How to Create a Booking App: 8-Step Guide

Booking applications will take the quality of provided services to the next level.

Mobile booking apps allow you to book anything with just a few clicks – from food delivery to travel and home cleaning. It can improve the effectiveness and client services for any business – from small businesses such as salons to giant companies such as airlines.

The success of Booking.com and Airbnb spurred the interest in online booking applications. While traveling used to be the primary industry for such apps, they have become integral to other industries. Today, any business dealing with customers can benefit from making a booking app – from barbers to restaurants, doctors, hotels, and airlines. And not only companies but also customers benefit from such solutions.

Whether you work in a beauty sphere, run a hotel, or have a clinic, booking app development can help you save money, increase revenue and improve the customer experience and service.

Below you can see a few reasons why businesses build booking apps:

• User-centric approach – online has become a new norm for people. When they need to book an appointment or reserve a table in a restaurant, they don’t pick up the phone to make a call. Instead, they book the required services online with just a few clicks.
• Source of data – booking solutions allow you to collect information about clients and their preferences. Businesses can use this information to target clients with relevant offers to increase sales.
• Marketing power – the data collected by booking software can be used to create a data-driven marketing strategy. When making a booking app, ensure you know how you’ll collect the data about users and how you’ll analyze and use it later.
• Additional revenue source – a booking solution can become an additional revenue source. Aside from making money by providing some services, you can use different monetization models to maximize revenue.
• Better brand recognition – an online reservations system is the face of your business online. Match a great app with the matching-level quality of provided services, and users will recognize your brand and share their experience with others.

Let's look at the key types of apps to understand better how to create a booking app.

On-Demand Booking Apps

On-demand booking applications are great for instant services. Booking software allows users to choose and order goods or services, place an order, and track its progress from shipment to receipt. Here are booking app types:

• Taxi booking ap
• Delivery booking app
• Home services booking app
• Laundry services booking app

In-Advance Booking Applications

Users of in-advance booking apps can choose the most suitable time and day and schedule appointments in a calendar. Many industries can benefit from booking app development of in-advance solutions.

• Hotel booking app
• Flight & travel booking apps
• Restaurant booking app
• Food and beverages apps
• Healthcare booking apps
• Beauty services app
• Events and entertainment

Features for Making a Booking App

If you want to learn how to make a booking app, you need to understand what booking app features you need to develop. Let’s take a look at some basic features that you can find almost in any mobile booking application and some advanced ones that will help your app stand out from the crowd.

• User registration & profile
• Robust search
• Booking process & details screens
• Payments
• Reviews & ratings
• Push notifications
• Geolocation
• In-app messenger

How to Create a Booking App: 8 Steps from an Idea to App Release

Booking app development can be a challenging process with many steps involved. Check the 8-step guide for detailed instructions on how to create a booking app and what it takes to release an app to the market.

Step 1: Conduct Market & Competitor Research

The development of any application starts with market and competitor research. Go through available applications in your industry, check out your competitors' solutions, and analyze them for weak and storing points.

Initial market research is a great way to understand the competition better and why some apps become successful while others fail to attract users.

Step 2: Decide on the Booking App Type

So, what type of booking app are you going to develop?

As you already know, there are a few types available depending on your industry and business objectives. Before making a booking app, decide what you’ll need to make it work.

Step 3: Identify a USP

What will make your app different? Why should users turn to it instead of competitors? Defining a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) will help you be better than the competition. A USP can be anything – from some unique feature that no other app has to lower prices or the ability to make last-minute bookings.

Step 4: Choose Functionality for Booking App Development

Before starting the development process, you need to have a clear idea of the final product. You need to finalize the list of features to avoid making last-minute changes that can skyrocket your development budget.

Step 5: Create UX/UI Design

Making an app user-friendly and attractive is the main task of UX and UI designers. Here are a few principles to follow:

• Minimalistic user interface that’s not overcrowded with unnecessary information that districts customers
• Smooth and fast user flow through the app to reduce abandonments and increase conversions

Step 6: Develop a Booking App

You’ll need to hire app developers for booking app development. As a product owner, you should be involved in the process and communicate with the team all the aspects of development. The goal is to ensure you’re on the same page and all the requirements are clear.

Below is a possible tech stack for making a booking app. However, the tech stack of your app may be different due to some other requirements and features.

Programming language: Swift or Objective-C for iOS; Kotlin or Java for Android

Backend development: Python or PHP

Calendar integration: Google Calendar

Payment integrations: Braintree, Stripe, Google Pay, Apple Pay

Push notifications: OneSignal

Maps integration: Google Maps API

Step 7: Test the App & Launch

Before your app hits the app stores, you must check it for bugs and errors. Quality Assurance is an ongoing process that can run through the whole process of app development. You’ll also need to make your app compliant with the requirements of different app stores.

Step 8: Get Feedback & Improve

After you’ve got feedback from the first customers, it’s time to make changes to your application. Customer feedback will guide you in the right direction, as there are always a few areas for improvement.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Booking App?

The rough app development cost ranges between $60,000 and $90,000 for a single version with the simplest set of features and a development time between three to six months. The more features and integrations you add, the higher the price will be. In some cases, app development costs can reach $500,000 or even higher if you’re building a complex application with some features powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

You can always get in touch with us to get a more precise app estimate. Read more about How to Create a Booking App.