What is a travel app?
A travel application is a web or mobile application that helps users plan and coordinate their journeys. Travel apps may provide services such as booking flights, hotels, and other travel experiences; managing reservations; generating flight itineraries; comparing prices for different travel options (e.g., flight times, airlines); exchanging messages with others who are also traveling to the same destination; and reviewing past trips.
Travel apps are similar to many other apps that require users to interact with a map, such as navigation apps, location tracking apps, and real estate apps. Some of the most popular travel apps include Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, and Expedia.
Examples of travel apps built with Crowdbotics:
- A travel app for people looking to travel to Africa. After login customers select the experience they’re looking for in Africa. Pyramids, beaches, jungle, hiking trails and more.
- A mobile app that assists the user with booking travel.
- A travel recommendation style app. Users use a series of Q&A to determine likes & dislikes.
What is the typical cost to build a travel app?
A travel app usually costs about $37,500 to build. However, the total cost can be as low as $25,000 or as high as $50,000. A travel app with a low number of features (also known as a minimum viable product, or MVP) will be more affordable than an app that includes all intended functionality.
For example, here are some previous travel app price quotes from Crowdbotics:
How long does it take to build a travel app?
A travel app usually takes 222 hours to build. However, a travel app can be built in as few as 67 hours, or in as many as 400 hours. The exact timeline mostly depends on how complicated your specific app is. As a general rule, it will take longer if you require highly custom designs, niche features, complex logic, or non-standard release platforms.
For example, some previous travel apps build with Crowdbotics received the following hourly estimates:
Not seeing what you’re looking for?
Crowdbotics has quoted and built hundreds of applications for teams of all sizes. Browse our historical estimates by industry and app type to understand possible costs and considerations.
How to successfully grow your travel application
A travel app can grow by demonstrating that they provide value for two different types of users: potential travelers and frequent travelers. Potential travelers are users who are looking to purchase flights, hotels, and other travel-related services. They often need a lot of handholding to understand the options available to them and how those options fit into their personal travel plans. On the other hand, frequent travelers are more likely to know what they want and what is most cost-effective. These users expect an app with robust features that will make their trip more convenient.
Risks and challenges of building a travel application
A travel app faces both legal and reputational risks associated with user misrepresentation of identity, accommodation safety, and the storage of sensitive personal information. It is recommended that all travel apps provide robust mechanisms for reporting platform abuse, and conduct routine security audits to prevent unauthorized access to user data.
