How Much Would It Cost To Develop An App Similar To Airbnb?

As far as the traveling experience is concerned, the innovation in the realm of e-hospitality with the perfect blend of technology has changed the whole scenario.

What is the major problem that a lot of keen gypsy travelers to people traveling for business purposes or groups or couples on trips face?

“It is finding the right accommodation in an unknown place.”

But with an app like Airbnb, it’s no trouble at all, the whole process of finding the right accommodation in the right location in an unknown city, nation, or country has become so sophisticated and smoother.

Cost To Develop An App Like Airbnb

What is Airbnb?

Airbnb is a global platform that focuses on enhancing the traveler’s experience. Airbnb is a marketplace for travelers where they can easily find and book amazing accommodations around the globe online via their tablet or smartphones.

Airbnb is also not limited to just booking rooms. The users can even book a suite, a whole apartment, a yacht, and even a houseboat.

Airbnb calls itself a peer to peer online marketplace enabling people to enlist or rent short or long term stays in their residential property. So basically, Airbnb acts like a broker that helps people to lease any place of accommodation for people who want to book it privately.

By now, Airbnb has expanded in approximately 192 countries, and the listing includes 3,00,000 lodges or accommodation places in around 65000 cities. Anyone who wants to rent a room, an apartment, a villa, a cottage, or an entire property they can do so on Airbnb.

What Is Airbnb’s Business Model?

Airbnb is a virtual global platform that bridges the gap between the boarders looking for good yet cheap properties and hosters or property owners who want to rent their space for accommodation, to generate some cash flow through their well-maintained homes/houses.

• Owners who are willing to rent their space for a short period like days or a couple of weeks can list their property on Airbnb.
• Owners add their property details like rent, check-in, and check-out times.
• Owners also have the right to reject or accept the bookings after checking the social media profile of a guest.

All that a traveler requires to do is register and then fill up their profile. Upon registering they can scroll through various properties and book the one that seems perfect to them, calculate the estimated cost, and then rent it.

That’s all.

Airbnb’s Market Statistics

Considering the global market, Airbnb has more than 60 million active users and approximately, 5,00,000 bookings, more than 7,00,000 hosts, and 2 million listings. The estimated revenue earned by Airbnb is around $900 million.

The below image shows some Airbnb users in the United States and Europe from 2015 to 2020 (in millions).

Airbnb’s Rivals?

Airbnb is a game-changing traveling app that is growing popular, and many businesses nowadays are trying to find How Much Does It Cost To Hire An App Developer for building this type of app. It is not the only platform offering listing and booking accommodations across the world. Every successful start-up has rivals and competitors, let’s look at some of Airbnb’s opponents:
These are amongst the key players in the market:

FlipKey:

Owned by TripAdvisor, because of its manual verification program by its website’s employees, it has a mass of users and the highest quality rates. It also offers 5000 deals daily.

HomeAway:

It has over 1 million listings, the services are similar to Airbnb, but it also has its insurance program and a couple more services. It’s the biggest rival of Airbnb with its regional sites like TravelMob, VRBO, and VacationRentals.

A couple more verified and tested key players are out there in the market. This particular field has so much room for innovation, exciting ideas, and their implementation, which also proves that there are tremendous opportunities for cutting-edge technologies to widen the potential in this field.

Probably, it may seem like the best time to develop an app like Airbnb.

App’s Panels

The app has three kinds of user panel-

• Admin Panel
• Host/Owner User Panel
• Traveler/Guest User Panel

Admin Panel

• Sign in
• Dashboard
• Role-based dashboard
• User Management
• Booking Management
• Promotions & gift cards management
• Payment setup
• Manage referral/invites
• Real-time Reports & analytics
• Booking request management
• Notifications

Host/Owner User Panel

Property:

• Home listing
• Listing Approval
• Manage Booking Request

Payment Option:

• Payment Setting
• Transaction history

Traveler/Guest User Panel

• Login/Sign Up
• Search/Find
• Booking category
• Book your accommodation
• Manage Booking
• Pay online
• Personalized Feeds
• See Amenities
• Filter/Advanced Search
• Add to Favourite
• Social Sharing option
• Refer & Earn
• Instant Messaging
• Content
• Reminders

Features Of The Airbnb App

Before building an MVP For Mobile App, you should clearly determine the core and add-on features of your product. Below is an overview of all the features of the Airbnb app. You will need to know this before you develop an app like Airbnb for your business.

