Cost of Creating an Airbnb-like App for iOS and Android in 2023
Top Airbnb Features That Should Be Included in Any Airbnb Clone
Airbnb hosts, and Uber drivers show that the gig economy is growing. Knowing how to design an Airbnb-like app might launch a successful business as more individuals rent out their homes to travelers. Vacation rentals offer more comfort, privacy, and value than hotels. Vacation rentals are increasingly popular for leisure travel since they are kid- and pet-friendly. From 2022 to 2026, Grand View Research expects the US vacation rental industry to expand by 8.49%.
Airbnb connects vacationers with homeowners. Vacation rentals differ from hotels that offer short-term housing to guests. Our developers helped us create a thorough Airbnb App Features development guide and cost estimate. Jump in!
What is Airbnb?
Airbnb is a prominent vacation rental website that helps hosts and guests have a better experience. Based in San Francisco, Airbnb offers mobile and web hospitality services worldwide. The company launched a basic website where individuals could host travelers. After nine years of stable revenue, the company launched a mobile app.
How Does Airbnb Work?
The most important aspect of “how to design an app like Airbnb” is that it should be easy to use from start to finish. For great evaluations, the app should be simple and user-friendly.
Airbnb’s workflow:
- The property owner describes their property, including regulations, rates, services, and other information that attracts tourists.
- Airbnb renters sort by location, price, and other important factors.
- He will book an Airbnb house after choosing the perfect one.
- The property owner will accept or reject the Airbnb booking request later.
- If the Airbnb owner accepts the booking, the tourist loses the deposit. After the stay, the user pays the proprietor.
- Finally, Airbnb hosts and guests can rate each other for future reference.
Stack of Technology for an App like Airbnb
Building the Airbnb app framework requires familiarity with various programming languages and frameworks.
Know the following tech stack to Build an App Like Airbnb clone app:
- Angular.js, Vue.js, and React.js.
- AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and DigitalOcean.
- Django, Node.js, or Ruby backends.
- MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, and Azure DocumentDB.
- Redis and Nginx network caching.
Architecture of an Airbnb App Features
When building numerous services at once, you don’t know which will fail, so you need to think outside the box to design an app like Airbnb. Since every component of your program depends on others, the application structure will be complex. Thus, one service failure disables all features.
We have described the Airbnb clone’s architecture for key functionalities. Before discussing Airbnb’s architecture, let’s analyze some of the difficult elements that could cause it to fail.
- Instead of buying, many individuals rent holiday homes. Thus, prioritize searching above booking or renting.
- Remember that your Airbnb chatbot is two-way communication. APIs cannot handle chat, search, and booking services. Thus, you should create a high-resource service to connect hosts and tourists.
- Third-party payment gateways and verification services fail 90% of the time, reports say. Poorly written apps like Airbnb can collapse. Thus, both parties must manage payment services.
- Imagine a property owner spent 30 minutes providing property details, services, and photographs. After entering the information, they hit “submit” and lost their internet connection. Their time is gone. You just asked someone to spend a lot of time on your app, and now it’s useless. You may lose your user. Therefore, a reliable database storage solution can retrieve user data in such cases.
Advanced Functions for a Better User Experience
User satisfaction depends on user experience. A great user experience will keep customers loyal and help you reach your business goals.
You’ve been able to Build an App Like Airbnb that works without interruption and handles 100,000+ users. It can be modified as needed to reach product-market fit. Since your software has a solid base, focus on performance and user experience. Thus, we will provide user-pleasing features for your software.
1. User Verification in the Development of Secure Applications
The most important component of any software is user safety and trust. Securing host and guest travel experiences is crucial when establishing a vacation rental software like Airbnb.
Users must verify their online and physical identities when signing up for the app. You can request the host’s passport, driving license, or legal ID card. For verification, you can ask the user to upload a government-issued ID, selfie, or scanned headshot and compare them.
Facial image verification usually involves advanced machine learning. Jumio, Shufti Pro, Onfido, and others can verify your identity. These inexpensive technologies automate app verification.
2. Improve the Search Performance of Your App
Searching is one of Airbnb’s most used functions. Search services can make or break your app. Find a name from 1,000,000+ names. Correct? Developers use complex searching techniques to implement such functionalities. Why make such a tedious effort when you can replace expensive custom engineering?
