8 best practices for creating apps for booking

If you have an efficient booking app, it brings your business to the 21st century. Nowadays, a website reservation system or a mobile booking app is a must-have for most industries.

Let’s look at the statistics

• E-Travel industry grows by 7.5% every year. Accordingly to this fact, the researchers conclude that the market will reach $1.5B by 2023. In addition, the revenue share of sales channels of the global travel and tourism market will increase up to 72% by 2025. This includes only websites and applications for hotels and transportation. Other online scheduling software like appointment apps and scheduling websites are planned to see a similar boost.
• More than 80% of bookings are made via mobile applications if are talking about travel booking. Because of that, mobile apps are the first choice for people to book tickets and organize the trip.
• According to Statistic Brain Research Institute, every year people spend an average of $148 million on travel bookings online.

What is clear: this is a promising prospect for everyone that thinks about creation a booking website or app.

What are the benefits that can be delivered?

• Gathering information on the clients – with the growing number of clients that like the idea of using online scheduling software, you have collecting data for personalization. It is a great opportunity to come up with special offers and increase sales.
• Building the brand – booking is the first point of contact with your company and your chance to make a first good impression on the clients. If the service and online booking system are user-centricity and convenient in use, have high-quality standards and security, users will have positive feedbacks that increase the number of users and, consequently, promote your band.
• Multiple revenue streams – with an online booking system, you can multiply profits via additional monetization models, such as income from fees, commissions, subscriptions, affiliate programs, ads, etc.

The article demonstrates a detailed guide on how to make a booking app that walks you through all of the essential points.

8 practices for your online booking system

Go through the following list of features to focus on some important aspects regarding how to make a booking website and app successfully. Choosing features that are essential not just for you but also for your customers is the next stage of the production cycle.

Convenient navigation, searching and reservation

User doesn’t like to waste time and wants to make a reservation, so your app should be as intelligible as possible. For better convenience, your app can also include a geolocation option, various spelling options and enable searches by different categories and filters. Good advice to eliminate zero search results by adding suggestions on locations, dates, services etc. – depends on your business.

User’s personal profile

Account page provides access to reservation history and enables custom settings, like currency, language, etc. Because of that, user page is a great place for marketing – it allows you to collect statistics, send newsletters about upcoming events or special offers and many others. However, the user registration process is a pitfall for many businesses. Here’s why: it gives the first impression and users decide if they will stay or drop the app. Make this process as easy as possible and require users to fill out only the key information. It is a great idea of authorization via social networks, for examples Facebook and Instagram, and allows a user to register with only one click.

Multi-language & global currency support

These days, online payment is a required functionality on the booking app. Before considering how to make a booking app, think over payment methods to include. It must be a safe and convenient way to book rooms, tickets, services, tours directly through an application or website. So, the process must be fast, flexible, and transparent, so be sure to include all possible payment methods, such as PayPal, credit card, cash, and design a user-friendly one-page checkout system. A reservation system that offers a secure payment portal will exactly improve your business performance. Also, auto-detected language can increase the user experience.

Data security

During the booking process, app collects a lot of sensitive information like personal information (email, phone), payment information, etc. This data can become a source of immense possibilities for hackers. One thing is clear: invest in security!  

Auto-replies  

Currently, automatic emails are seen as additional and mainly useful tool for business owners in various fields. Email reminders, feedback requests or tips are just a few examples of how companies improve communication with clients using modern technologies.

In-app messenger

In-app messenger is an excellent feature for any booking app, whether it is a travel booking website or appointment scheduler. For the best results, you need to have a support team shooting responses or a pre-programmed chatbot to cover customer questions. By utilizing AI and machine learning technologies, it is possible to provide instant and qualified feedback. However, note that this functionality may take a considerable amount of time and cost to implement.

Push notifications

A well-thought-out notification system makes life easier for users. Check-in and check-out alerts, friendly reminders, or recommendations can increase the level of customer satisfaction. As well, you may include weather notifications, price discounts, and other relevant notifications.

Create a booking website

For making your app perfect and increase prospects for success, the experienced business owner might want to also create a booking website. Usually, a properly built website extends the functionality and offers clients possibilities like access to information on success stories, high-resolution images, reviews, etc. When considering whether to create a booking website, think of the benefits you can get:

1. Presentation of the brand
2. SEO and digital marketing practices for promotional strategies
3. Insight information about user behavior and broad data collection for company strategies
4. Wider audience outreach that provides increasing sales because of cross- and up-selling.
5. Collect customer base via browser searches

So, the idea to create a booking website makes a lot of sense. It is possible to build a web platform in the first product version along with iOS and Android apps. Alternatively, you can plan to launch the booking website in a subsequent version.

Generally, any app functionality, simple or advanced, should be in line with customer expectations.

Talking a little bit about app development

It’s important to discuss and figure out what tech stack of your app, based on your requirements. Tech Stack is the group of technologies used to build mobile or web applications. It is a combination of programming languages, UI/UX design, development environment, framework, utilities, servers, tools, and services used by the development team.

Before designing an application, it is important to think about scope of your project, time to deliver the market, security perspective and scalability. Depending on these factors, you need to choose the technology solution that has the potential to solve these problems.

Important backend development

Building a stronger back-end helps to enhance your front-end as most of the tasks in the front-end are fully dependent on the back-end. Here are some important back end tasks:

• API designing and documentation
• API implementation
• Building business logic
• Database retrieval and storage
• Defining permissions
• Creating test script
• Deployment

Keep your Front-end design simple and intuitive

Your front-end application must be clean and appealing. Here are some tips to build an amazing front-end application.

• Use professional graphics designing tools
• Keep the entire application design relevant and should match the concept.
• Ensure there are no typography errors
• Ensure relevant content should have the same design
• Focus on quality rather than quantity
• Try to match the original design and make the design pixel perfect
• Create an app landing page showcasing the value of your application and encouraging people to download it.

That’s it

The development of a booking system is a complicated process that requires multiple details. Forward-thinking brands have applied these strategies to their campaigns to deliver the best user experiences while achieving high brand promotion. Drop us a line, and we’ll be glad to discuss your idea.

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