Must-Have Features To Develop An App Like Airbnb

Mobile apps have paved their way through every industry; it includes the hospitality and the rental industry as well. Airbnb was launched in the market when it was dream-like to find a place to stay that was not costly, especially in a new city or country. This was founded by the owners who themselves found the accommodation very expensive after travelling to a new city.

The Airbnb business model went to the next level by the new startups to find a homestay or overnight lodging and rental homes for regular stay and PGs in a new town.

This model was gradually embraced and revamped for the local markets.

Facts About the Airbnb Model

• At present, Airbnb has listings in more than 191 countries. They provide not only entire apartments, houses, but also bed and breakfast.
• Currently, Airbnb has 150 million users, and 400 million guests have been hosted by this business so far.
• Airbnb homestay's average price/night is around $80.
• The business has its presence in countries like Athens and Paris, delivering a delightful guest experience.
• Airbnb has already launched new search tools for business travellers. The company makes it effortless for business travellers to find those listings with Airbnb's latest search capabilities easily.

With such astounding facts, Airbnb is a model that you would like to replicate, whether you want to target the house rental or hotel rental business.

However, before developing an app like Airbnb, you must ensure your requirements and the targets you aim to accomplish. It would help if you planned for the growth and monetization strategies before pouring your fund into replicating the model. But the most important thing you need to integrate is features. You cannot miss the Airbnb features in the house rental app you are planning to create.

7 Airbnb Features You Must Consider Before Building Your App

1. Find immediate lodging

Immediate accommodation can be quite chaotic, but not with Airbnb. If you are planning to build an app like Airbnb, you must include this feature. The house owners accept to accommodate same-day bookings on the app, and the accepted owners will be displayed. You can select your homestay booking that best meets your needs based on your area and other criteria.

When you approve same day bookings from house owners, ensure you have some stringent criteria in place. This way, you will have house owners who are genuine and deliver some value to your app's users.

While clicking for same-day booking, you will even be asked the no. of nights you plan to stay at the place. The host will be given some time to approve or reject your booking. Once approved, you have a host to receive you and a dwelling place for the night.

You will indeed get more bookings if you have this feature in your business app and help people meet urgent lodging needs at a reduced cost.

2. Save favourite rental homes & places

You came across a lovely place to stay on the app, and you would like to consider it. How though? Well, with this feature, you can always save these places on the app and retake a look while finalizing the place. This way, you don't have to search for the place again.

While developing an app like Airbnb, you must remember that the save your favourite place feature must be included as a part of the app. Hence, people can look at different places and save their favourites. Once they are prepared to finish the bookings, this save feature will help them track these homestays with ease.

This is a remarkable feature because it is time and energy saving.

3. Invite friends with one-click to plan a trip together

Planning a trip with buddies can be easier with this feature. Include the one-click to invite features in your app and let your friends see the same places you are finding. This makes planning easier. Thus, if you're planning a trip to Canada, you are all looking at the same homestays, and you can finalize the one that best fits your budget and needs.

The entire hassle of sending screenshots and chatting can be eliminated once this feature is onboard. The feature makes the booking for your users easier and seamless.

4. Reserving places, including date, check-in time & other info

If you want to replicate an Airbnb-like app, the first thing you must do is offer an easy booking process. The idea is to make reservations via the mobile easy & user-friendly. Hence, the app should permit you to pick the date and time via a one-tap option. Minimal information is required to make bookings.

Your app must offer to use information that is already present in the app to finish the bookings. If you make bookings easy for the user, you improve their user experience and boost the conversion rate on your app.

5. In-app messaging

You can't avoid this feature if you are developing an Airbnb type app. The primary reason is that it's the only source of contact for your users, making their lives easy. Your in-app messaging feature can help a lot if they need help with reservations or face some trouble either with bookings or payments. It will offer them a chance to seek instant support and let them know remedies to be taken.

6. Real-time alerts & booking notifications

Now imagine that you are planning to reserve a homestay, but decide to book it later. And if there was a sudden price drop for the same, how will you know? The real-time alerts sent out by the app will enable the same. After your booking is confirmed, or when there are slight changes with your reservations, the real-time alerts come to your rescue.

7. Ratings & Feedback to share experiences

It would help if you informed others which homestay is good & the good things about the homestay to those planning to book it. Through the ratings and feedback, you have gathered from the people who have previously reserved stays via the app; it will be possible.

Final words

Do you also have a business idea like Airbnb & you want to make money out of it? You must plan something like this with the features mentioned earlier in place. Such a mobile app will offer an excellent experience for the users and a highly profitable business scope.

About the author

Harnil Oza is CEO of Hyperlink InfoSystem, one of the leading app development companies in New York and India, having a team of the best app developers. They deliver the best mobile solutions, mainly on Android and iOS platforms. He regularly contributes his knowledge on leading blogging sites.

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