Now is the time for mobile apps whatever be the business sector. Today, if you are not available on a mobile app, customers may not connect easily with you. The travel sector is a booming one and the demand for travel related websites and apps has only increased in the last couple of years. Everyone can relate to this fact because almost everyone of us has visited TripAdvisor or MakeMyTrip or Yatra or even Thrillophilia! While some of us use travel apps for hotel reservations, flight and other travel arrangements and so on, some of us use apps that give out information about which place is better visited at a specific time in a year and what its attractions are and so on.
In fact, studies state that about 28% of the people spend time on travel apps. This is indeed a huge number to capitalize on! If you are into travel app development or looking to revamp your existing app, here are a couple of features that we think you should add to your app to make it interesting to users.
#1: Focus on the travel itinerary
Most people have to search for a lot of info about local places and have a tough time when it comes to formulating their itineraries. One of the advantages of guided tours is that all these are already taken care of. We recommend that helping your users with travel itineraries is a great way to keep them engaged while also being of immense help to them. After all, even you’d have faced the trouble of finding out local interests and wondering whether a particular place you wish to visit is en route with the other places you’ve planned for the day and so on. Also, when you help your users with this, they have a reliable source to look up to and can avoid getting fleeced by local guides and travel folks. This in our opinion is a great value addition to your app and should be the focus of your travel app development.
#2: Tell your users about the weather they can expect
Since the place that your user is going to be visiting may not be familiar to him/her, weather and climate forecasts can be very helpful. For instance, if the temperature is sure to drop when the user is planning to visit, a heads-up will enable them to pack the necessary gear and so on. We’ve dabbled quite a bit in Android app development in India, and we believe that helping users check cloud formation patterns, talking about the weather and any calamities that may occur in the region during a specific time in a year will be immensely helpful. Your users will not only be thankful for such information, but they will also be more inclined to use your app every time they travel!
#3: Adding relevant converters
Local currencies and times can be very confusing for international travelers. Imagine traveling to a foreign location and not being able to calculate the change that you need to tender for every transaction! It’s a traveling nightmare and users may have to download a separate calculator for this. On the other hand, if your traveling app had a currency converter, it would indeed be welcomed by users. Similarly, time zones can be very confusing, and it isn’t quite easy for everyone to keep up with varying time zones. Adding a time zone converter to your app can be a very useful and handy thing for your users in our opinion ( we have seen such value additions do wonders to the app’s popularity in our experience as Android app developers in India).
#4: Local transport service information
This is yet another hassle associated with travel to new destinations. Users generally have a tough time finding local cab services, and they aren’t sure as to the reliability of the service (which very important considering that they are unfamiliar with the terrain!), and hotel travel desks are an expensive affair. Such being the case, if your app can give out information about local can and transport services or maybe integrate with local service providers, your users are sure to be hooked to your app. For not only does this solve the user the pain of having to look online or ask about a transport service, but it also lends a lot of reliability which could be clinching factor for most users.
#5: Dining places in the vicinity
Well, this is another pain point for travelers. Many travelers like to experience the authentic cuisine and listing popular restaurants in the vicinity, or famous joints that are a must-visit can be appealing. Not only that, adding reviews from other diners and customers could be very helpful too. Similar to partnering with a travel service provider, you could also integrate with a restaurant or hotel listing service which can give your users useful information such as pricing, menu and customer reviews apart from the location.
#6: Reviews from travelers
You cannot deny the number of times you’ve visited TripAdvisor to look for reviews about a particular hotel or a place. Reviews from travelers make such sites compelling and integrating this feature with your app will make it more useful and appealing to users. After all, reviews help create awareness and pinpoint issues which could be major pain points for users and let users decide with a lot of information in hand as opposed to blindly choosing a place to stay or a place to visit.
Adding all these features to your travel app is sure to endear it to your users for your app can be a one stop solution for users and help them will all their travel planning needs.