Airbnb has two users- Hosts and Guests.

Features that are similar for both Guests and Hosts:

• Sign up/Login via social network or email
• Settings (Notification settings, Change email or password)
• Profile (Personal details)
• Notification system and panel
• User-friendly dashboard

Core Features for Guests:

• Manage Profile (Personal information)
• Browse Properties
• See listings
• Send and communicate requests via messages
• Create new claims, and
• Accept/ Decline offers
• View and manage bookings
• Rate hosts and leave reviews
• Manage payments and view transaction history

Core Features For Hosts:

• Create a personal page to become hosts
• Manage page information
• Manage to list (information like details, photos, prices, and schedule)
• Communicate with guests via messages about their booking
• Accept or Decline bookings
• See past and upcoming booking details
• Rate and write reviews for guests
• Manage Payment and see transaction history

All the features listed above are the core features of the Airbnb app, and you must keep it in mind before developing an app like Airbnb.

Factors Affecting The Cost Of Developing An App Similar To Airbnb

It is very crucial to know about the key factors that play a significant role in developing an app like Airbnb. You can always go for various approaches, but the basic structure and factors affecting app development will remain the same.

The Platform: Android or IOS

Airbnb is available on both the platform, but what you should know is that the cost of iOS mobile app development will be different than that of the Android platform. Usually, the cost of developing for the android platform is about 20-30% higher than the iOS platform.

The Design

If you are considering developing an app with an exclusive and appealing design, then you should know that it will influence the price of developing the app. You will have to choose between the typical design or custom design.

Technical Complexity And App Testing

Any additional feature added to the app and the technical complexities of such features and testing the app before its launch may implicate additional cost.

Manpower Employed On The Project

The size of the development team will hike the app development cost. It is highly recommended to keep the size of the team concise and small. Generally, the group comprises a project manager, UI designer, an administrator, etc.

How Much Will It Cost To Develop An App Like Airbnb?

In this section, you will discover the components and how long it takes to develop the app.

Determining the price of developing a Trip Planning App like Airbnb is influenced by the significant factor which is, the company’s rate per hour. The number of hours multiplied by a specific rate fixed by the company will be the price of developing the app.

Before getting into the details, let’s take $50 as an average price from the industry.

Now, let’s delve? into the details of developing the app one by one and how much cost it would incur in each step:

First Step:

Without some necessary steps, it is impossible to begin the project. For building a similar but basic app like Airbnb, the process may take around 49-60 hours. Where;

• 20-25 hours for setting up the plan
• 20-25 hours for implementing the API
• 10-12 hours for the database setup
• 14-18 hours for performing services and libs.

So, if the company is charging $50 per hour, then it will cost around $2500 – $4000.

Registration:

Just like other apps, here also, the user will have to register first with their phone number and email ID. Then agree to the terms and conditions of the app.

Estimation:

The estimated time required to develop this feature will be almost 12 hours, and it may cost somewhere around $300.

Create a Profile:

The user has to enter their details. However, the developer will have to create two profile pages, one for the guest and one for the property owner.  Information such as phone number, email ID, username, birth date, gender, address, and a few other crucial information is needed to be entered by the user.

The particular user profile will allow you to keep a record of each customer and their favorite destinations and touring habits, allowing you to send costumed special offers or general offers to your customers.

Estimation:

It will take around 24 hours to integrate this feature, and it will cost about $600.

Filters:

There are two options, if the user is a guest, then he/she can start searching for the susceptible host, but if he/she is a host, then he/she can add his/her property.

To find the right host, a user may need to enter the following details like the house, apartment, shared bed, price, accommodation, photos, etc.,

Being the guest, the user gets to choose the best host, and there are so many filters to choose the right accommodation:

• Place you are going to visit
• Check-in and Check-out dates
• Total number of guests

Rooms: (Choose the right room)

• Property type
• Room type (private room, apartment, shared room, etc.,)
• Sort by price
• Size (How many beds, bathroom, bedrooms, etc.,)
• Instant Book and Superhost option
• Amenities
• Neighborhoods

Estimation:

The search/filter feature may take up to 24 hours to develop, and the cost it incurs will be somewhere around $1200.

