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The concept of finding home away from home is very strange upon hearing. But, thanks to Airbnb, it is possible now. Who would have thought that a concept like Airbnb will change the face of the rental market forever. As you are reading this, you have no idea how many bookings might be made over AirBnB just for the 2023 holiday season.
Not only this, there are so many businesses who have come into existence by following Airbnb’s concept and model. One of the latest being glamping. That’s the power this company holds today in the market. Spanned across the globe, today Airbnb has over 150 million users across the world which for sure is likely to increase in the coming days. As a result, increase in company’s growth and overall value proposition.
It doesn’t stop here, even pandemic had its fair share to increase the overall market share of tourism and vacation rental. In times like these, if you are planning to build an app like Airbnb, you are at the right place. In this article, I will walk you through all the ins and outs of Airbnb from its business model, marketing tactics and provide all answers on how to make an app like Airbnb.
So let’s begin!
Table of Content
- Why is Airbnb famous
- How to Start with Airbnb like App Development
- Business Model for Airbnb Clone App
- Monetization Strategy
- Marketing Strategies
- Conclusion
Why is Airbnb Famous
This is the biggest question that everyone has always asked. What is the secret sauce behind Airbnb success, how to replicate that level of success with an Airbnb clone app, and make an app like Airbnb?
Well, there are plenty of reasons which makes Airbnb everyone’s goto place when they are planning their next big or small vacation.
Sense of Community
From day 1 of its inception, Airbnb has believed in giving back to its community. During the toughest times, they urged their users to open the door for the refugees across the world. This sense of belongingness makes the community stronger.
Unique Marketing Techniques
Since its inception, Airbnb’s focus has been to provide unique experiences to its users on the platform and even beyond it. Today it has more than thousands of unique homes registered and each of them is marketed in different ways. So, when you are working on airbnb clone app development, focus on how you aim to touch people’s emotions with your marketing techniques and make them remember you.
User Experience Above and Beyond
The overall user experience is very important for Airbnb and it is also reflected beyond the platform. If you have observed, over experience of Airbnb is welcoming, giving, and aimed towards finding home away from home. These qualities help to make them stand out not only as an application, but as a company too.
How to Start with Airbnb like App Development
Define your Niche
Like every other startup, even Airbnb was started in an apartment by the founders and rapidly experienced growth. Took a while, but eventually the company found their niche and expanded across the globe. Having a unique niche for your Airbnb clone app helps you stand out. It can be anything from the service you want to provide or the experience you want your customers to have. For Airbnb it was and still is an experience and atmosphere they want to create. Similarly, try to find the niche your company aims to provide. Over all, this will help you to retain your users and also have your unique value proposition.
Competitive Research
Understanding your competitors will help you to know their strengths and weaknesses. Based on this data you will also get an answer to opportunities your company is likely to have. In fact, it is good to have a healthy competition as it helps you to innovate and think out of the box. Let’s have quick look at the competitors along with the some pros and cons:
| Company’s Name | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Tripadvisor | Wide range of service provided from luxury hotels, flight booking, to rental properties | Expensive prices compared to competitors in the market |
| HometoGo | Provides quick overview of what rental properties are available | Plenty of ads and unreliable pricing |
| Booking.com | Easy to use interface along with all the necessary information | Limited and expensive rental inventory in United States |
| Flipkey | Wide range of options available for rentals and users | High deposit rates |
The above mentioned list showcases some of the common pros and cons of your competitors. However, this is just a starting point. You can carry out competitive research in detail and include things like cost, user experience, services, accessibility features, and much more, this will ease the process of Airbnb clone app development for you and your team.
Define your USP and MVP
Carrying out through competitive research will provide you with your unique selling point which in turn helps you to attract loyal customers and retain them. A strong set of USP will help you to efficiently build a feature list as a result which can help you to build MVP model for your first sprint.
If you are struggling with defining your minimum viable product of your Airbnb clone app, don’t worry we have your back! You can rely on our strong team of researchers and strategists who can help you answer how to create an app like Airbnb, build a strong strategy and unique selling point around your product.
Feature List
Next up, let's talk about the feature list which your application might have.
Admin Features
Herein, admin will be able to moderate the platform, see all the statistics of rentals and users and can also manage any marketing campaigns.
Admin will be able to manage rentals and users on ticketing bases in an efficient way.
Herein, the admin will be able to manage any requests manually between rentals and users if any. This feature will ensure reliable communication between rental and users overall increasing reliability of the product.
Admin should be able to easily generate reports regarding the rents, commission earned, complaints from users and rentals, etc. This information will help to make necessary business decisions.
Guests Features
This feature is essential to help provide guests with personalized recommendations based on their location, stay history, and other things.
The thought of letting unknown people stay at your home might be daunting, this is when verification can help. Guests would be requested to upload their government IDs in order to verify and keep the platform secure.
These features will help users to efficiently search their favorite staycation places.
Quality customer support speaks for itself. You need to ensure that guests are provided with a secure platform and provided support whenever and wherever they want. Users can report any problem they have immediately.
Multi-payment support option will help both rentals as well as guests. You can go one step extra and provide users with an option to convert money in their local currency and showcase it. Going a little further in terms of user experience will give great returns.
Hosts Features
Hosts should be able to add all the necessary accommodation details in order to help users make informed decisions.
Ability to review users based on how they have left the house after cleaning will help other rentals on the platform.
