10 Essential Features In Travel Software Solutions You Should Know
The travel and hospitality industry is a vast field brimming with opportunities. According to Statista, its annual economic impact is approximately 6.5 trillion dollars. Global international tourism revenue is estimated to be USD 1.34 trillion. Integrating technologies can attract more customers, also enhance your customer experience when using your services. But before building an app, did you know what is the basic function that travel software solutions provide?
1. Navigation and Map Integration
Traveling and geography are inextricably linked. Maps are an essential feature in all travel software solutions. Users should have access to detailed maps that are simple to use, comprehend, and navigate. The maps must include as much pertinent and detailed information as possible.
There are numerous geolocation solutions available for this purpose. There is, of course, the well-known Google Maps API, but it is not the only one. OpenLayers, TomTom, Mapbox, HERE, and Mapfit are some alternatives worth considering.
These options, however, will not provide you with all of the information you require. Most likely, a clever combination of different APIs will be required. Google, for example, has a Hotel API. It provides detailed information about hotels in the chosen region. What technology stack is required in your case will be determined by the technical characteristics of your app’s geolocation, map integration, and navigation functionality.
2. Easily To Plan a Trip
One of the primary reasons people use travel apps is to plan their vacations. Travel software solutions create apps with features that allow users to select different destinations, select transportation to get to those destinations, book hotels, and so on.
This travel software solution must be integrated with all of the other features, such as maps and those described below. Google Trips, TripCase, TripHobo, and Roadtrippers are some of the most popular trip-planning apps.
The app requires extremely flexible integration, so travel software solutions make a function to let the user can research destinations and activities, make reservations by connecting their email, and map out a daily itinerary with start/end times. You can also include notes and links throughout.
Furthermore, everything is saved offline so that users can access their itinerary while traveling abroad. It calculates the time and distance between locations and exports them to Google Maps for road trips (and there are no limits to the number of stops you can make on a trip!).
Read more: WHY SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT?
3. Smooth and Reliable Booking
Travel apps can be used to book flights, hotels, tours, and a variety of other travel-related products and services. As a result, travel apps have evolved into tourist marketplaces. This functionality would necessitate the use of several different technologies and APIs, including Arzoo, Booking, and Orbitz. These are the most commonly used hotel booking APIs.
Skyscanner, Google Flights, and SmartFlyer are the best options for purchasing plane tickets. It’s worth repeating that more than simply adding significant features is a requirement for travel software solutions. Each of them must be properly configured and integrated with the others. Booking with maps, for example, or trip planning with maps, and so on.
4. Your Customers Can Write Reviews and Recommendations on Your Platform
Whether you are developing a mobile app for a travel agency or a travel aggregator, providing users with honest reviews and recommendations is a must-have feature for any travel app. Travel software solutions should allow users able to leave reviews for restaurants, cafes, hotels, and other establishments.
It’s also a good idea to load real reviews using a third-party service. In addition, an algorithm that provides users with relevant recommendations based on their preferences should be developed.
5. Integrated Transportation
When a traveler arrives at his or her destination, finding convenient transportation is critical. As a result, it is critical to provide users with detailed and up-to-date information about available modes of transportation, schedules, pricing, and other critical details. The ability to book taxis, train tickets, and other services would be extremely beneficial.
6. Reliable Weather Forecasting
Weather forecasting is the prediction of the weather using physics principles supplemented by a variety of statistical and empirical techniques. Weather forecasting includes predictions of changes on Earth’s surface caused by atmospheric conditions, in addition to predictions of atmospheric phenomena themselves.
The weather is an important consideration in a traveler’s decision-making process. As a result, users will appreciate it if travel software solutions provide accurate weather forecasts. There are numerous good APIs available for this purpose. Forecast.io, AccuWeather, OpenWeatherMap, and YahooWeather are among the most well-known.
A weather API is an Application Programming Interface that enables weather data to be accessed through scripts and code. Good weather APIs provide both historical and forecast weather data through an easy-to-use, well-defined programming interface. The best APIs include dozens of weather measures, near-real-time current conditions reporting, and decades of historical weather data from around the world. In an ideal world, both historical and forecast lookups would be combined into a single API entry point, with the addition of an ultra-long-term forecast based on climate statistics. This single entry point allows anyone writing a script, developing an app, or loading a database to gain instant access to the exact weather data they require from a global database containing hundreds of millions of records.
7. Emergency Services
When a traveler is in a foreign country, he or she may become disoriented or become involved in an emergency. Emergencies can turn tragic if he or she does not speak the local language and is unfamiliar with the area.
One of the most effective ways to avoid this is based on travel software solutions to provide as much information about emergency services as possible. Allowing users to make emergency calls through the app is also a good idea. You can also assist them in obtaining insurance and contacting insurance companies.
8. Easy User Account Manager
Users hate waiting, so make registration as simple and quick as possible. Customers’ first step after installing the app is to create a profile. Typically, travel software solutions have two options: quick login via email or social media, or manual registration. It is preferable to give customers the option of selecting from these. Make an effort to create a fully customizable profile. Allow your users to provide additional information about themselves and select their native language.
9. Notifications
This is especially important for mobile applications to assist with certain travel issues. Your app should be able to remind the user about upcoming events, such as flights or excursions.
Not only that, notifying customers of last-minute deals, coupons, and special offers is an effective way to add another touchpoint to your marketing funnel. Travel software solutions can see those push notifications are a complementary marketing channel through which you can provide additional, valuable information about your brand. Furthermore, by allowing you to include logos in messages, mobile app push notifications provide strong recognition. Users are more likely to remember timely push notifications, increasing your brand’s essential value.
10. Easy Payment Method
One of the most significant benefits for users is the simplification of transactions and payment methods. Travel apps, which require less paperwork, have eliminated the old processes. Mobile transactions are convenient and practical because they send receipts to your customer’s mailing address, which they cannot lose. You may not even be required to carry a hard receipt if you have one stored in your phone.
None of this would be possible if online transactions did not advance as much as they have. Users can now pay for a trip entirely with cards, thanks to the advantage of technologies that travel software solutions are embedded in, eliminating the need to carry any cash at all.
Final Thoughts
The ambition of almost travel software solutions is to create platforms for travel and tourism in the form of mobile apps where people can come to look up locations, book hotels, and check the weather forecast all under one roof. Furthermore, the goal of travel apps is to provide smooth customer experiences because customer satisfaction is critical; it can make or break a business.
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