useful tools that can be applied in design are Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch.
Develop the MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
First, build an MVP with the core features that would help you test in the real world instead of being too upfront. After the MVP launch, gather user feedback and improve upon what needs it.
Testing
A thorough testing will enable a bug-free performance of your app on different devices and platforms. Quality assurance engineers must be employed for manual and automated testing.
Launch and Marketing
Now that your application has passed through all the test cases and emerged clean, now is the time to deploy. Deployment is not the end of this; it is rather a start. The great marketing of your application is what actually makes it available to your target audience. Use social media campaigns, partner with influencers, and even use SEO strategies for ensuring visibility.
Step 5: Travel App Business Model
To ensure that your travel application is a winning venture, one needs to have a solid business model for the travel app.
Commission from Bookings:
Among common revenue streams, one has to start by discussing commission from bookings. You can earn money with every booking made through your application: the stay at a hotel, flight, car rental, tour package, and many others.
Freemium Model:
Charge less for a base version of the app and then charge to unlock premium features like exclusive deals, offline access, or concierge services.
In-App Advertisement:
Partner with travel agencies, hotels, and airlines to display ads in your app. You can charge either per click or per impressions.
Affiliate Marketing:
Earning from affiliate programs may come in the form of selling travel insurance, car rentals, or even guided tours.
Sponsored Listings:
Hotels, restaurants, or attractions might be interested in paying to be at the top of search results in your app.
How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Travel App?
The average budget required to develop an app like Expedia or Trip advisor differs from one business to another. As we know, everyone’s needs are different, and the same applies to businesses. The price can differ depending on several factors such as the operating system, number of features, customization, third-party plugins, APIs, etc.
Developing an app like Tripadvisor with basic functionality, however, can cost you around $15000 to $30000 as per average development rates. Based on the app feature complexity, the budget might look like this:
Simple Travel App with Basic Features: $15,000-$30,000
Mid-Level Travel App with Advanced Features: $30,000-$50,000
Travel App Complexity (Custom solutions, API integrations): $50,000-$200,000+
Factors Affecting the Cost:
App Platform: It will be costlier to develop the app for both iOS and Android, as it would cost more to develop only for one.
Development Team: The cost is more inexpensive if a freelancer is hired, but working with an experienced app development company ensures quality.
Third-Party API Integration: The cost of the APIs of booking, geolocation, and payment gateways.
Maintenance and Upgrades: Once you deploy an app, you have to prepare for the upkeep, bug fixes, and updates.
Read about Dynamic Pricing in Travel
Why Choose Kody Technolab Ltd?
Developing an app like TripAdvisor or Expedia is a complicated but rewarding project. Of course, not every developer will be able to succeed without the acquaintance of either the travel industry or technical impediments that such business normally faces.
Kody Technolab Ltd is a leading Travel App Development Company that stands head and shoulder due to its high experience in the development of travel apps, user-centric design, agile development process, and focus on security.
With Kody Technolab, you are hiring not just a development team, but a committed team of professionals who will help bring out your vision while incorporating effective solutions and continuous support for your business. This is the reason there are no bounds to what you can choose between availing of a world-class travel app created through Kody Technolab; whether you are starting out or already running an established business.
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