In-app messaging will help rentals and users to have effective and quality communication with one another.
Advance Common Features
One of the common problems users have on Airbnb is the likelihood of hosts to cancel the accommodation last minute, that too just via chat message. Instead, you can provide an easy cancellation feature along with strict canceling policies.
Time to go beyond images and videos. Along with allowing hosts to upload these, you should also provide functionality to let users experience their staycation with AR and VR. Going an extra mile will help you stay ahead of your competitors.
Rewards system has always been a huge win for any and every company. In fact, this has also helped them have a loyal customer base. You can allow users to earn rewards on each booking they do on your platform and in turn they can redeem these rewards for their next booking. Overall making a win-win situation for everyone.
COVID taught us how everything can be contactless and digitized. Imagine allowing users to unlock their houses with digital keys. Yes! Airbnb is yet to have this, give that extra edge to your platform and provide easy check-in and check-out to users on your platform.
Design and Develop
Once you have a tentative feature list for your minimum viable product, your next step is to design and develop an application like Airbnb. Start with investing in experienced UX designers and UX researchers who can help you build user-centric applications. Having an application designed which fulfills user and businesses’ needs will make itself stand out.
Think of any big company or even Airbnb. One thing which has made them stand out is a good user experience. Design plays a crucial role in helping you retain customers and also build your brand.
Once you have designed an application, your next step is to develop an application using the latest tech stack. When developing an app like Airbnb we often tell our clients to first start with iOS development as its strict ecosystem makes the airbnb like app development process easy for developers. It will also give you some time to consider how your application is performing so you can make it better before launching the bigger market of Android.
Again for this start with investing in either hiring experienced developers or out-sourcing your project to experienced Airbnb app development company like ours.
Testing and Deployment
This is the final stage on ways to build an app like Airbnb. Testing is essential to ensure that the application is bug and error-free. Additionally, it also helps you to check-in with the changing needs of users which you can include in the future iterations. Once the application is ready and bug-free your next step is to deploy the application. Start with launching on App Store and Play Store firstly, but also depending on which ecosystem you have built an application in.
Business Model for Airbnb Clone App
Building a business model is essential to run any company. There are plenty of different types of business models which companies use in order to survive in the market and have multiple sources of income. Let's explore Aibrbnb’s business model and try to understand their value proposition compared to their competitor’s.
Following are Airbnb’s key partners meaning a source of income which they can expect. This money they tend to use towards their company in order to overall make the company's services even better.
The business model canvas also clearly depicts how and where the money is likely to be used and what is the value proposition it brings to the table. Moreover, it also depicts the revenue stream that is how the company is expected to have their stable source of income apart from their key partners. Lastly, the customers – their target audience. Having a clear understanding of your target audience helps you to build a product which is directed towards them.
Start by building a business model canvas for your company to help better understand different sources of income, your key partners, and who likely are your target audience. Here’s a template for you to refer to as you go ahead and invest in Airbnb like app development.
Monetization Strategy
Once you have a business model ready, your next step is to focus on ways you can monetize your application. Remember one revenue stream is not enough, you need to have multiple ways to monetize. Below, I have listed down common 3 ways for you to monetize your application:
Service Fees
This is the go-to method to generate money for any online booking application because it ensures stability in the revenue. For any booking done on your platform you can charge a certain amount of service fee on each transaction. Each of these amounts can either be fixed or can differ based on location, number of adults, reviews of guests, etc.
Note: For each transaction done on your app, even the App Store earns money. So, while fixating on the amount remember to consider their cut too.
Taxes
Based on foreign policies, you might also earn a certain amount of money on the value added tax defined by companies. However, this revenue stream is quite dependent on the government, it does not guarantee you a stable source of income, as policies keep on changing.
Exchange Rates
For xyz reasons if guests are already enroute to vacation in a different country, they are likely to see the cost in the local currency. If the booking is made in such a way, you can apply exchange rates and charge accordingly.
Again it is very less likely that a scenario like this will happen so it doesn’t ensure you with a stable source of income.
Subscription Model
This is again a common model for many applications to have a revenue stream. You can add 1 or 2 tier of subscription and provide features according to the tier chosen.
Wondering how to build an app like Airbnb? We are here for you. Reach out to Airbnb app development company like ours and our experienced team can help you develop a strong and quality product around your business idea.
Marketing Strategies
Today marketing is all about touching a person’s emotional quotient. There are multiple ways to market your product, but you need to understand where and how you will find your target audience. Understanding the demographics of your target audience and curating marketing strategies around it will help you and your company to stand out in the market. Below are some of the ways you can market your product on various platforms:
- Digital marketing
- Word of mouth
- Sales, Etc.
Conclusion
Creating an app like Airbnb requires a combination of technical expertise, strategic planning, and a deep understanding of the travel and hospitality industry. By focusing on user experience, incorporating essential features, and adopting a robust development process, you can embark on a journey to provide a unique and valuable service to travelers around the world.
Remember, while drawing inspiration from Airbnb's success, the key to building a thriving platform lies in innovation and addressing the specific needs of your target audience. With dedication and a user-centric approach, you can create an app that not only emulates Airbnb's success but also contributes to the evolution of the travel and accommodation industry.
We can be your IT partners. Invest in an Airbnb app development company like ours and we can help you answer how to build an app like airbnb and make your foot in the travel and accommodation industry.
