One of the most influential apartment-providing services worldwide & travel app at the same time, it took about 13 years for the founders of Airbnb to generate sustainable revenue out of there, & to turn it into Airbnb mobile app finally, once starting with a website. In this article we will go all the way through the building of an app like Airbnb, so get rid of potential losses & calculating the future costs.

Airbnb is a big platform that focuses on awesome travel’s experiences. Airbnb is a marketplace for travelers where they can easily find & book amazing accommodations around the globe online via their tablets or smartphones. Airbnb is also not limited to booking rooms only but the users can even book a suite, a whole apartment, a houseboat, & even a yacht.

Today, keeping with the theme How much does it cost to create an app like Airbnb? So let’s talk about the next? We will look at the cost of building an app similar to Airbnb. In this blog, we will discuss this topic in a specific example of one of the traveling apps flagships.

By the time you have finished reading this blog, you'll understand how the process of developing this kind of app looks like the same. Also, you will be able to calculate how much each of its features costs & that’s the reason we are able to decide which features you need.

So if you want to find out the cost of developing a mobile app & Airbnb like similar services, we need to divide it into parts & consider each one briefly.

In order to understand what this product & how to offer to puzzle out what services are provided & what apps like Airbnb are created for.

How much does an app like Airbnb cost?

We all know every product has a price tag on it with cost to create an app similar to Airbnb many questions might be resolved from the very beginning. While calculating the cost of Making an app like Airbnb, a wise step to make would be an MVP-version for iPhone first, to test the product's performance & viability. An iOS application would require several stages of essences development as for guest application, following:

Though another huge part of an app is a host app, so the number of functions is quite different, & get involved.

• Home with booking requests - 30 hours
• Listings (view & edit functionality) - 34 hours
• Inbox (list of chats +send/reply to a message) 65 hours
• Calendar (calendar + edit date/price/availability) - 35 hours
• Add a new listing (the type of space, availability, property type, location, rooms & beds, photos, small description, etc.) - 115 hours
• Explore functionality (homes & filter features) 135 hours
• Owner profile (profile picture, verified & personal info, connected accounts, reviews, homes & setting) 80 hours
• Customer profile (picture, personal & verified info) 75 hours
• Saved homes (lists of saved homes & cities + filter) 80 hours
• Statistics dashboard (boosting stats tips, overall rating, views & bookings, hosting standards) - 90 hours
• Profile (messages, community center) - 70 hours
• Onboarding (sign up, log in, rules,  like privacy policy, T&C, etc.) 32 hours
• Home details (Picture gallery, facilities info, about, amenities, guest reviews, contact host) 280 hours

However, the same as with iOS - host app is a different part of application development:

• Home with booking requests - 40 hours
• Listings (your & edit function) - 56 hours
• Add a new listing (type of space, property type, location, rooms & beds, photos, small description etc.) - 178 h
• Calendar (calendar + edit date/price/availability) - 56 h
• Statistics dashboard (boosting stats tips, overall rating, views & bookings, hosting standards) - 90 hours
• Profile (messages, community center) - 64 hours

How to market & research a travel startup like Airbnb?

Let’s imagine that you have a ready travel app with all the necessary features. But to make it successful, you should know how to grow it. Below we share the most effective options to make your travel startup popular among users.

1. Social Media
2. User-generated content
3. Customer review

Technologies (Language & Framework)

To build an application like Airbnb, you should highly focus on the following aspects.

Android Development: Android Studio

IOS Development: Swift

PHP Framework: PHP, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, JQuery

Database: MySQL

Hosting: Amazon Cloud

Cost breakdown for an app like Airbnb :

The cost of any app depends upon the features it has & the platform on which it is made. Every project starts with planning & goes like this:

1.Project Setup

2. API Implementation
3. Creating a database model
4. Implementation of services & extended libraries

Features of AirBnB: User Panel

• Signup-Sign-in
• Search
• Booking category
• Place Booking
• Online Payment
• Personalized Feeds
• View Amenities
• Filter/Advanced Search/ Refine Search
• Add to Favorite
• Manage Booking
• Social Sharing
• Refer & Earn
• Message System
• Content
• Reminders
• Coupon Cards
• Gift Cards
• Cancel Booking
• Guidebook
• Manage Profile
• Manage Notification
• Review

Features of the Host User Panel:

• Home listing
• Listing Approval
• Manage Booking Request
• Payment Setting
• Transaction history

Features of the Admin Panel:

• Login
• Dashboard
• Role-based dashboard
• Manage Users
• Manage Booking
• Manage promotions & gift cards
• Manage payment
• Manage referral/invites
• Real-time Reporting & analytics
• Manage Booking request
• Push Notifications
• Manage Amenities

Once all of the features are added the app would cost around 25000 - 30000 USD Approx. for native app & for both iOS & android it would cost around 45,000 USD Approx.

How do websites like Airbnb make money?

Now that we’ve determined the core features list, so here very important to figure out how to generate revenue from a rental marketplace like Airbnb. 

Airbnb is doing so well mainly due to its flexible revenue models. Let’s consider different ways to approach a website like Airbnb:

• Host сommission. Airbnb charges hosts a flat 10 percent commission for every booking through the platform.
• Transaction fees. Hosts are also charged a 3 percent fee to cover the processing of payments on Airbnb.
• Service fees. Airbnb charges travelers a service fee of between 5 & 15 percent of the reservation subtotal.
• Promoted listings. Hosts can pay for their listings to be shown above others to get more visibility.

Globally the price differs for working hours of developers. Here are average region hourly rates as per below.

• USA/Canada-based dev teams - $30 to $200/hour
• Western Europe - $40 to$150/hour
• Eastern Europe - $20 to $150/hour
• Australia - $40 to $150/hour
• India - $10 to $80/hour

Conclusion

The industry of online travel continuously growing. That is the reason why investing in a travel app like Airbnb could bring a significant profit to your startup. When you know about essential Airbnb features, its competitors, & the development cost, you might think about your traveling app. & we are here to bring your idea into reality. 

If you want to develop similar to that of Airbnb? then please get in touch with us or send us an email at info@iihglobal.com without further delay.