Thanks to the plethora of travel apps like Airbnb; people can now easily purchase tickets, reserve accommodations, and compare expenses with just a few clicks on their smartphones. The popularity of the online travel sector is consequently skyrocketing, with internet travel sales globally surging to 755.94 billion USD in 2022; as reported by Statista.
With this impressive growth, it’s no surprise that individuals interested in the tourism industry consider it a wise investment decision. If you’re one of them; then keep reading because we have a range of topics to discuss regarding creating a travel app like Airbnb.
The constantly expanding travel sector since of our love of exploring new places. Here are some numbers and data that support our assertion.
- According to a Statista analysis; India’s travel and tourism sector has contributed 178 billion US dollars.
- The Global Business Travel Association’s research estimates that $933 billion was spent on travel in 2017.
- Americans typically spend $2,644 on summer vacations, a 25% rise from 2021’s figure.
Regarding travel apps, Airbnb undoubtedly leads the pack, making it an excellent case study to analyze. Therefore; let’s dive deeper into understanding how Airbnb functions. But before we get to assess the cost of developing an Airbnb app, there are several critical factors to consider that will lead to a successful evaluation.
Business Model of Airbnb
By renting out an extra loft or home, Airbnb enables homeowners to make extra money. It is possible to reserve a level, house, or royal residence using the platform anywhere.
Both web applications and apps for the two most popular mobile platforms ((iOS and Android) ) are available. Additionally, smartwatches may use Airbnb’s features. Clients can thereby receive warnings more quickly and stay informed of any developments.
Reserving costs is the foundation of Airbnb’s commercial income model.
- Depending on the reservation amount, the tourist must pay a booking fee of 6–12%.
- For every exchange, Airbnb shifts the landowner’s ownership by 3%.
By creating a mobile app based on this strategy, services like Airbnb make money this way. For guests who depend on the booking fee, it levies fees between 6 and 12 per cent. Additionally, Airbnb costs the homeowner 3% of each reservation for Visa processing.
Top Features of the Airbnb App
#1. Registration
In developing an app like Airbnb, registration is the most important factor to think about.
While it is now usual practice to have users manually submit their information, it is more efficient to allow them to sign up or log in using their current social media accounts.
#2. Profiles
As we have seen, developing an iPhone or Android Airbnb clone app requires three separate investments: the host, guest, and admin versions.
All three editions will feature profiles, although the Host and Guest editions will go into greater detail. To ensure the security of your user’s personal information, you must collect their name, email id, date of birth dob, phone number, payment method, and more throughout the profile creation process.
#3. Numerous Filter Options
The Airbnb app’s filtering capability is one of its best features. The application offers customers many filtering possibilities; from property type and price range to date and location specificity. They even give customers the option to indicate a specific interest before deciding based on it.
#4. Room Details
There are several factors that users consider when choosing a room. They may check the uploaded photos, the view from the room, reviews and ratings, the room’s description, the property’s location, the room rent, the T&Cs, etc. Along with several other considerations like the length of stay, the services provided, and the ability to make on-site payments, they frequently base their decisions on the host reviews.
Therefore, you must be equipped with a room detail interface.
#5. Backend Implementation
Backend Implementation Developing the server-side portion of an application is one of the most challenging tasks, particularly when it involves several users communicating and processing payments in real time. The backend app development on this note must be exceedingly meticulous and proper to ensure that the Airbnb clone software functions exactly as it should.
#6. Messaging
In apps like Airbnb, sending and receiving messages is a crucial component. You must include a push notification feature and the ability for hosts and guests to stay in touch via messaging to inform them when their messages have been answered. Something that can raise the retention and conversion rates for your app.
#6. Option for many settings
Users should have various options in your settings menu, including the ability to change their profile, accept or reject push alerts, select their preferred payment methods, and modify their wishlist. Your end users will feel more at ease navigating your application if you provide them with more options. However, adding features will also raise the average cost of developing an Airbnb clone app.
While these are the features that are most frequently found in all clone apps and contribute to determining the breakdown of the cost to develop an Airbnb-like app, the technology stack is also largely the same in all types of Airbnb clone apps, and as a result, so is their contribution to the overall cost of an Airbnb app.