Room Variants:

After applying the filters, the results page will appear with all the options satisfying the filters. The user can choose anyone from the displayed results. After tapping on a result, the user will see the following information:

• Pictures
• Reviews
• Ratings
• Description
• Location map
• Terms and Price

This information will help the user to familiarize themselves with the selected accommodation.

The user will also see, the house rules (if any), cancellation rules, minimum booking period, and extra charges applicable such as meal, laundry, etc.

A calendar view is also available to check out the dates of availability.

Estimation:

This particular process takes about 180 hours or more to complete:

• 20-24 hours for the list of variants
• 40-45 hours for details about the property
• 16-18 hours for the host’s profile
• 15-17 hours for rating and reviews
• 40-42 hours for the booking feature
• 16-18 hours for setting up the check-in and check-out dates
• 16 hours for the calendar view of available dates
• 16-18 hours for developing the “message/text the host” feature

The amount incurred will be around $9000 for this part.

Refer And Invite Friends:

The users can also refer and invite their friends.

Estimation:

It takes about 24 hours to develop which will incur around $1200.

Add To Favorites:

The user can add any chosen variant to his/her favorites to check it later while looking at other options.

Estimation:

It will take about 11 hours to implement this feature, and it will incur around $550

Language Translation Feature:

The language translation feature allows the user to translate every description into their mother tongue. But how does it function?

We send a particular description to Google Translator, where the actual translation takes place, and then the text is translated into the desired language. This feature bridges the communication gap between the host and the guest.

Estimation:

It takes 4 hours to develop a translation feature, and it will cost around $200

Guide:

The guide feature displays some exciting places and locations worth a visit on the map around the selected property.

Estimation:

To develop this guide feature, it will take around 10 hours, and it will cost approximately $500.

Map And Navigation:

This additional map feature is an add-on to the filters, guests can also search for the perfect accommodation, via a map. It makes it very easy to search room if the guest wants to stay near a landmark or in a particular place which is not on the list.

Estimation:

Developing the map service like Airbnb will take about 16 hours, and it will cost around $800

Messages:

With the help of the messaging app, the user can directly get in touch with the host and vice versa from within the application.  It saves a lot of time for both the guest and the host.

Estimation:

Developing such an instant messaging feature will require at least 30-40 hours, and it will cost somewhere around $1500 to $2000.

Become a Host:

If someone wants to rent his/her space, they can do so by becoming a host on the app. To become a host, the user will have to register by filling up the profile and then create an ad with their apartment, room, or house. With the help of the mobile app, the user can find out the price he/she can charge for his/her place.

Estimation:

This feature will take approximately 100-120 hours to develop, and it will cost around $5000 – $6000

Settings:

From the settings menu, the user can configure:

• Push and SMS notifications
• Wishlist
• Payment method and currency

Estimation:

It will take around 20 hours to develop and the cost incurred will be about $1000

Backend Development:

The most crucial part of the development process is the development of the server-side part-backend. It is not at all possible to develop an application without working on the backend for the proper functionality of the app. Hence it is a difficult and time-consuming process.

Estimation:

The backend development is the backbone of the app, it usually requires about 600 hours to develop, and it incurs somewhere around $30000

The developers of the Airbnb app took care of everything, so the user does not have to juggle with any other third-party apps for any reason.

Every feature is available in the app itself, and the mobile app development company India continues to improve, and that’s the reason the Airbnb app is considered to be a leader among the other apps.

Conclusion

Finally, What is the Average Cost Of Mobile App Development for an app like Airbnb?

After summing the duration of each process, it is clear that it takes around 1090- 1200 hours. After multiplying the hours with $50 (the average development price), we get a sum of $54,500 to $60,000.

The particular price range gives you an estimated sum of money required to develop a $900 million revenue-generating app like Airbnb.

Ultimately, how much would it cost to develop will depend on the number of features and the design you want for the app, and it can be completely different from this estimation.