Why do I Need a Mobile App? Here's our Travel Edition

With the COVID-19 vaccination making global headway, it is comforting to know that we are not far away from a day where we can safely socialise, be around loved ones and make travel plans again. Soon we will be able to plan our overseas adventures with the family and finally get back in the air to attend our corporate events, conferences and business trips. With travel forthcoming, now may be the optimal time to invest in a travel application. In this blog, we will highlight the differences between mobile websites and applications and four unique advantages a mobile app offers travel brands.

Mobile Web Development Versus Mobile App Development

In the past, delivering an excellent mobile experience was limited to mobile application development. Between tiny buttons and cut off links, constant scrolling and hard to read pages, websites developed before mobile optimisation were frustrating to operate and resulted in high bounce rates and early abandonment. Now, with the introduction of Progressive Web Application (PWA), mobile web development has improved significantly. At the same time, the AppStore and Google Play have become so saturated that it can be hard for brands to stand out from the crowd. Which leads us to the question, in today’s world, why do you need a mobile app at all?

For many industries and innovative companies, a mobile app remains the best way to deliver a branded utility that will boost engagement with your customers. Mobile apps provide unique mobile and tablet experiences and contain functionalities that cannot easily be delivered from a website. Here are Arishi's four advantages of having a brand travel app:

1. Travel Apps can Prevent your Customers from Getting Lost

There is no worse feeling than travelling alone in an unknown area without a signal. Whether you are temporarily off the grid when crossing different territories or self-navigating through a new underground system, travelling without the internet or a local guide can be daunting. The good news is most navigation apps such as Google Maps can connect to GPS entirely offline via our smartphones and tablets. By downloading specific applications ahead of your journey, you will be able to follow transportation maps, hiking trails and bike paths without using any cellular data. We can all stop squinting at the tube map and start thinking about travel app development.

2. Travel Apps Make Travelling Easier

Usually generated by a QR code within the app, mobile travel apps grant travellers easy access to essential documents such as airline boarding passes and train and bus tickets. This allows passengers to skip the long queue at the check-in desk if you have no luggage to check and speed up the time spent at security. Some travel apps are built with functionalities that keep customers informed about check-in windows, seat changes or upgrades and travel delays, thus providing a seamless travel experience in real-time.

3. Travel Apps Create Powerful Sales Opportunities and Value via Push Notifications

This leads us to one of the most valuable advantages mobile travel apps have over mobile websites: push notifications. Forward-thinking travel brands who decide to invest in a mobile app can send a push notification straight to their customers’ smartphones in seconds. These notifications may contain important information supporting company duty of care such as notifying users of flight cancellations and security issues. More importantly, they can provide instant revenue opportunities including flash sales and preferred partnership promotions (i.e. rental cars, hotels, etc). Push notifications are much harder to ignore than an e-marketing campaign and therefore a big win for brands.

4. Travel Apps are Perfect for Guests and Hosts

Similar to Uber, accommodation apps such as Airbnb and Vrbo provide a two-way review system to ensure hosts and guests have the chance to rate each other after each stay. Properties with great reviews will rank higher on the app and guests with excellent reviews are more likely to be approved to hire out a home for the weekend. Customers can also filter out what type of property they are looking for by price, location, amenities, pet-friendly policies and more. They also have the opportunity to send messages to their future hosts, before their stay to answer any questions.  Although these features can be built into a mobile website, Criteo’s Summer Travel Report found that having an accommodation app is the fastest way to increase last-minute, high-value bookings. With the use of promotional push notifications, 41% of hotels receive bookings within 24 hours of arrival on mobile apps.

The days of seeing a tourist with a local guidebook are over. Travel apps make navigation and future planning for upcoming adventures and business trips virtually seamless for travellers. With the right development team on your side, mobile apps can be 100% customised to suit you and your customer’s needs. Choose the right developers to execute your vision. Learn more about mobile app development in our recent brochure or get in touch with Arishi to discuss your mobile app requirements.