Steps to Create an App Like Airbnb
#1. Plan your business
Your brilliant app idea will materialize once a well-thought-out business plan is built to make it a reality. With so many travel apps on the app store, it’s crucial to start the process with a high-level business plan outlining the company’s vision, objectives, and how your app ideas could carve out a unique niche.
Developing an Airbnb business plan is a systematic strategy for progressing and attaining objectives. To construct a travel app similar to Airbnb, the first step is to write a business strategy.
#2. Choose a platform
Most frequently, businesses believe that creating an app for both of the most popular platforms—iOS and Android—or for both—helps them reach a larger audience. However, creating native apps for several platforms to reach a large user base is expensive and time-consuming.
The user experience is crippled, and the quality is diminished when you utilize a cross-platform development approach. It’s preferable to introduce the app on the platform that the target market uses the most initially and then expand it to more platforms after analyzing user feedback.
#3. UI craft design
Users desire a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for them to move about the app. Constructing a wireframe or low-fidelity prototype of the app before getting started on the UI/UX design is advisable. This shows how the user interacts with the app’s features and subsequently takes the appropriate actions.
#4. Work on the backend
Backend development is crucial to the smooth operation of your program, and you must pay attention to it. It manages all of the app’s background operations; including data storage, data access and retrieval, processing of API calls, and creating business rules.
For the greatest outcomes, organizations can either construct a backend from scratch or select a backend-as-a-service provider.
#5. Test the app
An app must be tested before launch to be successful. Different sorts of app testing are done to ensure the app runs flawlessly and meets customers’ expectations, including functional testing, UI/UX testing, usability testing, experience testing, and performance testing. QA and testing are performed to ensure the software operates without any bugs, crashes, or performance problems.
Cost of Creating/Developing An App Similar To Airbnb
The price to build an Airbnb clone depends on a few different things. Additionally, you can create it using a variety of Airbnb app templates, which will probably increase the cost of developing an Airbnb app.
The following are the major factors you should think about and remember:
Size of the development team: If you are eager to take on the role of a project manager and closely supervise the entire process; you can keep your team small & focused. If not, you’ll need a project manager, system administrator, and a few more insider managers in addition to developers and designers;
The number of platforms: The target audience’s location, preferred device environment, and other factors should all be taken into account before developing an app for a mixture of platforms, including iOS and Android. FYI – creating an Android app requires 20 to 30 per cent more time than creating an iOS (iPhone) one;
The technical complexity of the features: The features’ technical complexity should be rated on a scale of simple to high, depending on the variety of components you desire in your mobile application. Keep in mind that how long it takes developers to implement each of these will largely determine the pricing;
Design: If you wish to employ special visuals and tools for the Airbnb app design instead of the standard design, the price will also change significantly.
It’s vital to note that while discussing features, the approximate timing mentioned below encompasses every step of feature creation, from developing logic to testing. A list of elements is also provided, ranging from simple and basic to more advanced and sophisticated. So let’s understand how much it costs to create an app similar to Airbnb.
The cost of developer hours varies across the board, but below we’ve included the typical hourly rates per region:
- Development teams in the USA and Canada: $50 to $250 per hour
- Eastern Europe: $20-$150/hour
- Western Europe: $30-$170/hour
- Australia: $50-$150/hour
- India: $10-$80/hour
Therefore, developing the Airbnb app should range between $25 000 and $30 000 when creating a single platform with constrained features.
If you are excited about building an Airbnb app for different platforms and want to know the cost, here is the answer:
- Web Development- $30,000
- Android app development- $50,000
- iOS app development- $40,000
Conclusion
There are several apps for renting out space and booking hotels on various mobile app marketplaces. Building an app like Airbnb takes a thorough study of features, costs, and other important factors.
We at 5edev, an on-demand app development company, can assist you in creating/developing a fantastic product that will meet market demands and earn your organization widespread exposure. Due to our prior experience working on similar projects, we can either begin from scratch or integrate an already existing mobile app solution.