How to Make an App like Airbnb: Develop your own Vacation Rental App

Over the previous decade, Airbnb has evolved into one of the most well-known and successful rental apps in the global market leading all other competitors. What are the major reasons for its distinctiveness and success? What is the platform’s monetization approach for profit? Is there a quick way to build a comparable platform?

Table of Contents

• Overview Of Airbnb
• Working Principle of Airbnb
• Critical Features for Creating a Good Rental App like Airbnb
  • Simple Registration
  • Clean UI for Booking the Desired
  • Instant Messaging Service
  • Push Notification
  • Simple Search Feature
  • Details of the Accommodation
  • Easy to Use Payment Method
  • Simple Cancellation
  • Administration Panel
• Conclusion

Overview of Airbnb

The idea for Airbnb originated with two designers who shared their house with three tourists in need of a place to stay. Today, the concept has become a global phenomenon, with people who have spare rooms using Airbnb to host visitors. This platform allows residents and visitors to share their interests and experiences.

The Airbnb-like app is a travel business that provides a single platform for renting flats all around the world. Airbnb provides enticing marketplaces for both landowners and those looking for short-term rentals or accommodation.

Working Principle of Airbnb

Airbnb is more than a marketplace for tourists and hosts. It enables the host to list their home, including pricing, amenities, restrictions, and other details. It allows tourists to look for vacation rental properties by specifying the area, zip code, radius, price range, and several other filtering and sorting options.

While browsing the various homes, tourists may reserve the property for the precise days they want, and the host will accept the request if the property is available for rent on those dates. The host has the authority to accept or decline the booking request. Once the host confirms the booking request, travelers may begin the payment process. Both the stay host and the tourist can review each other after their stay. It can assist other hosts and tourists in making decisions.

Critical Features for Creating a Good Rental App like Airbnb

Simple Registration

Although consumers must register on your platform to access your app, do not make registration compulsory. Compulsory registration may limit your user base and severely impact the success of your app. A preferable way would be to allow non-registered users to access the basic capabilities of booking and finding trips. You may also include features like social login, which significantly reduces the time necessary for user registration and confirmation.

Clean UI for Booking the Desired Place

The app’s objective is to allow users to select residences in their chosen location and book them for a specific amount of time. Making an effort to provide a user-friendly and efficient booking experience can boost user engagement. Don’t irritate the user with unnecessary information. Just make sure it only contains the information required to generate a successful reservation. Geolocation tracking is a useful feature you may provide to make it easier to use the app’s booking functions.

Instant Messaging Service

When a guest is booking or utilizing another service on your site, they may want clarification. In such cases, having an instant messaging option that facilitates communication between the parties engaged in the transaction is beneficial. This function allows the guest user to communicate in real time with the property owner/representative. The messaging feature on your platform can aid in the prevention of disagreements.

Push Notification

You’d want to mimic Airbnb’s great notification system, which provides consumers with up-to-date information about their bookings. This functionality may also be used to promote deals and discounts to app platform users. This functionality will be useful for improving sales and money generated by your app.

Simple Search Feature

The search feature is one of the most important aspects of an app like Airbnb. Prospective guests may look for properties by entering a keyword, such as their name, or by selecting a specific area, which will show all available properties. The search option improves the utility of your software.

Details of the Accommodation

An accommodation information page must be included in your travel and tourist app. When traveling, all users would like to have a closer look at the housing they choose to stay in. Here are some elements to consider including on the details page.

• A map that shows the near vicinity of the property.
• The renting costs
• Relevant information about the building
• Images of the inside and outside of the property
• A button that says “book now” or something similar.
• Add this place to the user’s list of favorites.
• Feedback or reviews from previous guests
• A list of the services provided by the property host.

Easy to Use Payment Method

You should also make it possible for users to make payments without difficulty. Payment integration, like any other financial transaction, must be safe, secure, and simple to use. Although Airbnb supports credit cards and PayPal, you are not required to limit your app to those two methods. It’s a great idea to provide your app users with a variety of payment alternatives. It will assist you in expanding your user base.

Simple Cancellation

In addition to developing tools for simple reservations of lodging, customers should be able to cancel the booking without any issues when the need arises. In this sense, your platform should feature a cancellation policy. Simply look at successful travel websites and observe their cancellation policies.

Administration Panel

Although property owners and visitors are the major users of your travel app, an administration part of the app is required. This is the part where the app administrator may manage the app’s listing, integrate management solutions, and obtain critical app statistics. In summary, the backend for app management is just as vital as the frontend elements for improving the user experience.

Conclusion

We hope that now you have a good understanding of how apps like Airbnb work and the features they provide. If you’re still unsure about your app concept and where to begin, don’t worry, as an established Web and Mobile Development company, we can help you in selecting the best path for the development of your app. You can simply send us a message at any time, and the team of our consultants will respond right away to your query.