What is a hospitality app?

A hospitality application is a web, mobile, or desktop application that enables users to make reservations at restaurants and hotels. Hospitality apps typically offer features such as the ability to browse menus and reviews, create guest profiles with photos and contact information, view available reservations for a given date range, book reservations online, interact with staff before and after their stay (for example by requesting room service), and submit reviews of their experience. Hospitality apps are often similar to certain customer relationship management (CRM) apps, with functionalities like guest/client check-in and tracking. Some hospitality apps also include reservations and ticketing functionalities. HotelTonight is one of the most popular examples of a hospitality app. Examples of hospitality apps built with Crowdbotics:

• A party planning app with a Stripe integration and in-app chat feature that allows users to search for and hire party planners to assist with their upcoming party. Party planners on the app have profiles that users can search for by keywords and see the services they offer, their pricing, and customer testimonials. Party planners are paid directly through the app, and a flat fee percentage is taken by the owner as a commission for providing the service.
• An advertising app with a Stripe integration built for the hospitality industry that provides businesses with the option to send out real-time coupons and offers when business is slow and allows customers to see top deals in their area.
• A data capturing app built for a church that serves as an event registration system.

What is the typical cost to build a hospitality app?

A hospitality 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 hospitality 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 hospitality app price quotes from Crowdbotics:

• $20,000
• $50,199
• $10,000

How long does it take to build a hospitality app?

A hospitality app usually takes 356 hours to build. However, a hospitality app can be built in as few as 67 hours, or in as many as 667 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 hospitality apps build with Crowdbotics received the following hourly estimates:

• 267
• 669
• 133

How to successfully grow your hospitality application

A hospitality app can use a variety of growth strategies to reach new users, such as offering free trial period subscriptions and asking current customers to refer the app to their friends (using referral credits). In order to achieve significant growth, a hospitality app must make it simple for guests and employees to access the app, which means that it is important for the app to be easily searchable within the platform.

Risks and challenges of building a hospitality application

For a hospitality app to be successful, it must attract a critical mass of users. If your app is not well-received by users, you may fail to gain the critical mass to make your business sustainable. In addition, you can face legal risks related to discrimination, privacy violations, and fraud. You should conduct legal research before developing the app in order to determine if there are any legal requirements that may impact how your app functions at the outset.