3. Improve the Booking Process and Experience
Navigating Airbnb is difficult. After the host activates his property listing, the traveler should book it for renting. 50% of Airbnb hosts have used instant booking since its 2017 launch.
Under standard booking platforms, hosts often reject guest property booking requests. Guests cancel or have a bad experience. As a solution, hosts can list their properties for fast booking so users can book them instantaneously.
4. Payment Processing for Your Application
Many third-party payment gateways can assist with app payment integration. Payment gateway providers handle payment security issues. Follow your gateway provider’s best practices. Stripe and Braintree enable you to construct payment services. Some payment gateways offer React Native SDKs. React Native apps can wrap up native apps and combine them. But updating this wrapper with each release is challenging.
5. Property Exploration Made Simple
The research demonstrates that most Airbnb users rent based on host comfort and facilities. The customer continuously searches for a spot that makes them feel at home and gives them a sense of local culture to make their vacation fun and easy.
6. Last-Minute Trip Cancellation
Airbnb hosts can cancel bookings after depositing. In this circumstance, users would never use this app again. Charging the host a cancellation charge reduces last-minute cancellations. Another option is to add the host’s total cancellations to their profile or block last-minute cancellation dates. This will boost the app host’s trustworthiness and require them to cancel only if necessary. It will also prevent them from leveraging the surge price at the last minute and from taking requests during those hours.
Last-minute cancellations are difficult, but you must choose the best alternative for your audience. If the host cancels last minute, provide a close option.
7. Keeping your app’s calendar up to date
Calendar management is crucial. The Airbnb host accepts the user’s booking request but then learns the dates won’t work. It will establish last-minute cancellation, which is a big loss of transactions on both sides of the marketplace like Airbnb. This scenario arises because the host failed to manage their calendar. Contextual calendars can improve your app’s user experience. The host’s calendar visit traffic shows how they organize their time and what days they like. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, hosts may check their calendar.
8. Geolocation mapping
Airbnb uses geolocation to map all available apartments and their prices. The geolocation map displays apartment information when dragged, dropped, or zoomed. Clicking the marker will show property details. Mapbox Studio and OpenStreetMap can enable Airbnb-like functionality in your app. MapBox Studio lets you customize maps, and OpenStreetMap displays property data via Mapbox.
9. Improved User Experience Through AR-VR
Airbnb is testing augmented and virtual reality to improve customer experience. Most vacation rental firms, save Airbnb, integrate AR and VR to improve user experience. AR and VR let you display app users better. It helps the host show additional facilities in detail to sway guests. Thus, combining AR and VR, you may let your users experience staying at their selected accommodation before they arrive.
Create visual notes for vacationers using AR and VR. You may describe your property in minute detail without going there. If your app’s target audience likes this feature, add it to the MVP architecture. Google ARCore and Apple ARKit can give your app AR and VR features. Argon, VIRO, Augment, and Babylon.js are other options.
10. Enhancing Application Security
Startups must consider security measures even if they are expensive. Simple data security precautions can make a big difference for Airbnb.
Third-party API access regulates Airbnb user access. Encrypting data locally secures it. A simple tamper-proof feature can prevent reverse engineering of your programme. Make sure your app, like Airbnb, authorizes and authenticates new users. To protect your app from hackers, avoid using hardcore servers and third-party credentials in your code.
How would you benefit from a service like Airbnb?
Airbnb currently has over seven million listing users in over 200 countries. Every second, an average of six tenants use Airbnb to list their property, giving the service over 150 million members. Regarding money, Airbnb’s principal source is service fees from bookings charged to visitors and hosts. As a result, if you create a vacation rental software like Airbnb, you can get compensated based on the number of users of your program. The greater the number of users, the greater the revenue for your organization.
Depending on the reservation size, you can request that the visitors pay a non-refundable service fee based on the type of listing. After finishing the booking procedure, you can also charge the host.
Conclusion
Creating an app like Airbnb is one thing; growing it to millions of users is quite another. Consult your travel app development partners when designing your vacation rental app for the greatest results.
