Why Building Travel MVP Makes More Business Sense
Travel has always been one of the booming industries, thanks to the never-ending quench of travel enthusiasts, Leisure travel is also considered to be one of the most satisfying ways for people around the world to ‘spend and also be happy about it’. And to add to its sheen is the online advantage to Travel.
Travel is now more accessible and hassle-free than ever before — thanks to the consumer-friendly travel websites and travel apps. Here are a few awesome statistics that’ll make you ponder of the idea of building your own travel website and travel application.
- Global online travel sales have registered phenomenal rise from USD 470.97 billion in 2014 to USD 755.94 billion in 2019. More so, it is predicted to cross USD 817.94 billion in 2020.
- The proportion of direct website bookings in 2018 was 66.7%, which shows the growing influence of travel websites on online sales.
- 51 percent of smartphone users use their device for travel-related activities. This involve a host of different mobile app for travel from flight booking, hotel booking, currency convertor, GPS, weather, translator, taxi booking, etc.
- Most travel bookings are executed at least 90 days before the trip. However, the next 3 months are spent online to zero down on the ‘experience factor’ like reading reviews about hotels, restaurants nearby or about the spa in the resort.
- With Reviews playing a crucial role, it is important for travel websites, hotels and resorts to request for reviews. Statistics reveal that 95% of reviews given are on an average positive. This can be a great tool to boost your business.
- Booking pattern analysis reveal that desktop still remains the most popular device when it comes to travel bookings across the globe. This can be a notable factor to estimate the demand for travel websites even in the age of heightened mobility.
How to Choose the Best Feature for Your Travel App MVP
When you are creating a travel website or application, keep your eyes open. Research on what is trending, to get an insight about what your target market (the travel enthusiasts) is searching. And make sure you analyze the User Search behavior (by device used) in the Travel industry as they differ for website and mobile app users.
- Analyze user search pattern and interest, to decide the apt travel website and app features for MVP that are popular and in-demand.
- Keep an eye on competitor travel apps and websites. Research and read reports on what are working and what is not.
But remember, is of no use cloning a successful product. Find out the ‘good to have’ features the popular product is missing and build your own MVP for travel.
How Techtic Can Help Build Travel App with Essential Features — You Cannot Miss for Your MVP
If you are a travel enthusiast looking to build a travel website or a travel app, you must have come across this very question umpteen times — How much does an app like Uber, AirBnB, Yelp or Trivago cost?
Well, it will cost you a lot of your hard-earned money for sure. But before you take that BIG leap inspired by their thumping success story — here is a word of caution from the experts at Techtic.
- DO NOT build a clone or a replica of a winning application or website. It is not only too difficult to dethrone a king, but is also not worth the time, money and effort invested.
- DO NOT invest your money to build a travel app for an ‘app idea’ you aren’t sure has a market need.
Instead build a minimum viable product (MVP)for your travel app idea and once you are convinced of its potential and its need for the target audience, build a full-fledged travel application.
This calls for the need to choose the most viable business strategy, and clarify the purpose for which you are building a travel app MVP, along with identifying the most common use cases. Here we discuss the most viable features for each kind of Travel application:
MVP for Travel Planning/Organizer App
- Search for destinations
- Search for itineraries
- Set up schedules
- Set upstore e-tickets
- Set up QR codes
Building a travel planning app like TripIt, Foursquare, Google Trips, or Passbook usually starts at USD 55,000 for a web app and USD 75,000 for web and one mobile app.
How much an MVP for Travel Planning/Organizer App would cost
MVP for Navigation & Geolocation App
- Offline Searching
- Geolocation is a must
- Google Maps SDK for iOS and Android
- Google Places API / Facebook Places API
- Bookmark locations
- Traffic Data (wherever available)
- Voice-guided directions
- Alternate routes
- Speed limit display
Interestingly, 85% travel apps have the navigation and geolocation feature, and this is integral even if it is in the MVP or beta version.There has been a steep rise of 150 percent in the Near Me searchesin Google Map since 2018 — strongly indicating the dominating effect of this feature and the search engine.
Building a navigation app like Google Maps, Maps.me, Waze, Google/Facebook Places starts at USD 40,000 for one mobile platform.
Find out how much an MVP for Navigation & Geolocation App would cost
MVP for Booking App
- Search feature to find the best deals
- Set up notifications for price changes
- Inbuilt option for hotels check-ins
- Improved filters (type of hotel room, room tariff, with/without breakfast, number of guests, check-in and check-out dates)
- Loyalty program
- Multilingual
- Global currency support
- Attractive deals
The average development price for building a booking application like Booking.com, AirBnB, Expedia, Kayak, etc starts from USD 55,000 for web platform; and from USD 75,000 for web and one mobile platform (Android or iOS).
Find out how much an MVP for Booking App would cost
MVP for Trip Review & Rating App
- Review authentication system
- Location-based functionality
- Push notifications
- Ratings and recommendations
- Filter algorithm that chaffs fair reviews by real users
- Reviews can be hidden, but never deleted — stays visible in user profiles
- Stickers, badges, virtual currency, ranks to improve engagement and retention
Building review and rating apps like Yelp, Trip Advisor and Trivago with its API approximately cost USD 50,000 for web and from USD 65,000 for web and mobile platform.
Find out how much an MVP for Trip Review & Rating App would cost
MVP for Taxi Services App
Building an app like Uber, Lyft, Careem or Grab would cost USD 60–70K for web platform and from USD 85–95K for web and one mobile platform.
Why is it Wise to Build an MVP for Travel App or Website before You Take the Big Leap
Ideas and innovations have never found the glory as they do now in the era of startup revolution. With startups disrupting the way ideas are conceptualized and executed, what finally matters is to build products that customers will buy. Period.
With product development demanding investment of your time, effort and most importantly (hard earned) money to give shape to your idea, weigh in the viability of your product idea by building a Minimum Viable Product.
- Estimate the market validation
- Analyze the actual market response
- Be open to take critical feedback
- Work on the mending the tangible areas
Get in touch with our MVP product development experts for a free demo or price estimation of an MVP for Travel App and Travel website. We’ll get back to you within 1 business day.
Originally published at https://www.techtic.com.
