You want to create a hotel booking website, so now what? In this article a market consideration is presented, along with how hotel booking websites work, business models, trends and software functionalitу. In addition to creating a hotel booking website, the development of a mobile app is also discussed.
From, Smartertravel.com – two-time winner of “Best Travel Website,” there is a following list of the top hotel booking websites:
Each site has a rewards program. Some offer members-only prices, which attracts frequent travelers. The websites suggest rental cars or flight tickets, in addition to offering complete travel packages.
There is no common booking system for all hotel booking websites. However, many integrate either OTA (online travel agency) channels or PMS (property management systems) and channel managers software. These systems are used to automate the operations of booking accommodation.
An Online Travel Agency (OTA) is a type of sales channel. It is the easiest system to understand. It lists the property on websites so that guests can search for and book the property.
Property Management Systems (PMS) are also known as a property’s front desk system, which allow manage the daily operations of the property, including:
The Channel Manager’s primary function is to maintain and rate the inventory across multiple booking websites in real-time. This means that no matter where a booking is made, the risks of being overbooked are mitigated. Channel managers allow for travelers to choose any website they feel comfortable with.
There is no particular business model for each booking hotel website, but each uses advertising, agency or merchant models.
This model implies that the source of income is from advertisements. Display-based advertising can be used via banner ads. Additionally, the website can be paid for clicks redirecting visitors to your partner sites.
Hotel booking sites let hoteliers list rental accommodations on their websites. For a commission on each successful sale.
An OTA buys rooms from hotels in bulk and then sells the same with a retail margin. OTAs tend to combine agency with merchant models for broader market coverage in different countries.
This is the way to earn money by connecting a website to a world’s popular hotel booking platform. A detailed description of the terms of cooperation is always presented on a company’s website.
Before making a decision about becoming an affiliate partner, all that information should be taken into consideration. The partnership programs of such famous companies as Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Agoda, are described below:
Booking.com offers the opportunity to integrate the content from its website to yours and pays a commission for each booking made through it.
The integration allows choosing either worldwide or local properties which will be displayed on your website. The partner platform maintains an earning management system which gives an extensive analysis of the work effectiveness. This analysis helps to balance efforts and earnings. Booking.com partnership program has also a scalable range of payments. It depends on the number of bookings made via your website. It starts with 25% of Booking.com’s commission, but not of the purchase price.
TripAdvisor works only with Commission Junction (CJ) publishers. And the payment goes straight from CJ monthly. The payment is based on the level and quality of the traffic sent to TripAdvisor.
Agoda offers access to 925,000+ properties worldwide and high commission on bookings. Joining the Agoda Affiliate Program is totally free, but you must have a website before signing up for this program. Agoda provides its affiliates with tools to integrate to a website and the range of the tools varies from the easiest to more advanced.
Your domain will be registered in Agoda database and activated for tracking. Every 24 hours the affiliate system is synced with the booking engine and register all the affiliate’s bookings.
This ensures that hoteliers and OTAs can offer competitive prices for different periods or seasons. It also helps to predict the demand variation throughout the year. Travelers, in turn, can choose specific dates to get affordable accommodation.
Some customers need an instant response to questions. Providing booking services with assistants is a benefit. The assistants will guide the customers in looking for deals or with the booking process.
Companies can add more features to diversify services. Today, customers can book excursions and seasonal activities for their vacation. OTAs may even offer local companies’ tours.
Blockchain is new to the world of technology. There is much excitement around it, due to its novelty. Though its usefulness and success cannot be predicted. But it will not go unnoticed by the tourism industry. Smart contract usage will give more confidence to travelers. It can eliminate the risks of bad deals or other dishonesties.
Most websites do not provide a well-adapted interface to phones, phablets, tablets, etc. Furthermore, due to the positive growth of the online travel market, the number of relevant apps have also increased. Mobile applications can perform the same functions as websites. More user-centric personalization could make a better impression on potential customers.
Proper software can run and analyze different aspects of a business. A hotel booking website should provide a broad capacity of functions either for travelers and lessors. Wisely chosen software may even increase work efficiency. By automating different operations and services. If we take into account hotel booking websites, we can point to two terms: ‘front-office’ and ‘back-office.’
