Cost To Build an On-Demand Travel Management App Like Airbnb

Jan 15, 2020

With the enhanced On-demand app development, it has become easier for people to book flights, accommodations, and trains online. They can buy tickets by comparing the prices utilizing their smartphones and laptops. According to the report, the sales of the travel industry have improved to about 755.94 billion USD in the year 2019.

Moreover, as far as the statistics are concerned, the numbers are growing to a significant extent and are expected to reach about 1,000 USD by the year 2023. So, here are some Airbnb stats that will help you in improving your company’s ROI to a significant extent:

The Airbnb app has over 150 million users across the world.

You have the liberty to choose from about 650,000 hosts across the globe.

Airbnb network is spread across 81,000 cities and about 191 countries across the world.

By the year 2019, the value of Airbnb was about $38 billion globally. Moreover, by the year 2020, it is expected that the revenue will reach about $8.5 billion.

Since the ROI of such apps is high, it makes them great for starting a business around them. So, if you have been thinking to start a new venture around such a concept, ensure knowing all the aspects impacting its overall investment cost.

This is because the cost factor doesn’t depend on 1-2 things to get started, there are many others like hire mobile app developers who are good at their respective tasks. In this blog, we have covered the most crucial aspects and so, let’s get into it right away:

Technology Stack required to Create an Application like Airbnb

Global Payment: Braintree

Communication and Messaging: Twilio

Voice/SMS API for SMS/Voice and Phone Verification: Nexmo

Programming languages: JavaScript, Ruby, CSS3, and HTML5

Application Framework: Ruby on Rails

SQL data storage: PostgreSQL

JavaScript Framework: React.js

Cloud Storage: Amazon S3 and EBS

Automation Frameworks: PhantomJS, RSpec, and Capybara

Cloud Hosting: Amazon EC2

Revenue or Business Model to make an Application like Airbnb

Considered to be one of the best house renting applications like Airbnb, it provides free listings for hosting and letting the travelers search for the best places to visit. They have the right to select the destination where they want to meet. Further, they can choose the best one that matches their expectations and requirements. Moreover, if a user is trying to plan for a trip, he or she can use the platform to book the tickets.

So, here is Airbnb’s business model that you can let you understand how the company operates. Also, it will further help you to create an application like Airbnb that will generate good revenue.

Earnings via commission

Airbnb works as a broker and charges about 10 percent as a commission from the property owners or the hosts. This is done after confirming their tickets or bookings using this rental app.

Transaction fee from the users

It charges from users around 3 percent as a transaction fee at the time of payment.

Must-have Airbnb Application Features

Use Panel: Must-have Airbnb application features:

Signup/Login and registration

Profile Management

Notification Management

Reviews and ratings

Message System

Content

Reminders

Coupon Cards

Gift Cards

Cancel Booking

Add to Favorite

Manage Booking

Guidebook

Booking category

Favorites

Place Booking

Online Payment

Personalized Feeds

View Amenities

Filter/Advanced Search/ Refine Search

Social Sharing

Refer & Earn

Admin Panel: Must-have Airbnb application features:

Dashboard and Role-based dashboard

Users Management

Management of Amenities

Insights

Management of Booking

Real-time Reporting

Real-time Analytics

Management of Booking request

Manage promotions

Gift cards and offers

Payment Management

Management of Referral or invites

Push Notifications

Host User Panel: Must-have Airbnb application features:

Profile

Transaction history

Booking Request Management

Reviews and ratings

Activity types

Home listing

Listing Approval

Payment Setting

How much does it cost to build a mobile application like Airbnb?

Airbnb is an app that deals in the travel industry and also offers rental services to the people across the world. It serves as the best marketplace for all the owners and people who are seeking short-term accommodation services. Also, it has been changing the trend and the approach for people to find the best place.

It offers excellent opportunities for owners and travelers. Moreover, it functions across 190 countries across the world. And hence, it has managed to gross a lot of revenue in the global market. Before knowing about the cost of creating an app like Airbnb, you must know the features that have to be included in the app. The main reason why you must know the features is that it decides the cost of production of the app.

Apart from the must-have features, advanced features can increase the overall App like Airbnb Development Cost. Once you got an idea of the features that you must include, there are some other factors to consider. These factors will further ensure that you can come up with an aggregate cost:

The number of developers or the team that you need, which involves a Business Analyst, a Project Manager, a UI/UX designer, the Android developers, a QA engineer, the iOS developers, the Front-end developers, and more.

The platforms you will develop the app for- iOS or Android, or both.

The technicalities and complexities of your desired app.

The designing platform and the required or advanced design tools for your application.

The size of your application, which comprises of what features and functions you need. It could have both must-have and advanced depending upon the need. The more the functionalities, the bigger the size of the app will be.

After considering all these options, you will have to chalk down different stages that will be included to build a mobile application like Airbnb. When it comes to Airbnb, here’s the development process that had been followed:

It takes about 60 hours to analyze the setup of the application, implement the APIs, and design the database pattern. Furthermore, it includes the implementation of other services or libraries.

It takes about 16 hours of time consumption by the researchers to design the login feature of the application.

About 16 hours are consumed in order to create the user profile feature for the app.

For Airbnb app framework settings, it takes about 24 hours in order to configure and personalize the personal data or preferences. It further includes the creation of the filtering elements and many other related things.

And hence, overall, it takes about 500 to 600 hours in order to design the descriptions of the rooms. It further includes the implementation of maps, creation of registration for hosts, embeds messenger, and creation of a feature for invitations.

In order to build a mobile application like Airbnb, you can choose developers by analyzing their rates per hour. For example, in the US, the majority of developers charge about $50 to $250 per hour. The developers belonging to Western or Eastern Europe charge about $20 to $170 per hour. When it comes to Australian developers, the majority of them charge about $50 to $150 per hour. And on the other hand, Indian developers charge about $10 to $80 per hour.

And with the estimate of the number of hours required to make an app like Airbnb, development cost can be found out. You just have to multiply the hourly rate of developers as per their location to the time taken to develop it.

As per a rough estimate or idea, it costs around $10,000 to $40,000 on average, which can vary because the technologies are always changing. Moreover, the cost of the app maintenance and updation must also be kept in the account, which requires more than a time.

Conclusion

As the travel industry is continuing to grow to a significant extent, you can make a good investment in creating the best travel app, such as Airbnb. You can make a good amount of ROI within a short duration of time by addressing all the travel-related or accommodation-related issues of the customers. Make sure that you come up with a unique idea before creating an app.