The future of online booking apps has grown into an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars and is expected to continue growing exponentially over the next decade Online booking apps have taken off in the last few years, and new ones are springing up all the time as people look to make life easier. Of course, with so many choices already on the market, it’s hard to tell which ones will be around in ten years’ time. Read on to find out which booking apps of today will be making waves in the future!
What is an online booking app? How does it work?
Online booking apps such as Airbnb, Google Hotels and TripAdvisor have revolutionized how we book our travel accommodations. No longer do we have to go directly through a hotel booking service to get what we want. We can now find exactly what we’re looking for by way of user-generated reviews and beautiful pictures that help us envision our stay ahead of time. By offering an online platform that can easily connect us with a multitude of locations, these apps also help cut down on travel costs while giving us more options when it comes to accommodations. This is clearly an amenity people are interested in because these apps are only growing in popularity as they improve their service offerings. Will they continue on their upward trajectory or will they plateau?
Detailed Article: “Growth of Booking Apps Industry and Cost to Build Online Booking App”
Advantages of Online Booking App Development
Use online booking applications to make your business run more smoothly, and you’ll likely notice several improvements right away. You’ll have time to invest in other aspects of your business, such as improving customer service or adding new products or services, and you’ll still be able to take all reservations with ease. Plus, there are some additional benefits to using booking apps that might not be obvious at first glance—but will become apparent once you actually get started.
Online booking systems and scheduling software save your time
In today’s business world, time is money and businesses can save a lot of time by using scheduling software and booking systems. In fact, many business owners report that they save up to 80% of their scheduling and booking time by switching from paper-based systems to digital ones. Using online booking and scheduling systems saves you a lot of your time, that could be used elsewhere in your business. You don’t have to worry about managing any technical aspects: Another advantage of using an online booking system or scheduling software is that it takes care of all technical aspects for you. You don’t have to worry about hiring a developer or paying someone else to manage your website or app development project.
Resolve the bottleneck of phone booking systems
Phone booking systems are stuck in the 20th century, but with online booking apps, customers can book right from their phones—and that means your business will be available to more potential clients. Apps also make transactions easier; rather than typing payment and contact information into a website or terminal, you can save it all to a profile. And because they’re built for mobile use, booking apps are more likely to be found by customers on the go.
Huge sales and marketing synergy
Great sales and marketing synergy is a powerful driver that not only benefits you, but it also benefits your salespeople. Oftentimes, salespeople do not have all day to wait for you to come back from lunch or complete other administrative tasks. Salespeople need software that enables them to manage and sell products on their own time, yet ultimately still feed into your business processes. You should develop a booking app that’s optimized for use by mobile phone and tablet users so your customers have access to their appointments at any time and place.
Increased revenue thanks to upselling
The main advantage of developing booking apps is that it allows you to upsell and cross-sell, which means that your customers can buy more and at a higher price from you. If you have an online store, then you already know how important upselling and cross-selling are. When someone comes to your online store to make a purchase, they don’t usually come with all their needs met or they aren’t even sure what they want until they see it; in those cases, providing relevant products and suggestions would increase both average basket size as well as the number of transactions.
A modern approach to booking
These days, hotels and Hotel Booking Systems need to provide a range of options to get ahead. There are online booking and mobile apps that allow guests to book a room on their phones in just a few clicks. As well as staying up-to-date with all of these modern technologies, however, hotels also need to be able to offer those guests an excellent experience from beginning to end – something that typically starts well before they’ve ever got near an app or used any kind of technology at all. That’s where a fully-integrated hotel booking service comes in; providing one streamlined platform for both traditional bookings and also enabling new innovations like online booking and smartphone check-in/checkout are just two elements that can help modernize any property.
Cost Saving
The cost and budget have been a big deal for business owners, especially when we’re talking about major investments like developing an app. How expensive is it? What will be my returns on investment? Are there cheaper alternatives to online booking app development that won’t compromise on quality?
We encourage businesses to think outside of their traditional approaches to how they would choose their in-house solutions. In-house development can be costly, risky and generally a long, drawn-out process. If your business is constantly busy with loads of customers or even if you just want to save money and have more control over your app, outsource instead!
Future of online booking app development
The future of online booking app development for companies like Airbnb, Uber and Lyft will be heavily influenced by innovative payment solutions. These apps are not just places to look up rides, rooms or local attractions; they’re also increasingly becoming digital wallets, providing greater convenience to customers. With driverless cars on their way in a few years, it makes sense that some people wonder if there will be less need for online booking apps in general. But that isn’t necessarily true; we think these futuristic systems will actually give rise to more mobile booking solutions than ever before.
Final Takeaway
Although there is a lot of room for growth in online booking, these companies face challenges moving forward. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that e-commerce and other online markets are dynamic and ever-changing—meaning new opportunities will arise and companies will adapt to them.
We may very well see more acquisitions like Expedia’s purchase of Orbitz. And we may see future moves toward consolidation as players decide their best move is to get larger instead of reaching for scale through innovation. Only time will tell, but based on what we know so far, these trends—growth overseas, consolidation at home, and investment in mobile—will be key takeaways as we look back on older years.