Front-office is the first thing customers interact with. It creates the first impression. Front-office should have a satisfying, welcoming and user-friendly interface. Beyond that, it can include such functions as:
Back-office integrates the software to administer the websites. It manages all reservations, bills, and accounts, as well as controls enterprise productivity. Included tasks and systems are:
When it comes to creating a website, it is worth to analyze already existing successful projects. Any distinctive features of your website will benefit you for the future advertising campaign.
Make a list of features which should be implemented to your website. If the web application will be developed from scratch, its a good idea to divide the list of alleged features into three groups: must have, could have, and can be added later. It will help you to plan your budget better at the beginning.
Think of the style of your website and keep examples on your mind.
To analyze your requirements is one of the first steps of the development process.
The next step is to look for a reliable software development company or a proper source to create a hotel booking website.
The pros and cons of each way to create a hotel booking website are given below:
Custom development is the best way to create a unique project that corresponds to particular needs.
Pros |
Cons |
Fully custom software After-sale support and updates Advanced security |
Time and energy losses Software development cost |
Open sourced Websites like Hoteldruid.com, Kwhotel.com, and Github.com. provide easy-to-integrate software. An open source code can also be edited.
Pros |
Cons |
Free or less expensive than custom development Saves time Easy to integrate Highly reliable |
Less user-friendly Lack of extended tech support Vulnerable |
WordPress is a free online and open-source content management system. It does not require any design or coding skills. Free templates for a hotel booking website can be downloaded here and premium here. The full customization guide can be found here.
Pros |
Cons |
Low cost Professional themes Mobile-friendly Many plugins |
Vulnerability Frequent updates Customizations require coding |
Website Builder does not require any code editing. It has many templates and tools that help you to build a website. If a move to another host is necessary, the website will need to be rebuilt. Examples include Ucraft.com that allows for the use of a domain name, Weebly.com that has advertisements and Webstarts.com that has a drag-and-drop interface similar to wix.com.
Pros |
Cons |
No coding skills required Cheap and fast No design skills needed |
Poor customer service Limited pages Limited storage Poor SEO |
If a business is online, it increases the probability of being noticed. Mobile devices have become a part of our daily life. Now, people can share and learn information on the go, interacting directly via push notifications. Notifications can instantly keep customers informed about services, products and features. That is a hotel booking mobile app should be considered.
There are two ways to create a mobile app: either through custom development or via an app builder.
Mobile application builders include Getapp.com, Buildfire.com, and Appinstitute.com. App builders can save money and time. Most of the operations are performed in a drag-and-drop fashion. There are also drawbacks through, including: feature and tool limitations and private information leakage due to the third parties involved.
A custom mobile application is developed according to the business’s specific needs. The project is entrusted to a professional and skillful team. Any features can be added or removed and the app data is secured. By adding analytic tools, the end-users’ preferences can be tracked to make competitive offers.
A business analyst can best determine how much will it cost for a custom web or mobile app. However, none will provide a set price, because it depends on the requirements. The following approximate prices are given below for web and mobile application MVPs (minimum viable products), based on $25 per hour:
Hotel Booking Website MVP | iOS MVP | Android MVP |
Front-end $6,000 – $8,000 Back-end $4,500 – $6,300 Design $2,000 – $4,000 Testing $1,600 – $2,200 PM $1,100 – $1,500 Total$15,200 – $22,000 |
iOS $5,000 – $6,000 Back-end $4,500 – $6,300 Design $2,000 – $4,000 Testing $1,500 – $1,900 PM $1,000 – $1,300 Total$14,000 – $19,500 |
Android $6,500 – $7,800 Back-end $4,500 – $6,300 Design $2,000 – $4,000 Testing $1,700 – $2,300 PM $1,100 – $1,400 Total$15,800 – $21,800 |
The drawbacks and benefits of booking websites and mobile applications have been thoroughly explored. The creation methods as well as the pros and cons were also presented. If you are interested in developing your own booking project, the VironIT software company’s experienced and skillful team can help. Contact us for more information.
Dan Ait says:
I like it
Ebenezer Ademola says:
Pls i need help on how much i will pay building a booking site with word press